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Throughout the 1970s, Corvette sales grew steadily each year, despite increasingly stringent federal regulations that stripped the C3 of all the things owners had come to expect—power, noise, and acceleration. By 1980, enthusiasts wondered what had happened to their beloved Corvette.

GM’s engineers and stylists had long kicked around a host of replacement options for the aged C3, including a serious push by Zora Duntov and other design managers for a mid-engined V6. But with the brand so recognizable as a long-nosed, low-slung, front-engined V8, cooler heads prevailed—namely, the millions of Corvette enthusiasts who knew a good thing when they drove it—and the mid-mount V6 idea was passed off to Pontiac, where it eventually became the Fiero.

Thus, the goal for the C4 was to return Corvette to the top of the performance pile while still adhering to federal regulations—no easy task. To beat the gas-guzzler threshold (then set at 19 mpg), Chevrolet worked with Doug Nash Inc. and BorgWarner to introduce a 4+3 manual transmission that would get the C4 under the EPA’s radar. The complicated unit would appear toward the end of the 1984 model year.

Only one engine was offered on the new car: a 205-hp 350-ci V8 featuring the fuel-saving cross-fire injection system first introduced for 1982. It sat further back in the chassis, creating a favorable weight balance front to rear. Chevrolet’s revolutionary fiberglass composite monoleaf springs, also carried over from the last of the C3s, provided a weight savings of over 40 pounds at each corner over traditional steel.

Gone was the familiar T-top; the body came only as a targa top coupe, with a single removable roof panel. With a 65-degree windshield and long, curved back glass, the C4 offered a slippery .34 drag coefficient, the lowest for any Corvette. Up front, the radiator sat at a 15-degree angle, a position that not only maximized airflow, but also significantly reduced the distance at which a C4 Corvette could be picked up by police radar. The folks in engineering clearly knew how their new car was going to be driven.

The C4’s cockpit featured a state-of-the-art flat-panel liquid crystal display for the gauges, and standard equipment included air conditioning, power windows, side window defoggers, electronic seeking AM/FM stereo, reclining bucket seats, tilt and telescopic steering wheel, and a starter-interrupt anti-theft system.

Though Chevrolet failed to deliver its redesigned Corvette for 1983, the brief delay proved worth the wait, and it was uniformly praised by the motoring press. The fourth generation car was the first radically changed Corvette since 1968, and along with its new body, chassis, and innards, it represented a new sporting philosophy that would return “America’s Sports Car” to its rightful place among the world’s best performance machines.