I'm a new owner of a 1980 coupe.. In the publications and catalogs I have seen, no 83 corvette is mentioned. What happened to 1983?

There were no Vettes produced in '83. As to why, I don't have a clear picture on this.
I have heard that GM was going to drop production of the Vette all together.

From Corvette trivia at http://www.idavette.net/trivia.htm :

A total of 43 - 1983 model Corvettes were built, but there were so many quality problems with them it was decided to halt production until they could be corrected. By the time the problems were corrected, it was so late into the model year that the car was brought out as a 1984 model which was run for a year and a half. The 1983's were never sold to the public and the only one that is known to still exist is in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY

In other words, if you find a 1983 Corvette, it is either a fake, or worth a ton at a Barrett Jackson auction.

bill.

AHHHhhhhh,........................thanks Bill! ;)

I read somewhere that GM destroyed all but one of the 43 that were produced.
That one sits in the Corvette Museum.

I have never heard that they had many any. I always thought that the year was skiped for retooling of the
machines for the new C4 vettes

There were however 1983 dealer brochures printed up.