1981 Chevrolet Corvette
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
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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 |
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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