1981 Chevrolet Corvette

1981 Chevrolet Corvette

1981 CHEVROLET CORVETTE BACKGROUND
1981 was a pretty good year for the Corvette production-wise with over 40,000 sold. All were coupes, there were no convertibles. They made up for it with T-Tops. The hottest engine you could get, the only engine you could get, was the L81 350 that wheezed out 190 horsepower on a good day. While most were automatics, you could still get a good ol’ fashioned Muncie 4-speed, and for the first time in years, even in California. The 1981 Chevrolet Corvette has another unique distinction: it’s the only year of Corvette that was ever produced in two factories. This was the year when production was moved from GM’s St. Louis MO plant to a new factory in Bowling Green KY built just to produce Corvettes, nothing else. There was about a two-month overlap in production to make certain the flow of Corvettes never faltered. Production at the new Bowling Green factory started on June 1, 1981 and production at the St. Louis plant didn’t stop until August 1, 1981. All St. Louis Corvettes are painted in lacquer paint (the old way), while all Bowling Green cars were painted using enamel paints and clearcoats in a brand-new state-of-the-art paint facility. 1981 also marked the first use of a fiberglass rear traverse leaf spring, replacing the 33-pound-heavier steel leaf, but only on automatic-equipped cars. Lastly, 1981 was the year when GM began incorporating the body style code numbers into the VIN, instead of on a separate tag, as before.


1981 Chevrolet Corvette INTERIOR


1981 Chevrolet Corvette SPECIFCATIONS

Production

Serial Numbers, St. Louis

Serial Numbers, Bowling Green

Base Price

Wheelbase

Overall Length

Overall Width

Overall Height

Ground Clearance

Track, Front

Track, Rear

Wheel Size

Tire Size

Fuel Capacity

Weight, curb

ENGINE SPECS:

RPO

Engine Type

Engine Family

Displacement

Bore & Stroke

Horsepower

Torque, lb/ft

Compression

Fuel System

PERFORMANCE:

Zero-to-60 mph

1/4-mile

Top speed

BASE COUPE

40,606

1G1AY876xBS400001 through 1G1AY876xBS431611

1G1AY876xB5100002 through 1G1AY876xB5108995

$16,258.02

98.0″ / 248.9 cm

185.3″ / 470.4 cm

69.0″ / 175.3 cm

48.4″ / 121.9 cm

4.5″ / 114 cm

58.7″ / 149.1 cm

59.5″ / 151.1 cm

8″ X 15″ steel

P225/70 R15

24 US gal / 91 liters

3344 lbs / 1517 kg

L81

OHV 90-degree V8

Chevy Small Block V8

350 ci / 5.7 liters

4.00″ X 3.48″

190 @ 4200 rpm

280 @ 1600 rpm

8.2:1

1- Rochester 4-barrel

8.4 sec

16.5 sec @ 88 mph

137 mph / 220 kmh

SPECIAL THANKS TO SPECIALTY SALES
Our heartfelt thanks go out to the good folks at Specialty Sales Classics in the San Francisco Bay Area for these great pictures of this lovely 1981 Chevrolet Corvette. They have 4 showrooms full of great classic cars. Go to their website at www.specialtysales.com.

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