We’re as big a fan of the Chevrolet C3 Corvette as the next guy (the favorite generation of yours truly), but this 1982 Corvette Caballista for sale on Hemmings is not what most would think of when they think of the iconic C3.
Only 50 of these Chevrolet Corvette Caballistas were ever built, and they sold for over $65,000 new. Back then, that was the equivalent to a $100K+ car in today’s world. It came fully loaded with a leather interior, tilt steering wheel, and power brakes, steering, windows and seats. This Corvette also has mirrored T-Tops and a L-83 V8 matted to a 700 R4 automatic transmission.
The 50 examples of the Corvette Caballista to ever exist were built by Les Dunham of Dunham Coach Motor Car company. Dunham had an image of combining the Chevrolet Corvette with the Cadillac Eldorado. What came to be is, well, we’re not sure how we feel about it exactly.
To be frank, the front of the car makes us want to scream at our monitors in horror (and agony), but to be fair we do find the rear-end moderately appealing. The square headlamps just don’t fit the front of a C3. The silver  and charcoal color combination is easy on the eyes, but we wouldn’t call it attractive. Dunham may have designed masterpieces (one was even used in a James Bond film), but this ain’t one of ’em.
So we considered the Caballista’s rarity, the fact that it has less than 17,000 original miles and the fact that it’s in good condition, and weighed it against how much were turn-ed off by its looks, and our verdict was that we wouldn’t spend the money to buy this C3 Corvette. What say you? Are we being too harsh as critics (or too shallow), or is this Corvette hard to appreciate?
Comments
The Caballista looks like it would make a good parts car, since it looks like it started out as several good parts cars !!
One original may have historical value in a select museum, but no more than one.
Instead of taking a beautiful car and making it ugly (the Corvette), why can’t they take an ugly car and try to make it beautiful?
Mr. Les Dunham should be arrested and charged with terminally bad taste !!!!
Look up ugly in the dictionary and there’s a picture of that car………
Can you say “Pimp mobil?”