1981 Corvette C3: Regular Car Reviews
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
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DEADLINE to ENTER is March 20th @ 11:59pm (PST).
here's comes a Corvette C3. Ready to hook up with BIG WOMEN
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DEADLINE to ENTER is March 20th @ 11:59pm (PST).
> The Sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the USA (including D.C, excluding residents of Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, and New York)
wait, what?
What are the odds of winning 2 cars in a row? Also, whoever detailed the sti did a pretty stellar job.
A identical car in year, colors, and build as I had in bought used in 1984 as a youngster, even the miles on it when I bought it was 16,900 then. Sad! LOL!! But was destroyed by a tornado. Never had fully insured it so total loss. Took me over 6 years to recover the loss paying for it even after it was gone.
"This is a 1 of 1 C3 that was considered for Knight Rider till they went for the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. I don't have the paperwork, but a crew member on Knight Rider claimed it was so, so I believe him. I know what I got, no lowballers!"
😂
Rare. One of only 10 black cars made on a Sunday in April.
knightrider historians could verify that. just slide them some hasselhof hair as a bribe, who's going to argue with them about it
For Knight Rider??? I had no idea.
At one point, I read somewhere that a 280ZX was considered.
Thank God they didn't go with the Corvette. The TranAm/Firebird is so much cooler of a car.
Drinks Busch Light and eats bush heavy
HELL YEAH BROTHER
BIG 1970s BUSH
The perfect comment doesn’t exi…
Hello, I'm from the future, and this comment still makes me laugh.
we need @RegularCars to say that in the V O I C E
The official car of “fuck off, I got work to do”
Safety always off
And failing grade 10
1981 C3 Corvette: The official car of "No razor will EVER go down there. My ladies love the birds nest of mess!"
The unofficial car of "why would I comb it? It's just going to get matted when I see Marge tonight."
I CALL IT THE "LOVE NEST" 💪
[Muffled Welcome to the Jungle playing in the distance]
@@JPR3Dfixed: _[muffled “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” playing in the distance]_
BIG, HEARTY BUSHES THAT COVER THE BIGGEST ROAST BEEF FELINE YOUVE EVER FUCKIN IMMMAGINED U MILENNTIAL LI-LI-LI-LIBBBBERRRALLL
It says right in the manual about the blower .. "There is no off position."
All GMs at the time had this "feature" lol
Bullshit i had a 76 and blower had an off position
I have an 82 Firebird and it turns off fully
@@cleverkitsune4302it does have an off position but it dosnt really work. It does kick on when you put in the key and turn and if it’s on the off position the hot/cold air kinda halfheartedly dribbles out still.
The always-on fan was part of "Astro Ventilation," a flow-through ventilation system which started in 1968, as the C3 did not have wing windows. 68-77 C3s without AC had a constant running fan. 68-77 C3s with AC had an off position. 78-82 C3s with AC had no off position and ran when the key was on like this car, a feature which seems to have been added to prevent CO buildup in cabin. To add to confusion, the words "Astro Ventilation" was stenciled in script on the door windows (where the wing window would have been) from 68-75, whether or not the car had AC. (Cars with AC had the "four seasons" system) Also, some 74s had 75 glass and didn't have the stencil.
@@cleverkitsune4302 You're both right, see below.
Mr Regular slow-mo stepping out of the Vette in the intro goes so hard in the paint. I think I just got pregnant And I don't even have a uterus.
this is officially one of the greatest gifts I could wake up to. thank you for another video.
what a beautiful Monday morning.
Glad you enjoy it!
Man... I love 80's vetts. The batmobile look is great.
Ok, unrelated, but surprised to see another demigirl here...
Stingray, actually.
@@stevevarholy2011
No, that's... that's a Corvette...
@@thejay8963 Make that three. :)
Babe wake up Mr Regular dropped another e621 reference
There was another?
Barbs and knots. Best of both worlds! :D
DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT
3:21 replacing the vacuum actuators with electric motors from an NA Miata is a mod that has been growing in popularity among C3 owners for the last few decades
Even as a Ford guy I gotta admit the C3 is a beautiful car.
My uncle had one of these in the 90s. 6'3" 300lb muscle beach boy with frosted hair. He ran a night club/sports bar. Yup.
The fact that they put a 305 V8 in some of these should have been illegal.
I had a 76, it had an l48 only cali cars had 305s
The 1975 models with the L48 had 15 less horsepower than the 1980 305 models...it was a rough time, the emission regulations should have not been applied to the Corvette.
That's the engine my slug-slow '80 Mercury Brougham coupe had, heh!
Edit: @Raptor3388 Looks like I need to put my glasses on - you're right, it was a 302, d'oh!
@@greenbriar07 a Mercury would have had a 302, or maybe even the 4.2L V8 in 1980…
That only happened in 1980 California.
Mr Regular didn't need to deal with the Corvette Guy... so he became the Corvette Guy
The headlights on shining into the grille looks awesome, tbh. Would deff have some sort of line lock specifically to do that while driving in the early evening
There actually is one built in. You can pull a vacuum switch under the dash to switch the lights on and off without moving them
Yes, cabin ventilation. Blower always on.
My C3 litererally exploded on Christmas day. A carb jet melted, filled the distributor with gas, and boom. Vaporized the entire vacuum system... thanks Chevy.
Suddenly on the CB... "Caaaaandy Cane! I want my Candy Cane. This is ... Rusty Nail.."
Those C3s were dirt cheap when that movie came out... I should've bought one as my 2nd car, went for an early 2000's Maxima instead. Vettes don't rust either, and Rusty Nail drove a rusty truck. 🤣
The official car of Cryus from TPB.
“Fuck off, I got work to do”
Smokes! Give em!
*same guitar riff on repeat*
Safety, always off.
At least Julian had a an all black c4
One of my favorite intros to any video. Like up there with the Subaru Brat
Nothing will top the intro for the AE-86 video
Damn, the fact it was a mono FM switch is incredible. You can get better signal by ignoring the multiplex hardware that dices up the FM signal for stereo.
Had a driver-grade, black on black '76 automatic. I never got so many compliments in a car. I miss it.
Shocking. My 77 is my nicest car by a mile and everyone geeks about the Baja bug instead.
My middle school art teacher, who had red hair, wore a leather jacket, and was maybe 5 ft tall when she wore heels had a yellow C3 that she drove to school daily... even in the cold Alberta winters. She was rad.
I know they're slow, but they have some great lines on them. I'd love to modernize the suspension and drive train.
Please don't they are wonderful on their own, suspension wont compensate for poor weight distribution
@@cleverkitsune4302 Dude, it has almost 50/50 weight distribution with slightly more weight biased to the rear depending on options and engine, all within the axles which is exactly what you want for oversteer correction. Cars like the Ferrari Enzo, all generations of Porsche 911 or the BMW E30 have it way off by comparison - not saying the C3 is the best candidate for impecable handling but it will definitely benefit from suspension mods (that are usually easily reversible) and it's weight distribution is very much a perk rather than a problem.
@@Strongholle Seconded. These cars respond VERY well to ~500lb-ft front springs, a ~360lb-ft fiberglass rear spring and some bilstein sports. But only if ALL bushings, yes even the dreaded trailing arm bushings, are FRESH.
@@Maakyuhlinsky After working in a restoration shop I found that a big chunk of the unwieldy handling American cars are famous for come from perished suspension components, lack of maintenance and bad mods. Drive a stock E30 with shot bushings and shocks and it's like walking on oily marshmallows. Once again, an almost 2 ton box of steel from the 60's or 70's with a steering box and one finger power steering is never gonna handle like a go kart but too many cars are cosmetically restored while the suspension is left like it came from the field it was found in. Plus, on many vintage cars (not this 81though, presumably) the suspension is tuned for soft bias ply tyres with tons of sidewall movement which behave nothing like modern tyres.
The 80-82s are lighter than the 78-79s but all of the parts swap. Aluminum heads/radiator, relocate the battery. Delete the steel vaccum tank and just run manual brakes. All that takes a lot of weight off the front of these. Or just do the dreaded LS swap and have an aluminum 5.3 from a 2008 truck. The transmission is literally the same for an '82 lol.
About time the 81 C3 gets some love !
"The urge to misuse this..." Lol!
I had an ‘81 when I was 18… the car was no rocket ship, but the hot babes in the passenger seat sure were FAST!!!
A cooler full of Budweiser, some strange purple pills that the guy at the truck stop sold you, three buttons missing from the tops of both of your shirts, and you went to bed at 3 with a 10 and woke up at 10 with a 3. 1981 baby!!! Where's that Glass Houses 8-track...
This is exactly the comment I would expect from someone driving a C3, complete with no sense of irony.
@@falcomo I was 18, Dude. Now I have a frame-off perfect 1969 convertible triple-black 4 speed 427. I wouldn’t trade one second of driving that car in exchange for my choice of any girl alive (sans my wife).
But hey, back in the day and the hot chicks, it was a two way street. Even when I was 18, I didn’t understand why girls were so intrigued. But, at 18, I certainly didn’t question it. 🤤
So, even from a young man’s point of view, I get your point. If an older dude is using a car to pick up chicks… it’s just pathetic, for the guy and the girl.
I’ve been dailying one of these for a year. 150k on the engine, which has never failed me; rain or shine, got it cold, that L81 wakes up and gets me to work.
It’s everything attached to the engine (excluding the headlights) that continues to amaze me in the worst way possible and at the most inconvenient times.
Driving from Virginia Beach to Lancaster at 10 PM in a rain storm and having the wiper switch get disconnected is only the most recent woe that happened.
December of 1980 i bought a brand new 81' blue corvette, took it to orange county raceway and ran 16.41, it was "kind' of a hot rod coming from 1980 vette that only had a 305ci, i was young and all my friends where into 4x4's so i gave in to peer pressure and traded it in on a K5 blazer...i signed up to win this baby!
Nice find RCR. I bought an 81 my junior year of HS (2020) red over red, automatic, and 65,000 miles for 9500 dollars, and not that it matters, but it is also a numbers matching car. Ive been daily driving it since then, I currently have around 96,000 miles, i graduate college this year. Its a fun car, not fast, but it turns heads. The gray example you have here is uncommon due to the 4 speed and CB radio. I would kill for a CB in my car. Very very nice example. They make good cruisers and good daily drivers if you can live with the uptick in maintenance past. 75,000.
That's bold for a first car!
honestly the popups shining into the engine bay with grilles pointing the light out, it's a genius concept and i love it
I have a CB and it seems to be used less and less by truckers over the past few years, channel 19 is highway chatter, 9 is emergency, and 6 seems to be the one you get the most random stuff from (i think its because of how far you can receive on that channel)
DR. GIGGLETOUCH🗣
The early C3’s are realy cool. A Countach-like vulgar but also elegant front engine design with chrome.
Time is finaly getting around to appriciate the C3 design. Including me.
nothing beats the view over the hood. never gets tired. i have an 81.. love cruising it
If ever a LS swap would an acceptable replacement option... But not before making it almost handle
An LS swap with original suspension just sounds like a fantastic way to acquaint 2/3 of the car with the nearest roadside tree. lol
My boy rcr is killing it with the double denim and work gloves
late C3s are still so cool looking
I bought a 1981 Corvette in 2021 and this seems to be the car that I will never sell. It's a perfect mix of a '60s-'70s-'80s American car from the muscles to the plastics. I love to cruise with it, it's a real dream that came true.
Oh yes, and the vent is designed to be always on, it's supposed to create a continuous flow from the front to the back, it's called Astro Ventillation System.
I definitely don't wanna sell my C3 any time soon. I have fun every time I drive it.
Even if it's slow it's absolutely beautiful
The official car of “My favorite movie is Smokey and the Bandit, my favorite tobacco is Skoal Bandits, and I named my dog Bandit.”
the E621 reference was wild
Thanks for throwing the Santa Cruz under the bus, instead of the Maverick!
Lol
If someone in California (like me) won this car, would it even be possible to register it since it'll have to pass smog for the year it was made. Seeing as we only got the 305 version, this might be a deal breaker and I'm wondering if it's even worth trying.
The official car of SiriusXM Classic Rewind
That was the best looking generation for the corvette
Fun fact, if you strap a kayak to the top of a c3 people get really offended
Now I can have my own 80s detective show
Gotta get a strait-laced ex-cop as your partner/buddy, and Mike Post to write your theme song; bonus points if you live on a boat that will never leave the dock
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 and Vietnam veteran.
8:55 was where I decided not to send this to my mom
The C3 is the best looking corvette, and the final years were the best looking C3s. I would gladly roll one of these anywhere.
the very definition of "all pretty, no gitty"
Another thing about the C3, not only was it old in '82, but the chassis was basically carried over from the C2 that came out in '63 and predated some of the more modern GM parts bins, like for example ram-assisted steering that went alll the way to 1982. Even lowly Novas had better internally assisted gearboxes by the mid 60s. But credit where credit's due, they had fixed four piston calipers all around right from the start. It was an iron caliper, but still, same style of caliper that's still used today in performance cars.
I wish I had watched this channel for this auction. My dad had a ‘75 and had a cd radio is most cars he had in the 80s.
I feel these are some of the most beautiful Corvette
They are basicly warmed over c2s, an early 60s development.
80-82 Corvettes were the best looking since the 63 split window. The 81 4 spd i owned was actually pretty quick once i ripped the clutch fan off, considering GM put a 2.72 rear axle in the 4spd and 2.87 in the automatic ... (go figure) Great Video, you are pretty funny ! Grandpa getting out of his chair !! Ha😆Dr. Giggletouch is looking for you !
I don't want no fuckin mug but I do want that car. FUUUUUCK. What a machine, the wife would be so pissed.
THIS is what a Corvette should look like. Not the current model.
In 1976 when every carmaker was trying to convince the public that they had efficient cars for sale, Chevrolet advertised the Corvette as on of "Six little cars for "76". Nova and Camaro were also "little".
In GM cars of that era, the blower motor is on at low speed even if the HVAC is turned off. I believe it was part of the flow through ventilation system.
Astro ventilation (for some reason)
Im glad im not the only one that acknowledges the fact that a decade doesbt really have its own identity, culturally anyway, until youre about 2 or 3 years into said new decade. The 80s were really still the 70s until '82/'83, the 90s still the 80s until about '92ish and so on. Im happy that a smart, intellectual, college educated man can agree with me on this surprisingly polarizing and debated subject. Toot toot and a good day to you, Mr. REG
I love this final iteration of the C3.
Best looking of the C3's.
I would drive this.
The generation of Corvette that could be easily modified, and if done right, it wouldn't be noticed untill the pedal is mashed. I think it is a beautiful car, fast or not.
I'm gonna keep rockin' forever! Forever! Forever .. forever .... forever
Was the '81 C3 a weak imitation of its initial debut version in '68? Sure. I'm sure one has to be old enough to have been there at the time (I was 9 years old in '81) but at the time it still had a cool factor. I personally liked the 2 tone paint scheme on the '78 silver anniversary 'Vette" best, but I still liked the look of about all years of the C3s.
Yeah that 78 Anniversary Vette is second only to the Mustang GT-H
Need a Jean Shirt to go with those Jeans and Jean Jacket. and a pack of Malboro reds.
It’s a beautiful looking car, don’t care if it’s slow. Had one, terrible to drive, but amazing to look at.
Trust me,those headlights work perfect.Tells me no vacum leaks in the 40 feet of vacum lines that engine and light system has.I remember the malaise era well.
I think the 1981 Corvette is the coolest car ever.
And love my C3.
They look so cool.
imagine being RCR and saying the "not having to deal with a corvette guy" line without laughing ahahahahaha
great work as always, love the vids these last few years
My father got one as a totaled car, and he rebuilt it. Scrubbed the cigarette out completely repainted(twice). And replaced the engine with a Camaro '95 engine and transmission(possibly). It's got the bobble rear glass, red interior, and of course black paint. My father passed away in 2019 before he could get all of the problems out of the car.
This car deserves an LT4
I love the idea of the C3, I just wish that it had a shred of quality to it. If I ever have f-you money I'll get one and restomod it into what it should have been
The star of Fargo season 3!
That C3 likes winking at everyone.
I remember ad a kid back in like 2001 -2005 I would see these all the time in ever condition and every style as a in city kid living in Milwaukee wi and as time went on these sorta turned into beaters around here out side of ever dirty bar parking deep in the dirtiest alley. Man I miss those days lol
I think these later C3's look great. Great curves and proportions. My father has a 79 4 speed with those mirror like t tops. Definitely not fast but good cruiser and feels like driving a Batmobile with the long hood and fender flares. That one looks mint!
Hendrix owned and wrecked a few C3’s, in my eyes that makes them the coolest vette’s, in a close tie the Le Mans class dominating C5/C6’s
It's ch. 19. "Breaker one-nine". It's the channel in the middle of the Citizens' Band of radio frequenccies. The least likely channel to be interfered with by frequencies on the shoulders of the Citizens' Band.
Holy shit, it's kind of like driving a boat, or a forklift.
It almost turns from the back.
It's absolutely worth noting that the C3 is essentially a continuation of the C2 that was introduced on 1963. The chassis are nearly identical, as is the suspension, and the transmission and engines are just evolutions and not revolution. The Corvette was basically the same car from 1963-1982.
So true
It is just soooooooooo good looking
I remember it from Gran Turismo 2... the stock version struggled even when racing Silvias in the 2nd Sunday Cup race in High Speed Ring.
You guys weren't wearing nearly enough gold string necklaces with medalions to operate any of that machinery.
Claiming that the modern GT86 competes with modern Corvettes is a big stretch
My FIL still talks about completely shutting one of these down in a 1968 Dodge Coronet with a 383 that he got as a hand me down from his spinster aunt.
This is the car TRENT FALKENRATH wished he was driving.
The official car of "safety always off"
I worked at a stereo shop in the '90s, where we still installed CBs and antennas. The typical channel you want to be on is 19. If you're testing your CB, you say "Break for a radio check".
I had a 1975 Chevy Malibu, and the blower was on all the time. It was some sort of feature with GM - I forget why, but it was designed like that.
Man messing with my coworkers on that CB radio would be hilarious
I had no idea they made these until the 80s. I really love the lines of the body, like way more than the C4. Killed it with the "actually" bit at the beginning. "I DON'T CARE" exactly!
Made em til 82, and theres 1 rare 83 that was supposed to be destroyed (it wasn't)
November 2024 sounds like REALLY good timing to get as far away from the US as possible!
One of these resto modded with engine and transmission upgrades would be so cool
Legends say a Waylon Jennings album will appear in one of these on a blue moon
It looks cool and I like the wheels, so it's got that going for it.
Similar to Nissan did it as well against the Vette of the era with an inline 6.
the Corvette C3 was the main car in the Japanese Metal Heroes series Tokusou Robo Janperson (1993) the 5th Heisei era Metal Hero series.