Four-Door Vette! Corvette America (OOB)

[Faust]

If you believe that too much is never enough, then you can probably understand what GM was thinking when they let California Custom Coach create what is perhaps the most excessive Corvette of all time, the four-door Corvette America! The idea was to create a four-door, four-seater Corvette that would, uh, well, I don’t know what. It would be long, and expensive, and not really compete with any other sporty car since it was slow. Does that work?



Beacause I love the losers, the odd and forgotten, I clearly have a super-big love of this weirdo. I mean, it’s a FOUR-DOOR Corvette!!! How much more forgotten loser does it get than that??? I consider it a miracle that Monogram got suckered into making a kit of this thing, and I consider it an even bigger miracle that I was able to snag one for like, $10 still sealed a couple of years ago.


Of course, I could have just sold it, but I really do like the Corvette America, and that means I had to pop it out of the box and revel in all the late ‘70s bad ideas I could handle. Lucky for you guys, I also decided to share it! (That makes you lucky, right?)


Check out this completely bonkers Vette at the link below, and remember: it was the ‘70s. If that’s not an excuse, it’s at least an explanation!


adamrehorn.wordpress.com/monogram-1-24-1980-corvette-america-oob/

[jbwelda]

Another big from over here!

A big, ugly, slow, four door Corvette, lets run it up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes!

That box art model used to frighten children back then.

jb

[Faust]

Thanks man!

I still think it's a pretty cool-looking car. Not as a Vette, but as a styling exercise, it's definitely interesting, if nothing else. 


I can see it giving all kinds of people nightmares!  

[jimrichards]

Hi Faust,
Thanks for bringing up some interesting memories for me. 
I was a mechanic at this Pontiac dealership in 1979.
The owner tossed this issue on my bench as a joke, because he knew how much I disliked this era Vette (at the time).


 
A short time later, I was attending seminars at the GM Training Center in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. The instructor told us , that one of these Vettes was there on display a week earlier.
I said " bummer, I would have liked to sat in the backseat of it". He looked at me like I was an idiot, and asked, " wouldn't you want to sit in the front seat, or drive it ?"
I told him, I just spent 2 years working at a Chevy dealership, and repaired and drove several Vettes, but how often do you get to sit in the back seat of a Corvette ?
He agreed and admitted that he was the idiot, because the car was there a week, and he never sat in the back seat. LOL.









I took this issue to a Corvette Club gathering, here in Tucson, thinking it was an interesting conversation piece. I nearly got tar and feathered.
As a mechanic I have known hundreds of Corvette enthusiasts, and always heard the same sob story " I used to own a Corvette, but sold it because I started a family"
Perhaps this wasn't such a bad idea after all. Rugrats in the back seat, and those hatchbacks actually held quite a few groceries.

Remember when Ford turned the T-Bird into a four seater, they eventually sold pretty well. Plus the wrap around back seat in my 64 T-Bird was the coolest part.

A coach company built 1 prototype of this Vette and 5 to sell to the public, but asking $35,000 when a regular Vette sold for $11,000, sort of killed the idea.
As far as slow, the regular Vettes of this era, weren't exactly speed demons anyway.
To see more about these I googled "what ever happened to the 4 door Corvette?" Kind of interesting. Check out what they are asking for them now...LOL

I also own this kit, unbuilt, but no box. I have seen these built up, and (like most models) they look pretty good.
I hope you build yours.

Thanks
Jim

[Jerry55]

Yep... Only in America!...turn a beautiful sleek 2 door muscle car,  into a 4 door family sedan...

[patw]

OOOW a stretch Corvette!