The fourth-generation Chevrolet Corvette is often the least-loved of the bunch. And it really wouldn’t find its stride until the early 1990s when the Corvette ZR-1 arrived on the scene.
Nevertheless, when it came time to replace the C3 Corvette, designers had quite a few directions to take. Jalopnik published photos of the various design studies found in Car Styling Magazine, and each look gives us an idea where the C4 Corvette was headed.
Though, one sticks out in particular. The silver design with an orange stripe running at the bottom was, in fact, a mid-engine car. According to the magazine passage, “Had the mid-engine proposal been adopted, this undoubtedly would have been the design chosen.” No reasoning why designers opted for a traditional front-engine layout was given.
Looking through the other designs, we see plenty of wedge shapes reminiscent of the 1980s design ethos. They don’t look half bad, either.
Comments
A lot of work and ideas were looked at in the late 70’s and early 80’s on the Corvette.
One proposal by the Tech Center staff to the Corvette team was a Mid Engine V6 that was later shown and used by Hulki Aldikacti fro the Fiero. This can be found in the Book Inside the Corvette by Dave Mclellan .
One other radical idea was that they were in fear of possibly losing the V8 when GM was looking to go all V6 around 1980/ The Vette Team built a twin engine Citation test mule to test a duel V6 engine set up. It was called the push me pull you mule.
https://jalopnik.com/some-magical-lunatic-has-a-twin-engine-chevrolet-citati-1791569395
There were many ideas at that point and time and most were never seen. In the end they did fine with the choice they made once they got past the 84 crossfire and softened the shocks.
Ughhhh…..linking to Jalopnik? The most know nothing car site on earth? Really? And a Regular Car Reviews link last week?
It just saved me from linking 3 youtube videos.
Nothing like the sound of 12 cylinders in a Citation. LOL!
Jerry Palmer was the chief designer in the studio that did the 84 Corvette (and also 82 Camaro). I appreciate how clean and uncluttered the designs were. The 84 was fresh and futuristic, but still immediately recognizable as a Corvette. I got to meet Palmer briefly at the 50th anniversary celebration in Nashville, nice man, very humble and a great designer.
Dave Mclellan did a great job to throughout the mid-late 80’s at tweaking and improving those cars. Every year there were updates and changes to make the cars better.