Why you’d want a Chevrolet Corvette C4
General Motors took to heart the flak about American cars not handling properly, and launched the 1983 Corvette C4 into Europe with the confident claim that it could out-corner any European sports car, generating 0.95g in corners where the likes of the Porsche 928 couldn’t hit 0.9g.
Uni-directional tyres and wheels specially developed with Goodyear helped, and there was rack-and-pinion steering, aluminium double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension, both sprung by unusual glassfibre transverse leaf springs and both with anti-roll bars.
Vented discs all round completed the package, which was stiffened even more for the European market.
Combined with clean looks, light weight and good aerodynamics, the Corvette promised much.
Just 205bhp from the lazy overhead-valve V8 looked a disappointment, but it had a wide spread of power and a well-tuned four-speed auto ’box: Europe’s testers were impressed, if somewhat dumbfounded by the poor ride on uneven roads.
Given a smooth surface the Corvette was unbeatable, but it seems GM had given the testers a bit too much of their own medicine, at least on Euro-spec cars; even the US version was softened for the ’88 model year.
The hatchback C4’s roof was an oddity, being removable but a pain to do so because it was securely bolted in to aid structural rigidity. This led to the return of the convertible in 1985.