On January 17, 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette prototype was unveiled at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York at Motorama. But the car we recognize today as synonymous with (relatively) accessible sportiness was not so beloved when it first appeared.
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Harley Earl, then chief designer at GM, was convinced that a two-seater sports car was the right thing to do, and the introduction of a good one could make an impression in the then European market. People were curious, so Chevy had to make sure it met his expectations.
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The car has a fiberglass body, a white exterior and a red interior, a relatively unobtrusive 150 horsepower engine and a starting price of about $ 3,500 (excluding VAT or an optional AM radio and heater) . In an effort to give the Corvette a bit of exclusivity, GM initially marketed the car to VIP customers. This plan yielded less desirable results, as only a portion of the 300 corvettes built the first year were sold. GM abandoned the GDP policy the following year; However, Corvette’s sales still disappointed. In 1954, GM built about 3,600 of the 10,000 Corvettes he had planned, and nearly a third of the cars would have remained unsold by the beginning of 1955.
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To make matters worse, customers at the time were just not impressed with the Corvette. The fiberglass body suffered from poor quality. Doors can open while the car is being driven. Water was leaking everywhere in the damn place. GM has done its best to make sure that newly manufactured cars do not have the same problems, but it is difficult to correct a poor first impression.
That said, a Popular mechanics a survey released in late 1954 revealed that half of the Corvette owner who also owns a foreign sports car said the Corvette was better than its international competition. Another 19 percent said their Corvette was at least on the same level as foreign competition. Apparently GM was working on something.
And then Ford introduced the Thunderbird, a competitor to the Corvette. If it were not for a serious competitor who wanted to occupy the same market space, we might have seen the Corvette take off, and that it would become nothing more than a footnote in car history. But while Ford waited in the wings, GM stabbed another knife into the Corvette.
I must say that the investment has paid off. The 500,000th Corvette was built in 1977, with the one millionth coming in 1992. The Corvette has become an important component of sporty Americana – which is definitely worthy at the beginning of its life.