CarBrandLogos archive · Chevrolet Corvette · 1968

Chevrolet CorvetteCorvette C3

Fifteen years of the same body, starting with 435 horsepower and ending with 200.

Photo: Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Chevrolet Corvette history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Chevrolet Corvette Corvette C3, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The third generation kept the Sting Ray's chassis and running gear and wrapped them in a body derived from Bill Mitchell's Mako Shark II show car: extreme hips over the wheels, a pinched waist, a long pointed nose and a removable T-top roof panel arrangement that became a Corvette signature. It arrived for 1968 and stayed, with facelifts, until 1982 — the longest run of any Corvette.

1974 Corvette Stingray-red · {Vegavairbob (talk) 16:16, 25 December 2009 (UTC)} · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The early cars were the most powerful road Corvettes ever built to that point, culminating in the aluminium-block ZL1 and the LT-1 small-block. Then the ground shifted underneath them. Emissions regulations, unleaded fuel, the 1973 oil crisis and falling compression ratios cut power year after year, and by the end of the 1970s a Corvette produced less than a third of what its immediate ancestors had made. The chrome bumpers were replaced by body-coloured urethane in 1973 and 1974 to meet impact rules; the convertible was dropped after 1975.

1973 Corvette Stingray · dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0

In production

And yet the C3 sold better than any Corvette before it, with its strongest years coming in the late 1970s, when the car had become a style purchase rather than a performance one. Chevrolet leaned into that — 1978 brought a large fastback rear window and a Silver Anniversary edition, and production moved from St. Louis to Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1981.

1973 Corvette Stingray · dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0

Legacy

It is the generation enthusiasts argue about most: unquestionably the best-looking of the disco-era American cars, and mechanically the weakest Corvette ever sold.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Designer

GM & Chevrolet design staff

Body

2-door Convertible

Technical specification

The Corvette C3, in detail.

Production: August 1967 – October 1982
Class: Sports car
Body style: 2-door Convertible (car); convertible; 2-door coupé
Layout: Front-mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Engine: 305 cuin Chevrolet small-block engine (first- and second-generation)#LG4; LG4 V8 engine; V8 (1980) ; 327 cuin Chevrolet small-block engine (first- and second-generation)#327; L75 V8 (1968) ; 327 cuin Chevrolet small-bloc
Transmission: 3-speed manual transmission; manual; 4-speed manual transmission; manual; 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic automatic transmission; automatic; 4-speed Automatic transmission; automatic
Designer: GM & Chevrolet design staff; Zora Arkus-Duntov chief engineer; Bill Mitchell (designer); Bill Mitchell chief stylist
Assembly: United States: St. Louis Truck Assembly; St. Louis, Missouri (1967–1981); United States: Bowling Green Assembly Plant; Bowling Green, Kentucky (1981–1982)
Manufacturer: Chevrolet (General Motors)