History of Corvette Body Styles

In 1927 General Motors hired designer Harley Earl who loved sports cars. 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 an expensive two-seat sports car, the Nash-Healey, that was made in partnership with the Italian designer Pinin Farina and British auto engineer Donald Healey, but there were few moderate-priced models.[5] Earl convinced GM that they needed to build a two-seat sports car, and with his Special Projects crew began working on the new car, "Project Opel" in late 1951. The result was the hand-built, EX-122 pre-production Corvette prototype, which was first shown to the public at the 1953 GM Motorama at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on January 17, 1953. Production began six months later. The car is now located at the Kerbeck Corvette museum in Atlantic City and is believed to be the oldest Corvette in existence.

Corvette C1: 1953-1962


C1

The Chevrolet Corvette C1 is the first generation of the sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors introduced late in the 1953 model year, and produced through 1962. It is commonly referred to as the "solid-axle" generation, as the independent rear suspension until the 1963 Sting Ray. The Corvette was rushed into production for its debut model year to capitalize on the enthusiastic public reaction to the concept car, but expectations for the new model were largely unfulfilled. Reviews were mixed, and sales fell far short of expectations through the car's early years. The project was nearly canceled, but Chevrolet ultimately decided to continue production and Harley Earl and company eventually transformed the Corvette into a true world-class sports car.