1979 Chevrolet Corvette

Here it is again folks, the new Corvette, back for the eleventh encore of its 1968 act. The well-known routine is still playing to sellout crowds, lined up around the block waiting for the curtain. Look behind the smiling faces in the crowd and you'll find guys that made it big in the cement business. They're dumping year-old Grands Prix for Corvettes so they can live out high-school dreams before their hairlines go over the horizon. And women are making up a solid 15 percent share of the audience at last count. Freshly liberated ladies who try the pick-up ritual from the driver's seat of a Corvette find it not so demeaning after all. Everybody wants to ride in the plastic fantastic, and a growing number don't seem to care what it costs.

Meanwhile, we're stuck in the middle at Car and Driver, not quite sure what to make of the hordes outbidding each other for an obsolete sports car. On the one hand, we'd love to be at the head of the line with a fistful of money to spend on America's one and only two-seater. On the other, we'd feel guilty about casting another vote of approval for the Corvette in its present, out-of-date form. About all we can do is wring our editorials hands in despair, and appeal to all the true friends of the Corvette not to buy, in the hope that GM will get the message and invest in a redesign.

If one model year could possibly arrive with an eminently resistible Corvette, this has to be it. Last year brought the 25th-anniversary celebration, complete with Indy-pace-car replica, and 1980 will see the first serious efforts toward lighter Corvettes, but 1979 is a non-year on Chevrolet's engineering calendar. Outward alterations include such radical moves as crossed-flag emblems (1977 style), replacing the special anniversary brooches used last year. Roof-panel and back-window moldings are now black instead of shiny, and Limited Edition (pace car) spoilers have become an option this year. Inside, an AM/FM monaural radio is base equipment, 1978 Limited Edition bucket seats are now standard, and the ignition lock has been reinforced for better theft protection. Somehow, Chevrolet knew we'd all be holding our breath for an illuminated visor vanity mirror, so one has graciously been added (as an option). Mechanical changes include halogen high-beam headlamps that will become standard equipment sometime into the model year. There are still but two engines available in the Corvette, both displacing 350 cubic inches. Base (L48) engines get the L82 low-restriction intake and exhaust systems, a change that raises their output to 195 horsepower. The "big" L82 motor is doled a new electric cooling fan if you buy air conditioning. This part (borrowed from the 1980 front-drive Nova) supplements a new five-blade, engine-driven fan that saps less power, so all L82s produce 225 horsepower, with or without air conditioning. Add in the usual shuffle of interior and exterior colors, axle-ratio offerings, and option mixes, and you've got the 1979 Corvette. Never in its 26-year history has this car so ignominiously borne the stigma of a carry-over.