1978 Corvette Survivor Gets First Wash Since 1978; Odometer Shows a Big Surprise

The Red and White we got covered with the hero of this story. After 45 years of hiding in a shady garage, collecting dust, and serving as the final resting place for vermin, a white with red interior 1978 Corvette takes hold of the banner and waves it high above the masses of plastic-electric toys of 2024. A 25th-anniversary Corvette comes back to life with 1,599.3 miles on the clock (2,573.27 European kilometers).

Now, low-mile cars have surprised us before, time and time again, and we have reported the discovery of one of the – if not the – lowest-mileage 1978 Corvettes ever. In September 2022, a never-unwrapped example stored since new was auctioned with just 5.4 miles on the odometer (8.7 kilometers). That car still had plastic covers on the steering wheel, seats, and other parts.

However, the merry YouTubing lads from WD Detailing found another one with 1,599.3 miles. The intriguing part about this story is that the car has sat in a garage since 1978. Also, one more eyebrow-raiser is the tach needle—it’s stuck at 2,500 RPM. Could this have been the cause of a 45-year retirement, a possible mechanical failure?

The detailers don’t give many details – pun intended – about this car’s past, but they do one heck of a job putting back the shine on it. Unfortunately, as expected, this fastback Corvette is plagued by rust, with a vehicle that’s been sitting for so long. Don’t throw tomatoes at me. The body is corrosion-proof thanks to its fiberglass-reinforced plastic construction, but the underside is still steel. And that metal is subject to water deterioration.

Luckily, the inside of this fine ‘Vette is almost untouched – apart from a few minor signs of rodent activity, the red cockpit is still bright and fresh. Some viewers had second thoughts about the originality of the mileage, but that interior should clear the air about a possible odometer roll-back debate.

To mark the Corvette’s 25th anniversary, Chevrolet’s stylists revamped the ten-year-old design of the C3 (itself a spin-off of the Mako Shark II concept penned by Larry Shinoda in 1965). Over the years, Corvette owners have raised several complaints regarding the third-generation model. The lack of a proper-sized cargo bay or the relatively small fuel tank were just two of those.

The 1978 Corvette reintroduced fastback styling by installing a big curved rear window (some exuberant enthusiasts thought it was a functional hatch). That freshened up the looks of the aging Corvette—the basic profile hadn’t changed since 1968—and allowed for the expansion of the luggage area behind the seats.

Access to said space remained as uncomfortable as with all C3s, but thanks to the reworked greenhouse, there was enough room for a suitcase. The bis glass area in the back also added a new inconvenience: heat. Too much of it, to be specific—as all car owners know, the glass surfaces are very annoyingly efficient radiators, so the 1978 Corvettes were literal greenhouses due to their stylish rear half section.

That could be handled by ordering an air conditioning system, which made long trips more pleasant. But, the car needed more gasoline to make those trips last longer. Hence, the tank was enlarged from 17 gallons to 24 gallons. The compromise was to fit the sportscars with a slim spare tire under the fuel container.

Unlike its predecessors from the beginning of the decade, the 1978 model wasn’t as gasoline-thirsty. The Malaise had worked its black magic and detuned the engines to such low levels that the sportscars were inching closer to four-door sedan imports in terms of power.

The 25-year-old Corvette was a pale remnant of the speed demons it had once been—think of the 1970 LT-1 and ZR1, the ZL1 before that, or the 454 from '70 to ‘71. Still, it was the fastest American production car at the time despite offering only two engine choices.

All Corvettes assembled for the 1978 model year had Chevy’s fabled small-block, the 350-cubic-inch V8 upfront. The 5.7-liter motor produced 185 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque (188 PS, 380 Nm) with a four-barrel carb and 8.2:1 compression. A slight bump in piston squeeze to 8.9:1 would up the horsepower roll call to 220 (224 PS) while dropping crank-spin twist to 260 lb-ft (353 Nm).

However, it wasn’t just the compression that did the 40-hp heavy lifting. A higher-lift camshaft, larger-valving heads, impact-extruded pistons, and a forged steel crankshaft came with the high-horse V8 version. The engine was linked to a classic four-speed manual (wide—or close-ratio) or a three-speed Turbo Hydramatic transmission (which is the one on the 45-year garage find in the video below).

The detailers didn’t turn on the engine – it’s not their preferred area of operation, especially with cars in this unique condition. But that will also happen shortly, so stay tuned; we are in for a triple treat. If you look closely, two more ‘Vettes are sitting under a thick rug of garage dirt next to this lovely ‘Vette.

One is a Pace Car Replica from 1978 – to honor the special anniversary, GM talked with the Indianapolis speedway bosses to allow a Corvette to run ahead of the pack at that year’s 500-mile race. One of those 6,502 examples dressed as the Indy 500 pace car is the garage mate of this low-mile white-and-red stunner. Spoiler alert: the hottest 1978 ‘Vette in this garage find has under one thousand miles (1,610 km) on the odometer.