50 Years of the Chevrolet Corvette

1971

Chevrolet barely made any changes for the 1971 Corvette. It is one of the least changed models in the company’s history. According to Cor Sport, what happened was the 1969 model year ran over by two months, drastically shorting the 1970 Corvette production by four months. As a result, Chevrolet treated the 1971 line as an extension of the 1970 model. On the plus side, the manufacturers put air conditioning in most of the cars. Also, engines were detuned. The outcome lowered compression to withstand lower octane fuel. Lastly, this is the only year to offer a ZR2 option, which came with a 454 cu in LS6 Engine.