Overall, sales of the 1991 Chevy Corvette followed the downward trend started earlier in the model year by the ZR-1. In all, 20,639 units were sold, with coupes outselling convertibles at a ratio of about three-to-one. With the ZR-1’s sales numbers crumbling around them, and with General Motors unable to fund the development of an all-new Corvette for the foreseeable future, Corvette engineers knew that a happy medium would have to be reached between the performance limited L98 base model and the overly priced ZR-1.

Read more: 1991 Corvette Research Center.