Work continues on our new prints enterprise. In April 2012 we partnered with Fine Art America so that our Corvette art print customers could enjoy the many options afforded by FAA. Our latest offering, “Corvette Box of Candies” came as a happy result of working on our horizontal and vertical layouts of the Corvette Special Editions and Corvette Indy 500 Pace Cars layouts.
When the new 1984 Corvette was shown to the automotive press in the Summer of ‘83, there was a wave of euphoria. “FINALLY!!! A New Corvette!” As there should have been. After all, the Shark had been with us since 1968 and the steel parameter frame and suspension since 1963. The chassis was designed somewhere around 1960! So you could say the car was a little over due for an update.
In retrospect the C4 was an extraordinary generation. It came with 205-horsepower, went out with the 330-horsepower LT4, and maxed out with the 405-horsepower LT5. Here are the highlights:
I have a very nice relationship with VETTE Magazine. Since 1976 I’ve been a contributing artist and writer with the magazine shortly after founding editor Marty Schorr started the first Corvette-only newsstand magazine. My monthly column, “The Illustrated Corvette Series” started in Spring of ‘97 and continues on. Next week I’ll be starting No. 165 that will cover the awesome Greenwood G572 C4 Corvette.
The November ‘10 issue of VETTE saw a major makeover for the publication. Corvette Fever is no more, as it has been merged with VETTE. The “new” VETTE is 3/8” taller and wider, has 16 more pages, better paper, and a perfect binding. The new VETTE looks EXCELLENT, my compliments to VETTE’s art department. Included was The Illustrated Corvette Series No. 162 – Part 1 of a two-part, two-page color article that covers the Special Edition Corvettes from 1978 to 2003.
The introduction of the C4 Corvette in the Fall of ‘83 was a much anticipated automotive event. Times were tough through the ‘70s and no one anticipated in ‘68 that the new Mako Shark-inspired car would have a 15-model-year production run. And when you consider that the car was riding on a chassis designed in ‘60-’61 for the C2 Sting Ray, it’s all the more amazing that the late C3 cars set all-time sales records.
Just like all Corvettes from the beginning, the C4 was a car that was in constant evolution. Every year, Corvette Chief Engineer, Dave McLellan and his devoted crew of engineers and stylists made small improvements, with an occasional big leap forward. Little did we know when the C4 was first shown at the end of ‘83 that this Corvette generation would last almost as long as the C3 generation – 13 model years.
