‘Icon’ is an overused term, but there’s no doubt the Chevrolet Corvette stakes a claim to ‘Icon Status’ with every but of legitimacy as the Land Rover Discovery, Jeep Wrangler and Mini Cooper.
This year the fabled American sports car turns 60, global sales have topped 1.3-million and owning a ‘Vette – even driving the current model - is definitely on the ‘Bucket List of your Car Showroom correspondent.
Harley Earl, General Motors’ legendary first vice-president of design, penned the first example - then labeled the EX-122 concept car – in 1952 and Myron Scott, American photo-journalist and founder of the Soap Box Derby attached the name ‘Corvette’. Of course naval historians were quick to point out a ‘Corvette’ was in fact a highly maneuverable warship used by the French.
GM’s plan was to keep the costs of the Corvette down by using, as much as possible, existing components for everything from the driveline to suspensions, interior trim and even windscreen wipers. But the American giant needed its first sports car to ignite the sales charts in the face of excellent British sports cars then gaining popularity – cars wearing Jaguar and MG badges.
Then first Chevrolet Corvette made its public debut in January 1953 at the GM Motorama held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City…and you can’t get more ‘Stars and Stripes’ than a ‘Vette at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC!
Initially the Corvette was powered by GM’s in-line six-cylinder engine – the first V8-poered model did not arrive until 1955.
Corvette production shifted to the GM plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky (as immortalized in the Everley Brothers’ hit song) in 1981 and production remains there to this day.
