The Immortal Corvette: 1953-1962

It's hard to imagine the American automotive scene without the Corvette. The Vette has sold by the tens of thousands, won hundreds of races, starred in the television show Route 66 and was hailed by Prince in his ode "Little Red Corvette." It has been the favorite ride of astronauts, race drivers and rock-n-roll musicians. Yet it wasn't always so glamorous. In its infancy, the Corvette was an underpowered, overstyled "sheep in wolf's clothing" that hung on to its existence by the narrowest of margins. How it survived to prosper is a tale worth telling.

Code Name EX-122
It all began in 1952. World War II had only been over for six years and American servicemen that had never driven anything but massive Detroit iron were returning from Europe with tales of "sports cars." They were capable of formidable performance even though powered by small, efficient engines. They would drift around corners at speeds that would leave any American sedan rolling through the sagebrush, and were actively raced on road circuits that resembled city streets.


Although high-dollar imports from Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes and Aston-Martin were the top of the heap, the cars that were taking America by storm were the quick-but-affordable Jaguar XK-120 and the MG-TC. The TC was a cheap and primitive sports model that did not interest anyone in Detroit, but the faster, stylish and more expensive Jag was a different story.


The Jag had a sophisticated twin-cam six-cylinder engine with a four-speed manual transmission. Its sporty bodywork belied the fact that its simple ladder frame and drum brakes were nothing to write home about. In short, the Jag was good but not unbeatable, and a few forward-thinkers at Chevrolet were paying attention.


Chevrolet president Ed Cole had just moved over from Cadillac and had been given the assignment of turning around the slipping giant of the automotive industry that had been grinding out boring, unsophisticated sedans for years. Cole wanted something different that would pull younger buyers into the showroom and rejuvenate the Chevy name. The prototype of the new model, code-named the EX-122, made its debut at the 1952 Motorama auto show.