Beschreibung:

The sensation of the 1953 Motorama: The Chevrolet’s Corvette. Sensing the need for an American small two-seat sportscar to compete with the European imports, Harley Earl and a small team of designers secretly penned the Corvette and it was rushed to production by June 30. Based on a Chevy passenger car chassis, complete with Blue Flame six-cylinder engine and two-speed Powerglide transmission, the white roadster had three side-draft carburetors, a hot cam, high compression head and dual exhausts. The 150bhp would propel the car to 60mph in 11 seconds – not bad for the early ‘50s. At first, a conventional steel body was planned, but the low production volume anticipated eventually caused Earl to favor molding the new car’s body in fiberglass, a then-new lightweight material. A bonus was that molded fiberglass was well suited to producing the unusually smooth and rounded contours of the new car. There were no side windows, the only weather protection being rigid, metal-framed plastic side curtains and a manual canvas top. Its formal debut was held in September at the General Motors Proving Grounds and 50 were delivered by the end of the month. The first cars, all white with red interiors, were allocated to high-volume dealerships, for sale to prominent citizens in their communities. Among the latter was John Wayne, who received Corvette number 51 on October 7. The Corvette’s price of $3,498 was $1,200 more than the sticker on a Bel Air convertible, the most expensive regular ’53 Chevy, and $500 more than the Ford Thunderbird introduced a year later. The 1954 models differed mostly in availability of additional colors. Although Pennant Blue, Sportsman Red and Black were added to the palette, Polo White remained the most popular, with four-fifths produced in that color. At the end of the model year, all production moved to St. Louis. Deliveries had increased tenfold, reaching 3,640. Despite the public’s enthusiastic reaction, sales remained low for some years, just 700 built in 1955 and 3,461 the following year. Ford’s new Thunderbird, meanwhile, was selling at more than five times that level. The introduction of a V8 engine for 1955 and re-engineering by Zora Arkus-Duntov for true sports car performance ensured the Corvette’s reputation as America’s only true sports car. Still, the 1953-55 models retain the pure form of the Harley Earl design that turned so many heads at the ’53 Motorama, and remain much sought-after today. The 1954 Corvette offered here looks as sensational today as it did 55 years ago. Having been fully restored, this numbers-matching example still presents well and looks fresh in Polo White over a red interior. The only thing to do is show the car, or better yet, enjoy it as Reggie Jackson has, driving country lanes and back roads with the top down.