The History of the Corvette- Part 1

The Corvette is a car that has been a staple in American made automobiles for a long time. It represents not just power and speed, but also impressive design by Chevy. It gave consumers the ability to buy one of the first domestic made sports cars, and was a big step in the right direction for American automobiles. This is part one of a history of the Corvette.

The Corvette is born- 1953 sparked the birth of what is now a great American sports car. GM debuted the Vette at the 1953 New York Auto show in there Motorama exhibit. The idea of the Corvette was to produce a powerful, yet inexpensive sports car for the auto show, not necisarilly a production vehicle. The Corvette was first constructed out of off the shelf Chevy parts in order to keep the price down. The first Vette produced 150 horsepower and because that was a lot of power at the time, an automatic, two-speed powerglide transmission was hooked up to the engine. Another effort to reduce costs resulted in the body being made of fiberglass, not steel. When Ed Cole, the chief engineer at Chevy saw the car, he instantly fell in love with it. On June 30th, 1953 the Corvette went into production in Flint, Michigan. This was the start of big things for Chevrolet.