In January 1953, a special car appeared at General Motor’s Motorama
display at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The car would become a legend. It was the concept car for
the Chevrolet Corvette.
The Corvette was a result of the combined efforts of Thomas Keating,
Chevrolet General Manager; Ed Cole,
Chief Engineer at Chevrolet; and designer
Harley Earl, manager of the Art and Colour studio at General Motors.
Keating wanted a car
that would appeal to the youth market and keep up the momentum Chevrolet had
enjoyed over its competitor Ford over the two previous years. Cole was eager to
apply his talents to a new project, and Earl had the perfect project. Inspired
by European sports cars, Earl had been toying with design concepts for an
American sports car for over a year.
The time was right as all three worked to bring the Corvette
to life from its concept drawings. Initially named ‘Project Opel,’ the Corvette’s
metamorphous from design drawings to a real life car took months of work but
was finally ready for the January 1953 GM Motorama.
With little time to bring the car to life and budget
constraints, components for the new car had to come off the Chevrolet parts
shelf. This included the 235 cubic-inch Blue Flame six cylinder engine,
although it was given a few modifications such as a new camshaft, hydraulic
valve lifters, and a three carburetor setup to give it more horsepower. A modified
two speed automatic transmission was used to handle power from the engine to
the axle.
The chassis was laid out with the seats in front of a
standard Chevrolet axle and the engine and transmission moved back for better
weight distribution.
Earl had become fascinated with the potential of a glass
reinforced plastic body. After successful tests of a full size Chevrolet convertible
with a plastic body, Earl decided that the show car would have a plastic body.
It was a beautiful car. At its debut at the Motorama, the car was a hit and it got
the approval for production. One of the few concept cars to go into production virtually
unchanged from the concept car, the Corvette went into production the following
June in Flint Michigan, with its plastic body , with a total production for the
1953 model year of only 300 cars. The first one, a Polo White car with a red
and white interior and a black manually operated convertible top, rolled off
the assembly line on June 30, 1953. All the cars for that year would have the
same color combination. Not until the following year would other colors be
available.
Although flooded with
orders, the total production of 300 cars for that year was targeted for dealers
to lend out to business leaders and celebrities for promotional purposes.
Production moved to St. Louis for 1954 and increased as ordinary citizens were
able to get their hands in the new car.
Some would belittle the car for its lack of power
with its six cylinder engine, that would soon be remedied as the Corvette would
eventually get a V8 and become a finely tuned sports car. It steadily improved
over the years and today it remains a beautiful and powerful automobile.
