You see 78 Vettes for sale all the time. I think it was one of the higher production years. I would hold out for a pace car 78 if I was going to do it though.
my dad had an 81, I guess the crossfire (82 was the first year) can be a huge pain if something goes wrong and costly to fix. Best bet is to get on a corvette forum and find out
i own a 79, L-82 4 speed, i looked at a lot of cars and ended up with mine, cross fire is what kept me away from 82. then again that wouldn’t of mattered because the org. motor is in my basement on a stand lol and there’s a 355 roller motor with vortech heads and intake and a nice lumpy cam in it. =) from what i under stand lowest production numbers were in 79 due to a strike at gm.
The '82’s look way better. Especially those two-tone color combos. The '78’s aren’t going to ever be worth a lot more than the '80-'82’s. The smog years are just never going to be desireable from an investment standpoint. Even the Pace Car models aren’t worth shit. Get whichever one looks the best. They are both kinda slow, unless he can snatch an L82 from '78. People that rag on them have never driven one. My mom had a 76 L82 that was a blast to drive.
don’t bother with any modding on an 82 its not worth it, where as the 78 is easily moddable (is that even a word lol). if he is not going to mod it the 82 has a about 40 more hp than the 78
My suggestion is to take his pile of money and light it on fire as it would be a more efficient use of it than buying one of those shit boxes. I have worked on them they are giant piles of shit.