Corvette ’77
The Name’s the Same but the Dream is Changing
By Tony Swan/Motor Trend
The guy pushing the keys toward me is named Dave McLellan, chief engineer for the Corvette since Zora Arkus-Duntov's retirement two years ago. And the machine that matches my keys is hardly the rip-snorting stoplight stormer of my triple-carbureted youth. The go has been legislated down to conform with the unleaded era, and the packaging has undergone endless refinement.
But electric windows and contour bucket seats never hurt anyone, and the brute horsepower that Duntov once envisioned for the Corvette hasn't much place in the 55 mph world of the safety nazis. And as McLellan notes, "It's still the fastest car made in America."
My new car is Corvette Dark Red, one of nine new colors for 1977; the only color continuing from 1976 is Classic White. Like most of the changes for the new Corvette, it's almost subliminal. Perhaps the most highly visible change to the car is one of the new options--tinted transparent removable T-top roof panels. Not only do they lend a more open feeling to the interior, they're very helpful if you're on the lookout for aircraft. To make the panels more useful, McLellan and friends have come up with an attachment for the luggage rack that allows the panels to be stored on the rear deck. It's functional and slick-looking besides.
Other interior changes are more cosmetic in nature. The leather seats are now available with cloth panel inserts for more comfort, the old woodgrain door panel inserts have been replaced with satin finish black ones, and color coordinated floormats, in four colors, replace the old black rubber.
McLellan ticks off the list of changes with the pride of a kid reviewing some newly completed super-trick model. I turn the key and sit for a moment listening to the growl of the L82 engine (with its four-barrel and 9:1 compression, it rates at 210 hp at 5,200 rpm, 30 hp stronger than the base L48 version.
A one-week, 3,500-mile road trip across the country naturally produces a substantial amount of adventure, most of it probably too personal and repetitious to share. The thing that struck me most strongly about being a temporary Corvette owner was the effect the car produces in a lot of other drivers, a sort of very temporary insanity. Although I never quite got used to it, I soon came to realize that the guy I'd just passed might very well wind up stuck to my rear bumper, even if it meant he had to speed up substantially to do so; all too often, he'd do the speeding up while I was exposed in the passing lane. The most memorable example of this phenomenon I encountered occurred on a hilly Kentucky trunk highway, where I watched some wild-eyed good old boy in a stake-sided pickup truck careening along perilously behind me for several miles before it seemed worthwhile to bend the speed laws just a little further to leave him behind.
Corvette camaraderie isn't quite so surprising, except for its near universality; I quickly came to expect a wave or a high sign from drivers of passing Vettes of all vintages and was surprised when I encountered the rare lapse, which, interestingly, occurred only among late-models. The older the Vette, the more I could rely on a greeting from its driver.
Finally, I arrived in Los Angeles with the feeling that Corvettes grow old rather quickly. Even before an unscheduled botanical excursion into the mesquite and sagebrush near Aguila, Arizona, my Corvette seemed in some ways to be approaching middle age. The bodywork had developed several stress creaks and a couple of irritating little rattles had cropped up. While we're complaining, here are a few other considerations, general to the breed and specific to this particular car.
First, while the Corvette is obviously capable of covering lots of ground in short order, it's not the prime piece for cruising the interstates. For the same money you can get a Thunderbird with everything but room service and a lot more living area. Fuel consumption was just so-so, ranging during the trip west from around 16 mpg on down in direct proportion to speed.
Handling, performance and ride are all last year's Corvette story, however. As McLellan notes, "We're concentrating hard on just trying to keep our performance where it was in 1975 through all the tightening emissions regulations that are coming." Which makes the Corvette story for 1977 one of subtle and positive refinements. Although McLellan privately expresses concern at the Corvette's trend toward boulevard GTism and away from hairy performance, he and his staff are nevertheless honing their product to respond to its market. Their hard work shows to good advantage, inside and out. This may not be the car I dreamed about 20 years ago, but it's still the great American dream machine--with this change: Now it's for grownups.
Specifications
0-60 mph 8.8 sec
1/4-mile 16.6 sec @ 82.0 mph
60-0 braking 149 ft
Skidpad n/a
600-ft slalom n/a
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