Chevrolet Corvette History - First Generation 1953 to 1962 (C1) Solid-Axle_1957 chevrolet passenger car

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Chevrolet Corvette History - First Generation 1953 to 1962 (C1) Solid-Axle

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classiccarsglobal 2009-08-03 16:13:38 Publish:

Introduction
First appearing in 1953 the Chevrolet Corvette was a unique US entry into the European dominated sports car market of the time. Although not strictly a muscle car by definition, the Corvette did use both the engine and transmission from the muscle cars of the era - it has since represented American performance for almost fifty years. There have been six generations of the Corvette so far, sometimes referred to as the C1 through to the C6 - this article will focus on the 1st Generation C1 - 1953 to 1962.

Early History
While the style of a car may be just as important to some as to how well the car runs, it was not until 1927, when General Motors hired designer Harley Earl, that automotive styling and design became important to American automobile manufacturers. What Henry Ford did for automobile manufacturing principles, Harley Earl did for car design. Most of GM's flamboyant "dream car" designs of the 1950s are directly attributable to Earl, leading one journalist to comment that the designs were "the American psyche made visible". Harley Earl loved sports cars, and GIs returning after serving overseas in the years following World War II were bringing home MGs, Jaguars, Alfa Romeos, and the like. In 1951, Nash Motors began selling a two-seat sports car, the Nash-Healey, that was made in partnership with the Italian designer Pininfarina and British auto engineer Donald Healey. Earl began ruminating about an open sports car that would sell for around the price of a mainstream American sedan (about $2,000) - he convinced GM that they to needed to build a two-seat sports car. Earl and his Special Projects crew began working on the new car later that year. Robert F. (Bob) McLean designed a general layout for the car which was given the code name "Opel." The result was the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, unveiled to the public at that year's Motorama car show.

While the car was conceived with rigorous attention to the bottom line and production feasibility in mind, it was still only intended to be part of GM's Motorama exhibit at the 1953 New York Auto Show. That is until Ed Cole, Chevy's then recently appointed chief engineer, saw it. Cole, then immersed in development of the world-changing 1955 "small-block" V8, is said to have literally jumped up and down with enthusiasm for the Motorama car. So before it even got to New York, and after some corporate machinations, the engineering to put it into production began. However the car had yet to be named - Cole called a special meeting of executives researching the name that included Myron Scott, who was the founder of the All-American Soap Box Derby and an assistant advertising manager for Chevrolet at the time. It was Scott who suggested the name Corvette taken from "Corvette” - a small, maneuverable fighting frigate.

Up until that time, the Chevrolet division was GM's entry-level marque, known for excellent but no-nonsense cars - nowhere was that more evident than in the Corvette. The first Corvettes were virtually hand built in Flint, Michigan in Chevrolet's Customer Delivery Center (now an academic building at Kettering University). Determined to keep costs down, McLean used off-the-shelf Chevy mechanical components - the outer body was made out of then-revolutionary fiberglass, selected in part because of steel quotas left over from the war and to keep tooling costs in line. Underneath the new body the chassis and suspension were for all intents and purposes from the 1952 Chevy sedan's, with the drivetrain and passenger compartment shoved rearward to achieve a 53/47 front-to-rear weight distribution over its 102-inch wheelbase.

The same was also true of the "Blue Flame" inline six-cylinder truck engine, a two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission, and drum brakes again from Chevrolet's regular car line. Though the engine's output was increased somewhat, thanks to a triple-carburetor intake exclusive to the Corvette, performance of the car was still decidedly lackluster at 150 bhp. A Paxton supercharger became available in 1954 as a dealer-installed option, which greatly improved the Corvette's straight-line performance. However compared to the British and Italian sports cars of the day, the Corvette was underpowered, required a great deal of effort as well as clear roadway to bring it to a stop, and even lacked a "proper" manual transmission. All these factors contributed to low sales which continued to decline throughout the Corvette’s first year.

GM was seriously considering shelving the project, leaving the Chevrolet Corvette to be little more than a footnote in automotive history, and would have done so if not for two important events. The first was the introduction in 1955 of Chevrolet's first V8 engine since 1919 (a 265 in³ / 4.3 Ltr), and the second was the influence of a Soviet Yahoo: chevrolet passenger car Chevrolet Corvette History - First Generation 1953 to 1962 (C1) Solid-Axle 1957 chevrolet passenger car
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