History of the Corvette Part 1: Origins (C1 Corvette)

Corvette history — aka the story of America’s sports car — begins and nearly ends here, a tale inexorably tied to automotive passion and persistence.

It’s said that people first discovered a love of sports cars the moment the first two fledgling horseless carriages lined up on a makeshift start line. And frankly, the interest dates back much farther, indeed, going all the way back to chariot races. It’s one of life’s inevitabilities that when you put a person with the right mindset in a vehicle of just about any sort, they’re gonna want to make it go fast. Automotive engineers recognized this from the beginning, and organized races cropped up within 15 years of the first patents for the modern car as we know it. Early motorsport was a daring, often deadly interest, a proving ground of the meddles of machine and driver alike. One of these brave souls was an engineer and driver by the name of Louis Chevrolet.

A Company Deeply Rooted in Motorsport

Louis Chevrolet was born in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, on Christmas 1878. Chevrolet’s interest in cars started at a young age, something a lot of people can relate to. His mind found comfort in bicycle racing and mechanical tinkering. himself a son of a prominent watchmaker. Ultimately, his expertise allowed him enough independence to emigrate at only 21 years old to Quebec before settling down in the New York tri-state area.

With very little formal training, he designed motor cars for the likes of Autocar and Buick throughout the 1900s. His first car, the Classic Six, was powered by an OHV straight-six he built in his machine shop. However, on November 3, 1911, Chevrolet decided to go into business for himself. With the help of automotive pioneer and GM founder William C. Durant, the Chevrolet Motor Company opened its doors as an independent auto manufacturer. By 1914, the Chevrolet 490 received over 46,000 orders. While a humble number beside the Model T, this served to establish Louis Chevrolet as a competent, capable automotive designer.

Louis Chevrolet behind the wheel of the first production car bearing his name, circa 1911.

Chevrolet himself competed formally in the Indy 500 beginning in 1915, 4 years after the first race. Likewise, he raced exactly four times: 1915, 16, 19, and 20. Of those races, he only finished one, the 1919 race, in which he claimed 7th place. Apart from Indy, Chevrolet participated in numerous other races, remaining an avid motorsport enthusiast for his entire career. However, his actual racing pedigree was the tip of the iceberg. For Louis Chevrolet, his legacy lay firmly in the engineering of fast cars, a fate he very much shared with the company bearing his name.

Chevrolet retired from racing, working as a humble mechanic for his company in Detroit. He continued tinkering and improving his vehicles until his death on June 6, 1941. However, his motorsport ambitions didn’t die with him. Only a decade later, Chevrolet commenced designing what was America’s first bespoke, proper postwar sports car. The majority of the inspiration for which came by way of Europe, hitching a ride with the returning American Armed Forces.

Chevrolet Expands their Horizons

Organized automotive motorsport began in Europe officially with the first Grand Prix, the Circuit du Sud-Ouest of 1901. From humble beginnings in a small French village, the sport grew massively in popularity, independently sprouting in the US and Asia as well. Early European sports cars often traced their lineage directly to these early race cars, using lessons learned through the trials of motorsport in their designs. Consequently, many European sports cars were, themselves, perfectly capable of racing competently by the 1930s. European road networks served primarily foot traffic prior to their mechanization, and so cars were designed with this in mind. The European sports car was a small, light, nimble machine. Austin 7’s, MG Midgets, and many more offered affordable, nippy cars for the public.

Cars such as the Jaguar XK cut their teeth at the 24H Le Mans, a primary source of inspiration for the Corvette’s styling. Photo by Le Mans Newsroom

These cars ultimately served as the base for what became the initial design template of the Corvette. When US GI’s returned from World War II, many of these interwar light British, French, Italian, and German sports cars came with them. Chevrolet wasn’t the only manufacturer taking notice, but it was the first to implement a new design based on this model. Domestic interest for fast cars grew in the following years, spurred on by the allure of juggernauts like Duesenbergs and Bugattis. By comparison, the everyday American’s 1940s car was a tall, unassuming sedan or coupe, generally. So when the soldiers returned home – some of whom brought the likes of Jaguars and Alfas with them – Chevrolet executives paid close attention.

Corvette: America’s First Sports Car

Harley Earl, Bill Mitchell, Ed Cole, and Zora Arkus-Duntov comprised Chevrolet’s dream team of designers for this brand-new concept car. Today, all four, and Harley Earl in particular, are considered the “Fathers of the Corvette.” As head of GM’s Styling Department, Earl convinced his bosses of the need for a US version of the lightweight European sports car. After the pitch was accepted, work commenced towards the end of 1951 under the name “Project Opel.” Earl emphasized a style combining the lines of an American car with the profile of a slim sporty racer.

However, the car ran so counter to traditional styling and mechanical cues that parts were scarce for the timeframe Earl was given. As such, the team sourced most components from off-the-shelf. Subsequently, Chevrolet’s most popular engine, the “Blue Flame” six, graced the prototype’s engine bay. The engine sported three Carter YH carburetors, 8.0 compression, and new mechanical lifters. A 2-speed Powerglide completed the package on every initial production car since no Chevrolet manual transmission could handle the engine’s 150 horsepower.

A shortage of time rather than material forced Earl to think radically about designing the body. To expedite the work, Earl’s team built the body from a revolutionary new material: GRP, or glass-fiber reinforced plastic. Today, this material’s commonly known under another name: fiberglass. And it was far quicker to work with than building brand-new steel jigs for creating bespoke body panels.

The brochure’s catchphrases for the 1953 Corvette: “Sensational styling, extra-low center of gravity, amazing acceleration, outstanding performance.”

Workers produced the initial prototype, internally named “EX-122,” entirely by hand using all common suspension and chassis parts from other Chevrolets. The car first debuted at the 1953 GM Motorama in New York to rave reception. Crowds lined up for over 30 minutes just to look at the car. Now christened the “Corvette,” the car generated so much sensation that production was ordered within six months. Thanks largely to the team’s efforts with designing the vehicle around common parts, Earl found the tight schedule acceptable terms for his baby.

Learning to Walk

The very first production line amounted to little more than a bunch of guys hand-assembling the first batch of cars. Chevy slated just 300 to be built, making the 1953 Corvette both the rarest and oldest production Corvette line in existence. However, following the initial customers, the Corvette took a turn for the worst. Harley Earl envisioned the car with a $2,000 price tag, and the final product ended up over $3,500. Furthermore, the strangely mystifying new fiberglass body’s allure wore off in the months after the Motorama. 

During World War II, the US and Britian acquainted themselves with fiberglass, using the material to build aircraft radomes.

Customer and critical reviews dismissed the Corvette as lackluster in a number of ways. They referred to it as underwhelming and lacking proper fit and finish. The car suffered from numerous issues, such as poor fiberglass finish, mismatched parts between early cars, leaking soft tops, and a lack of options. All cars sported a Polo White paint on Sportsman Red interior with black canvas soft-tops. Parts such as hubcaps differed from month to month since Corvettes were all hand-built with whatever was available. And while the engine proved itself since the 1920s, the Corvette was criticized for being underpowered. Coupled with a two-speed auto, the car fell short of expectations as a sports car.

1953 Corvettes all featured AM radios and heaters in spite of them officially only being optional according to sales brochures.

The Corvette Picks Itself Back Up

Ultimately, the initial model year only sold 180 units. General Motors constructed a plant intended for 10,000 units in 1954. So when sales figures returned, executives weren’t pleased. The fate of the Corvette seemed destined to end as a footnote in automotive history and nothing more. An odd curiosity of a car designed by a man with a love of European sports cars as a passion project. Meanwhile, in 1953, Chevrolet production figures numbered in the millions. Largely viewed as the “consumer” segment of General Motors, the niche Corvette didn’t fit with the company image, according to GM executives. Coupled with the already dismal performance of the rushed 1953 model year, the Corvette desperately needed help.

Chevrolet repurposed an old truck plant in Flint, Michigan to serve as the temporary production factory for 1952-3 built Corvettes.

Ultimately, this help didn’t arrive for another year, but that’s a price GM was willing to pay. After all, they’d already invested into the production plant in St. Louis for the 1954 Corvette. Of course, we all know that Chevy, in fact, handily succeeded in turning this plummeting corporate failure around. But at the time, quite a few stars required alignment to rekindle any sort of hope in this oddball’s future. But as they say, with a smart, dedicated group, there is no such thing as an insurmountable task. And by 1962, the first-generation Corvette stunned the US’s rapidly developing auto industry and ushered a new age of light, nimble sports cars on American roads. But that’s a discussion for next time, where we talk about the large-scale production of the first-generation Corvette.

Brochures Used: 1912 Chevrolet, 1949 Chevrolet Full Line, 1953 Corvette and Sales, 1954 Corvette

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