If You Want a Drop-Top Corvette from These Years, You’re Out of Luck

Chevrolet’s Corvette has been America’s sports car since 1953, a fiberglass-bodied two-seater built for speed and style. For most of its seven-decade history, buyers could choose between a coupe or a convertible.

But two key gaps in convertible availability left enthusiasts frustrated. The first came in 1975, when Chevrolet dropped the Corvette convertible entirely due to the oil crisis, tightening emissions rules, and fears that rollover safety standards might ban the body style outright.

The final 1975 convertible rolled off the line in July 1975, leaving buyers with a fixed-roof coupe for a decade. By the mid-1980s, gas prices fell, the regulatory threat faded, and Chevrolet reintroduced the convertible with the C4 generation in 1986.

However, demand never fully rebounded: the 1986 Corvette convertible launched at $32,032—about $5,000 more than the coupe—and only 7,315 were built that year, compared to 27,794 coupes. A second gap appeared in 1997, when the C5 generation debuted as a coupe-only model.

The convertible returned in 1998, but by then, the traditional drop-top was already in decline. The 1975 Corvette’s small-block V8 produced just 165 horsepower, down from 300 in 1968, and sales still held strong at 38,465 units despite the power drop.

Car and Driver tested a base automatic model and recorded a 0-60 mph time of 7.7 seconds, calling it “highly competent.” Only 12% of 1975 Corvettes were ordered as convertibles, as demand had been falling for years. The regulatory threat came from a 1972 court case, Chrysler Corp. v.

Department of Transportation, which ruled that convertibles were inherently unable to meet new rollover safety standards. Though the standard was revised and convertibles survived, Chevrolet abandoned the Corvette convertible for over a decade.

The C4 convertible’s return in 1986 marked the end of the first gap, but the body style never regained its former popularity. Today, convertibles are a dying breed, with the Jeep Wrangler—an SUV with a removable roof—now America’s best-selling open-air vehicle. If you’re hunting for a Corvette convertible from 1975 or 1997, you’re out of luck.