I think they were going after a modern interpretation of a 69 Camaro cross ram intake. But being GM and it being 1982, it failed miserably
I have only owned one Corvette - a '79 - Other then the gearing, which I changed, the only thing I didn't like was the close-ratio 4-speed transmission. I had that on the list of things to be done, when some guy pulled in to my driveway and made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. I still wish that I had it back though. I really didn't have any complaints about build quality.
They're not terrible to drive. The only complaint I really have is that they're very creaky and stiff. But that's just their nature. Also kinda hard to get in and out of. I definitely would not want to drive one everyday unless I was in my 30s
IIRC, the Opti-Spark engines were PFI, strong runners, but the lousy location of it made it prone to moisture, then servicing it was a pain. I like the distributor up front
TRUE! I had to move it up yesterday, “Ok, move seat way back, uuughhh, Ok I’m in, take a deep breath, now I gotta get out” My GS is almost getting like that, guess I’m spoiled now with my Tahoe, and my Safari van I had, much easier to step up in, then slide out
I had forgotten that I actually had to modify the seat backs. From the factory the driving position was a bit more reclined then I was comfortable with. It wasn't a big deal to do, but I'm surprised that they built it that way. Another thing that (pleasantly) surprised me was the amount of stuff you could fit behind the seats. Some of the Gen three 'vettes had a nearly vertical rear window, but mine had the large window that IMHO looks better, creates much more interior space, not to mention better rearward vision. I really liked that car.
I've had an 85 Corvette for 5 years now and it still trips me up going from standard to metric. Very annoying. I gutted the entire interior of the car to repair some pretty bad floor damage and it was a nighmare getting all that brittle plastic back in place without destroying it. I'll light the car on fire before I remove that dash structure again. I think it is referred to as the spare tire light. On my car it comes on when the headlights are on and a door is opened. I have a coworker that has a nice 82 Corvette. It sounded awesome and seemed pretty quick. I was surprised to see he still had the crossfire injection on it. There used to be an aftermaket intake made called the Renegade that fixes a lot of the shortcomings of the restrictive factory intake. He also put in a decent cam and a set of AFR 195 heads and runs OEM style computer from a company called Dynamic EFI. A plug and play swap that lets you tune from a laptop instead of having to remove and burn eproms for every tuning change. Much like the TPI that came after it, you can make power, but it takes some effort and is something off the beaten path compared to more traditional intake designs.
