I don’t really think of Corvettes as two-tone cars. Okeh, the early ones from the ’50s, sure, but not ’80s models like this one. And yet…there it is, resplendent in two metallic broughamy blues that would look right at home on a Regal or a Cutlass. Who could ever fathom the mind of GM?
I had a two-tone bronze 83 model and a good friend of mine had a two tone blue model like the one shown. Neither one were particularly good cars.
A minor point: there was no 1983 Corvette available for public sale. Due to production delays, the first year for the C4 was 1984 and, if the ones referenced were among those first year cars, they were, indeed, quite craptacular, even by first year Corvette standards.
For this reason, in the Corvette hierarchy, a 1984 car is among the most accessible (and, likewise, least desired) version.
You are correct. Mine was an 84 but a pretty early one. People were actually paying a premium for the first ones.
What’s the ground clearance on that suspension? 2 inches? A small rock or beer can on the street would damage it.
A classmate of mine was gifted one in this color combo for high school graduation by her father. The model year would be 1986, but I’m unsure of whether this combo was offered on other years. Hers had a blue and black cloth interior in a rather attractive small houndstooth-like pattern and deep tinted glass targa top. I always thought it was a rather attractive car. She still had it when I was last in my hometown in 2006, although I’d imagine it’d seen lots and lots of maintenance and repairs over the ensuing years. Her family were all car collectors, with a very impressive stable of classics between them.
Two-toning ebbed and flowed over the years. There was a bit of a comeback for two-tone vehicles in the early eighties, then it faded away again. Nothing like the fifties when two-toning was king. You could get 24 different two-tone combinations on the ‘55 Chevy. This was in addition to 14 solid colors. Quite the difference from today when your choice is white, black, grey and maybe a red.
Scroll down the first page of CC today, here are the (old) cars and their colors in order:
1984 Corvette in Blue/Blue
1968 BMW in what looks like a Silver
1968 Cadillac in Black
1966 Mercedes is White
2001 Olds in Silver
Various Chrysler Photoshops, Blue/green and beige-ish predominantly
1964 Porsche in White (or Off-white)
1980s Lamborghini in White
1989 Honda Accord in Blue
2002 Prius in Silver
1975 Jaguar in Red
1968 Fiat in Black(?)
1968 Oldsmobile in Black
1970s Dodge in White
1994 Honda in Blue
Overall it looks pretty much like what is seen on today’s cars. What’s in your fleet? We have one orange, two silvers and a blue. The blue one is the only car that was factory ordered by us, neither of the silvers would have been silver if we had ordered the cars, and the orange one is pretty much perfect but may have been yellow if we had chosen it originally.
Jim, do you no longer have the X-Type wagon? It was Quartz Gray in your original description. Maybe i’ve missed your updates on this car. I was looking forward to seeing what you and your son would do with it.
No, we have it, I consider it a (darker) shade of silver I guess, sorry. I’m way behind on doing an update on it, I know….Too busy driving it, somehow it’s the most fuel efficient gas-powered vehicle in our fleet! Just way behind on everything else in life at present to write much, if at all.
Great – I thought it might in the silver category here. Very cool that you’re using it.
Our current fleet:
2010 Honda Fit in dark blue, ordered new
2000 Chevy K2500 pickup, fleet model, white, of course
1974 VW Type 181 Thing, tan, originally avocado
1969 VW Karmann Ghia, red, originally yellow
That looks…pretty nice to me, actually. As you say, an unusual combination, but tasteful and kinda classy, imho.
The early C4’s were offered in two-tone because GM wanted to show off it’s state of the art paint booth which was brand new to the Corvette plant in 1984. I read it somewhere. Don’t remember the source anymore…
I like the color combination and two-toning. They go well with the styling of the C4 Corvette, more linear than its more flamboyant successors and to me , more attractive.
Impressive how many GM lines used a similar combination. I don’t have a tonne of time right now, to provide visual evidence, but a number GM cars from around 1979 to 1986(?), offered various combinations of light metallic blue and medium metallic blue. Or a slightly darker blue. From entry level to pricey, probably the most popular two tone colours at GM. Even the Chevette, I recall. The Pontiac STE’s, contrasting blue, was more of a royal blue. Some of the contrasting blues were darker than this on this ‘Vette. I thought it certainly improved the looks of the Cavalier and Chevette.
I kind of like the two tone used on early C4 Corvettes, sure it certainly doesn’t fit with the modern day image of a primary colored transformer looking C8 on the sporty scale but this does look like the perfect sports car to pull into a 80s golf resort with without looking gauche, it wasn’t completely without prescient either, Porsche had a similar two tone offered on the 924s and the Corvette itself had been dabbling with two tone on the later C3s
You beat me to it, Matt.
I came here to mention the later C3 as a good looking two-tone ‘vette.
I especially like the ’78 Indy Pace Car’s combination of Black over Silver, which is how I would want a ’78 backlight-bent-over-a-wire Impala or Caprice coupe, right down to the red pinstriping and interior….
That’s right! oddly enough I was specifically thinking of the 80-82 era C3s in two tone rather than the 78s that are more well known. A 25th anniversary was even parked right next to me at the preserve I go to earlier in the month!
Ugh one more try
I always liked the C3 Vettes in 2 tone especially the pace car. However these cars now look like a 4×4 because of the ground clearance and the big sidewall tires.
I would have to put some 18″ wheels and tires on it and drop it probably 3 inches. Us autocross people prefer to hunt cones in the weeds.
For some reason my local Chevrolet dealer ordered his first couple of 1984 Corvettes in silver over grey two-tone. I haven’t seen a survivor like that in a long, long time.
Two tone painting for sports cars wasn’t unknown by Bill Mitchell and his minions at GM styling for various Corvettes Sting Rays and Stingrays throughout the years. Chuck Jordan of GM styling also owned various Ferraris including a Boxer on which a two tone paint scheme was present and which was used on the 365 BB and on the 512 BB by Pininfarina. So a two tone coloring scheme on a C4 Corvette seems quite natural. So note the two tone “classic” Boxer black lower valance paint scheme, as an example. Cheers.
Classic Ferrari 365 BB or 512 BB Boxer two tone paint scheme, for example
Boxer paint scheme
The two-tone C4 owned. It had that great black divider for it and the colors offered were tasteful. The cars themselves, well, the less said the better but to my mind the 80s C4s were a stylistic masterpiece. I don’t think they have a bad angle on them and I love the way they could take to muted colors just as easily as they could flashy ones.
I’ve always liked this color combo