The Corvette - 1975
Chevy stayed with the status quo again for the 1975 Corvette, when the only physical change was a pair of small extrusions with black pads for each bumper as additional parking-lot protection. Convertible volume continued to sink, falling to 4,629 units for the model year. Convertible demand was on the wane generally, and the government accelerated the trend by threatening to enact safety standards for rollover protection that would have effectively banned fully open cars in the United States after 1975. Ironically the legislation never materialized, but it gave domestic producers the excuse they'd been waiting for to drop slow-selling ragtops, and the romantic Corvette roadster would disappear like so many others, not to return to the lineup for another decade. 
This ragtop is a '75 Corvette, identified by the small
black bumper pads added front and rear. Also, the rear fascia
was now one piece rather than split.
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The big-block V-8 ostensibly returned for the 1975 Corvette, only to be dropped very early in the model run, leaving the small-block L82 as the only engine option. And its power was down as well, to 205 bhp. The base 350 also withered, detuned to a measly 165 bhp. Those ratings might have been even lower had it not been for the catalytic converter, that new and more efficient emissions cleanup device adopted for most 1975 American cars. New for 1975 was a breakerless electronic ignition system, accompanied by an electronic (instead of mechanical) tachometer drive. A headlights-on warning buzzer was added per federal dictates. Though little more was new besides the advertising, Corvette sales continued to climb. The 1975 sales tally rose to within 300 units of the 1969 peak at 38,465.
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