1970 Corvette |
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Model Year Notes
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Chevrolet Corvette (C3) page on 29 March 2016, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
In 1970, fender flares were designed into the body contours to reduce wheel-thrown debris damage. New were egg-crate grills with matching front fender side vents and larger squared front directional lamps. The previously round dual exhaust outlets were made larger and rectangular in shape. Interiors were tweaked with redesigned seats and a new deluxe interior option combined wood-grain wood accents and higher-spec carpeting with leather seat surfaces. Positraction rear axle, tinted glass, and a wide-ratio 4-speed manual transmission were now standard. The 350 cu in (5.7 L) base engine (ZQ3) remained at 300 hp (224 kW) and the L46 was again offered as a 350 hp (261 kW) high performance upgrade. New was the LT-1, a 350 cu in (5.7 L) small-block V8 engine delivering a factory rated 370 hp (276 kW). It was a solid lifter motor featuring a forged steel crankshaft, 4-bolt main block, 11:1 compression ratio, impact extruded pistons, high-lift camshaft, low-restriction exhaust, aluminum intake manifold, 4-barrel carburetor, and finned aluminum rocker covers. The new engine, making up less than 8% of production, could not be ordered with air conditioning but was fitted with a domed hood adorned with “LT-1” decals.
Motor Trend in May 1970, clocked an LT-1 covering the quarter mile in 14.36 seconds at 101.69 mph and remarked, “There is Corvette and there is Porsche. One is the best engineering effort of America, the other of Germany. The difference in machines is not as great as the disparity in price.”
A special ZR1 package added racing suspension, brakes, stabilizer bars, and other high performance components to LT-1 cars. Big-block selection was down to one engine but displacement increased. The LS5 was a 454 cu in (7.4 L) motor generating 390 hp (291 kW) SAE gross and accounted for a quarter of the cars. The LS7, which was advertised at 460 hp (343 kW) SAE gross and had 454 cu in (7.4 L), was planned and appeared in Chevrolet literature but is not believed to have ever been delivered to retail customers, but offered as a crate engine. A short model year resulted in a disproportionately low production volume of 17,316, down nearly 60%. Rare options: ZR1 special engine package (25), shoulder belts in convertibles (475), LT-1 engine (1,287).
