Lost Star Cars: Rick Allen's 1984 Corvette
By: Patrick Smith
There's something about rock stars and Corvettes that just
seem to be a potent brew of trouble. So many have bought them and quite a
few cars have met their demise in an untimely manner. In the early
1980s, there was no hotter rock band in the nation than Def Leppard. The
English group had been riding high on the airwaves and in the
auditoriums with their best selling album, Pyromania. It had
the honor of placing seven hit songs on the charts. The band had been
hard at work creating a follow up to this monster LP and took two weeks
off for the Christmas holidays.
While the band has been touring earlier in the year, Chevrolet Motors released the all new 1984 Corvette in March of 1983. Since it was emissions and federal regulatory compliant with 1984 standards, Chevrolet decided to issue it as a 1984 model with an early spring release. There was a very strong demand for the first new Corvette since 1968 so sales as you can imagine were white hot. One of the buyers was young Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard.
Rick's Corvette was finished in code 41 black paint with a hardtop body. His interior could have been gray, carmine or black. Unfortunately I do not know which color it was. A made for tv movie covering Def Leppard and Rick Allen's crash depicts a red interior automatic. It is inaccurate in many other critical details however so I doubt it's veracity.His engine was the L83 350 V8 sporting 205 horsepower and the four speed automatic transmission. If it was bought in England as an export model, it would've been the ZFH export engine. I haven't seen any pictures of Rick's car upright or in one piece. You see, it was in a terrible car crash.
Aaah, you knew that was coming. Rick lost his Corvette in a horrible car wreck. What happened was during New Year's Evening, Rick and his girl friend Miriam Barendson were headed to a New Year's Eve party held in Rick's home town in Sheffield. He was driving his Corvette when an Alfa Romeo passed him. Apparently a bit of cat and mouse racing took place and in order to overtake the Alfa once and for all, Rick accelerated hard and didn't see a sharp turn in the road ahead until it was too late. The car went over a stone wall and flew upside down into a field. Rick's seat belt wasn't correctly fastened which tore his arm off at the shoulder blade as he was catapulted into a field. Miriam was fastened and she was suspended upside down in the car escaping miraculously with only minor head injuries.
Rick was incredibly fortunate in a couple of ways. His body
went into shock almost instantly yet he stayed awake That means he
didn't bleed heavily which normally would be critical with a major limb
severed. He was wandering in the field at night, trying to make his way
back to the car. A mid wife and off duty police man were nearby and able
to get medical attention underway and call for help. Rick and Miriam
wound up in the hospital. Surgeons attempted to save his left arm but
infection and internal bleeding made it impossible. Rick recovered and
eventually learned to play drums with one hand and retraining himself to
use his feet to do the parts formerly done by his hand. Def Leppard
finished recording the new album and it was released to massive sales
success. Hysteria released in 1987 sold even better than Pyromania.
The band's appearance at Donnington Rock Festival in 1986 was an early
indicator the fans were as ready to support Rick Allen as his band
members were.
As for the Corvette, well it had a less fortunate end. Being a desirable imported sports car that was only on the market a few months at that point. It was promptly totalled and the usable remains sold for re use. We know from the one photographs available from a Sheffield newspaper that the car is a 1984 as the front catalytic converters are absent as the 1985 models had them. We can see from the flat transmission oil pan it was a four speed automatic. Even the manual transmission version was semi automatic with a computer selecting which ratios to use for overdrive mode. GM produced 51,547 Corvettes for the home market that year. A complete total rests at 53,877 which suggests a world export total of 2,330. The color black was produced for 7,906 cars in 1984.
Since GM exported Corvettes to Japan, Europe, the Middle East
and Latin American countries that year, it's possible Rick's car was an
English import. It seems more likely Rick bought it in America since he
had an early one. Since he was on the road in USA during the release of
the car and it was probably easier to buy one and bring it back to
England than to wait for one to arrive. I wish I knew for sure whether
it was an import or not but I haven't been able to find any data on
this car other than its spectacular crash photograph. In an interview
with Lyn Redgrave done in 1992 for television, Rick recounts a little
bit of the accident and it tallies with what appeared in print to date.
Unfortunately no details on how or where he bought the car came up.
Sadly, this sums up the saga of Rick Allen's 1984 Corvette. Until new
information shows up we can assume it ended up in a breaker's yard
(wrecking yard) following insurance settlement.
* Article copyright 2012 by Patrick Smith Images by PHS Media Archives.
Make mine shiny black please, exactly 7,906 buyers wantd code 41 color Corvettes in 1984. Rick Allen from Def Leppard was one of the lucky customers. |
While the band has been touring earlier in the year, Chevrolet Motors released the all new 1984 Corvette in March of 1983. Since it was emissions and federal regulatory compliant with 1984 standards, Chevrolet decided to issue it as a 1984 model with an early spring release. There was a very strong demand for the first new Corvette since 1968 so sales as you can imagine were white hot. One of the buyers was young Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard.
As no convertibles were available that year , Rick's car was a hardtop. This likely saved him and Miriam from instant death as the car went over a stone wall and rolled several times. |
Rick's Corvette was finished in code 41 black paint with a hardtop body. His interior could have been gray, carmine or black. Unfortunately I do not know which color it was. A made for tv movie covering Def Leppard and Rick Allen's crash depicts a red interior automatic. It is inaccurate in many other critical details however so I doubt it's veracity.His engine was the L83 350 V8 sporting 205 horsepower and the four speed automatic transmission. If it was bought in England as an export model, it would've been the ZFH export engine. I haven't seen any pictures of Rick's car upright or in one piece. You see, it was in a terrible car crash.
Aaah, you knew that was coming. Rick lost his Corvette in a horrible car wreck. What happened was during New Year's Evening, Rick and his girl friend Miriam Barendson were headed to a New Year's Eve party held in Rick's home town in Sheffield. He was driving his Corvette when an Alfa Romeo passed him. Apparently a bit of cat and mouse racing took place and in order to overtake the Alfa once and for all, Rick accelerated hard and didn't see a sharp turn in the road ahead until it was too late. The car went over a stone wall and flew upside down into a field. Rick's seat belt wasn't correctly fastened which tore his arm off at the shoulder blade as he was catapulted into a field. Miriam was fastened and she was suspended upside down in the car escaping miraculously with only minor head injuries.
We can see from the overturned remains no cat converters and an auto transmission oil pan. The driver side rear tire has peeled right off the rim. |
As for the Corvette, well it had a less fortunate end. Being a desirable imported sports car that was only on the market a few months at that point. It was promptly totalled and the usable remains sold for re use. We know from the one photographs available from a Sheffield newspaper that the car is a 1984 as the front catalytic converters are absent as the 1985 models had them. We can see from the flat transmission oil pan it was a four speed automatic. Even the manual transmission version was semi automatic with a computer selecting which ratios to use for overdrive mode. GM produced 51,547 Corvettes for the home market that year. A complete total rests at 53,877 which suggests a world export total of 2,330. The color black was produced for 7,906 cars in 1984.
The 1985 Corvette switched to dual cats and TPI fuel injection. This is a 1984 chassis. |
* Article copyright 2012 by Patrick Smith Images by PHS Media Archives.
Posted 27th October 2012 by Patrick Smith