Restored 1954 Corvette Is a Proper Tribute to the American Sports Car

This nicely revived 1954 Corvette is a reminder of where it all began, and it’s attracting a lot of interest at auction.

While the C2 gets most of the love from collectors these days (and for good reason), it’s important to remember where the Corvette came from. In that vein, the C1 is a truly special car, even if the earlier examples wouldn’t exactly light your hair on fire in terms of performance. Even so, cars like this 1954 Corvette are simply beautiful, and a great reminder of where this iconic model began. And we don’t doubt that this recently restored 1954 Corvette will also attract quite a bit of interest at auction over at Bring a Trailer, either.

Finished in Polo White like every 1953 Corvette produced, this ’54 was actually sold on BaT back in 2018, and the seller spent some time restoring it back to its former glory. That includes stripping it down to the gel coat and repainting it this original color, which is contrasted beautifully by a tan soft top and/or a Scottop removable hardtop. The super sanitary classic rolls on the original 15-inch steel wheels as well, which are painted red and wear chrome spinner covers and Firestone 6.70-15 whitewall tires.

This vintage Corvette has received some attention underneath as well, where the seller added new shocks, brakes, and tires to the mix. Inside the cabin, the seats were recovered in red vinyl, which are complemented by a sea of red that covers the dash, carpet, and door panels. along with lap belts. Additional features present inside include a push-button AM radio and an analog clock, while the seller also replaced the carpets, trunk mat, wiring harness, and weatherstripping, with new materials coming from Al Knoch.

Pop the hood, and you’ll find GM’s familiar and much-maligned 150 horsepower 235 cubic-inch Blue Flame inline-six-cylinder powerplant, which has three rebuilt Carter side-draft carburetors up top. The fuel pump was also rebuilt, while the battery, starter, and generator were replaced. The seller has also added a PerTronix electronic ignition system, adjusted the valves, set the ignition timing, and added high-performance coils, plugs, and wires. The inline-six is mated to a PowerGlide automatic transmission and shows 92k miles on the clock, though actual mileage is unknown.

Overall, this 1954 Corvette is a beautiful example of its kind, and a historically important vehicle in the grand scheme of things to boot. Unsurprisingly, it has also been bid up to $50k as of this writing with several days to go, meaning that it has the attention of collectors, too.

#gallery-1 {
margin: auto;
}
#gallery-1 .gallery-item {
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 33%;
}
#gallery-1 img {
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;
}
#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {
margin-left: 0;
}
/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Photos:Bring a Trailer

‎