Just curious, thought it was interesting!

Did GM skip that year for any particular reason?

Here's one answer I found, pretty good info.
In regard to the above answer. GM actually began production in 1981 in Bowling Green. If a 1981 Corvette was a solid color, it was manufactured in St. Louis. If it were two tone, it was built in Bowling Green. This was due to a new paint process. All 1982 Corvettes were built in Bowling Green. The 1983 Corvette faced quality issues as well as supplier problems from wheels to the instrument cluster. Just in case the hybrid electronic instrument cluster didn't work, they had an analog backup which is on display in the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. The bugs were worked out by March of 1983. 1984 production would have begun in June, so GM didn't want 1983 production to last just 4 months so they decided to skip 1983 and begin 84 production early. As a result all but one of the 1983 test cars were crushed. The remaining car is in the Museum. The 82 & 84 shared the same cross fire 350 V8. In 1985 a new Tuned Port 350 V8 arrived.

From what i remember, Corvette was always the last manufacture to unvail its new model for the year cars. GM figured they were loosing market share to other manufactures that were getting the new model year products to market first. By coming out the with the 84 earlier and essentially skipping the 83 model they were the first one (manufacture) to unvail the new model for the 84 model year.

I may have recieved incorrect info, but that is as i remember it.

Actually the 1984 production year ended up being 17 months long and set all kind of sales records as everyone wanted the new C4 model anyway. I believe the 1984 sales records may still stand with over 59k sold that year.

Because they had so many problems with the cross-fire engine that they went thru engineering and decided to go another year (2004) with same engine. Did not work so they went with tuned port injection in 2005. Was no big deal I guess at the time that Camaro had same motor and also had a 4cyl. engine. Blah!!