SOLE SURVIVOR

If you’re looking for a 1983 Corvette, there’s one in Kentucky. But you can only get it white because, well, that's the only one left.

Quality and production problems delayed introduction of the new C4 generation so model year 1983 was passed over.

Why, you're asking, did they only make one. Well, they didn't. They actually assembled forty-four of them. Some were used to sort out production details. Others were assigned to engineering evaluation and used for crash testing. And a few were part of a press introduction at Riverside Raceway in California in December 1982. But none were ever sold to the public.

In October of 1982, the new Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, closed and began retooling for the 1984 Corvette. Production on that model year was started. In January of 1983 the news media received their first view of the 1984 Corvette. And the first production 1984 Corvettes were sold to the public in February. In March of 1983, the 1984 Corvette officially went on sale in the United States, except for California. The began selling in California in April. By October of 1983, the plant was in full production.

Of the forty-four 1983 Corvettes produced, forty-three of them were destroyed. The one remaining car, number 23 (shown above), was retired to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where it remains on display. It is still owned by General Motors.

Photo courtesy of the National Corvette Museum