Some fun Corvette history

After World War II there was pent up demand for cars. The auto manufacturers had a ready market for their products. In 1946 Thomas McCahill got the idea to borrow new automobiles from the automotive manufacturers to road test them and then write stories about the new models. However this was a new idea as the manufacturers didn't loan out brand new automobiles. No outside testing of new products had been done. So "Uncle Tom" told the car manufacturers he just wanted to take some photographs of the new models. His ruse worked and his car road tests that first appeared in 'Mechanix Illustrated' magazine in 1946 were a big hit. Automobile manufacturers soon came to realize that the road tests done by Uncle Tom could make or break a new product. Then all the manufacturers lined up to get their new automobiles road tested and featured in Mechanix Illustrated. The zany but honest road test prose became Tom McCahill's trademark. This comment about the new 1957 Buick's handling was typical "Like a fat matron trying to get out of a slippery bathtub". Hopefully he had nicer things to say about the new for 1957 283 Corvette. In the picture below Zora introduces Uncle Tom to the brand new for 1957 Fuel Injection Corvette. Uncle Tom went on to write 600 road test reviews of new automobiles and even invented the 0 to 60 MPH timed test that became a standard by which to judge a cars performance.
Zora in 1953 had noted the importance of performance in new cars and how that performance could be used to keep customers loyal to the Chevrolet brand. Plus the performance was not just limited to selling performance cars but also selling hot rod performance parts over the counter as well. The 1953 Corvette in his opinion needed a new design and a better engine to compete with Ford for performace buyers.
Performance marketing was used with great success and the automotive journalists were the connection to potential car buyers. In the second picture from 1964 Zora previews the new 1965 Corvette for Jerry Titus who wrote for the magazine Sports Car Graphic >

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

There were some engine changes coming with the introduction of the 1966 Corvette. The hi performance 327 365 HP and the same engine with the added Fuel Injection system had both been discontinued. In their place was a new option code L36 427 390HP engine along with a hi-performance L72 427 450HP engine. Once again Zora was front and center to explain the new 1966 Corvette performance improvements to the automotive journalists. These photographs are from Car & Driver in the fall of 1965 >

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

So the block is essentialy the same, deck height the same and bore centres the same. I seem to remember the 454 being called the porcupine, which made me think that it was different to the big blocks that came before.

 

The 'porcupine' nickname came from the angle of the valve stems in the cylinder heads

 

When Corvette customers talked to their Chevrolet salesman in the summer of 1965 they found some new option choices were being introduced. The new larger 427 cubic inch engine was available with 390HP or 450HP. The top performance Corvette available for sale now offered a larger 427 cubic inch engine and 25 more horsepower than last year's 396 engine. More options like the N11 Side Mount Exhaust System and P48 Cast Aluminum Knock-Off Wheels plus J56 Heavy Duty Brakes and even the N03 36.5 Gallon Fuel Tank were all available options again for 1966. Still there was an incentive to 'trade up' with the new L72 engine option new featuring 450 horse power. One early customer selected the code 974 Rally Red coupe for just that reason; more power! In the Fall of 1965 the new 427 450HP Corvette coupe arrived at the dealership. However everyone was not happy when their Corvette arrived in the fall after ordering the L72 450HP engine. It seems at the start of 1966 Corvette production there was an 'Engineering Change Recommendation' (ECR) that reduced the L72 engine's horsepower rating from 450HP down to 425HP. Early orders were scheduled for production showing 450HP and then later orders showed the new revised 425HP rating. This led to confusion at the dealerships when new Corvettes were delivered with two different horsepower ratings decals on the air cleaner assembly depending on when the Corvette had been assembled at the factory. Had Chevrolet modified the L72 engine down to 425HP? That was the question that L72 Corvette customers wanted answered. However the difference was only on paper as the engine build specification was identical to before the rating was change. It was difficult to understand Chevrolet's reason for the change but perhaps the 425HP figure was considered more palatable to Automobile Insurance Companies...

Rally Red and 450HP >

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

This 1966 Corvette coupe painted code 972 Ermine White includes many of the hi-performance options available for that year. Up front is the L72 427 engine now factory rated at 425HP. However inside is where things get interesting with the addition of the N03 36.5 Gallon Fuel Tank. The bright blue interior is somewhat bare with the C48 Heater and Defroster Deletion; an option selected on only 54 Corvette orders for the 1966 model year. Another item is the Radio Delete leaving a blank space above the console. However all this money saved was well spent on P48 Cast Aluminum Knock-Off Wheels mounted on option T01 Goldwall Tires. To finish the exterior look the option A01 Soft Ray Tinted Glass and the option N14 Side Mount Exhaust System was specified to. The result is a rare combination of options seldom found on any other 1966 Corvette built by the factory.



Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

thanks for taking the time to put out this great thread there is a wealth of information here....as a lifelong corvette fan /owner
gotta say thanks...

 

Thank you LARRYH, much appreciated!

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

by the time that Zora Duntov posed with this 1966 big block 427 Corvette coupe there was much that he and his engineers had accomplished. The new 1966 Corvette now had the power that Zora thought a sports car should have. The performance now offered by the new Corvette was a huge improvement compared with his first introduction to the brand new Corvette that featured a six cylinder engine with a 2 speed powerglide transmission. His thirteenth year at Chevrolet featured plans for an even more powerful Corvette in the future...

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

The introduction to the new 1953 Corvette had started innocently enough for Zora Duntov with a trip to the Waldorf-Astoria in New York for the annual auto show in January that year. The new 1953 Corvette was created by Harley Earl so that General Motors could compete with Jaguar and MG plus other European sports cars. When Zora saw the beautiful new sports car he came away disappointed by the weak 6 cylinder engine and two speed automatic transmission. As an engineer he knew the new Corvette needed help if it was to succeed as a sports car. With this thought in mind he applied to General Motors for a job to work on the beautiful new sports car. With his strong European engineering background he was hired in May of 1953 after writing to the Chevrolet chief engineer at the time who was Ed Cole. Zora would start his General Motors career as an assistant staff engineer at Chevrolet.
General Motors had a travelling road show called the 'Motorama Dream Cars' and that is how the new Corvette was introduced in New York. The 1953 Corvette show car was actually built by hand in 1952 as EX 122. The new Corvette went first to New York and then to Miami and all the way out to Los Angeles and up to San Francisco. Pausing along the way some publicity pictures were taken at various destination before returning back east to the Chicago auto show that year.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Here is a rare view of the 1953 Corvette arriving in Miami first with it's top up >

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

The public wanted to buy their own Corvette so production started in June of 1953 >

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The new 1953 Corvette was built initially in Flint MI for the small production run of 300 cars that were assembled there. Some views of what went into the production of the new Corvette >

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Some views of the early 1953 Corvette's assembly in Flint MI. This was where the first 50 cars were assembled before rest of the 300 total production moved to St Louis MO in a larger facility.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The Corvettes built in Flint on serial numbers 003 thru 012 were in effect pilot build models. As a result those Corvettes were shipped to Chevrolet Engineering for evaluation and testing. The serial number 001 and 002 Corvettes were also eventually used for testing with Chevrolet Engineering. The first person to drive the new production Corvette serial number 001 was Harlow Curtis who was the President of General Motors from 1953 to 1958. He took a strong interest in the new Corvette and was a big supporter of the new Chevrolet sports car.
Understandably there were many more buyers for the new Corvette than the dealers could supply. Consequently Chevrolet had very tight controls on which dealer would receive a 1953 Corvette and who the dealer could sell the Corvette to. Celebrities and business leaders and those who would promote the new Corvette to the public were seen as the people Chevrolet wanted to receive their new sports car.

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Below is pictured the last 1953 Corvette built but not the last Corvette built in 1953.
There were actually 14 of the 1954 model year Corvettes built at the St. Louis factory in December of 1953. This was the start of a production run that would see 3640 of the 1954 model year Corvettes built.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

^^^ Celebrities and business leaders and those who would promote the new Corvette to the public were seen as the people Chevrolet wanted to receive their new sports car.

Sounds like the marketing plan for the 2017 New Ford GT, 64 years later!

 

While the 1954 Corvette production had started in December of 1953 at the new St. Louis plant there was also some special Corvette show cars being built elsewhere. The General Motors Motorama Dream Cars had a new model that had a single appearance at the New York auto show that was again held in January and opened on the 21st of that month. While EX 122 the showcar from previous year was a convertible the new Corvette Corvair (combining the names Corvette and Bel Air) was a hardtop model. The new show car was painted a deep red color. One of the persons to make an appearance with this new model was the famous singer Dinah Shore.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

This would be the only public appearance for the dark red Corvette Corvair coupe. Later in 1954 at the Miami auto show another Corvette Corvair coupe would make an appearance. This second car was painted Seafoam Green! Perhaps a more suitable color choice for the car's debut in the sunny south of Miami...

 

Great photos, do either of the Corvette Corvair coupes still exist?

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

This picture is of the show car interior of the dark red Corvette Corvair as seen at the New York auto show. There was sort of replica built on a real 1954 Corvette chassis. The interior is done a bit differently with red and white trim colors on the replica. Also the exterior paint color is a brighter shade than the original car's dark red paint. The other Seafoam green car is also thought to have been crushed as was often but not always the practice with show cars that didn't have normal vin numbers. The lack of a vin number could cause problems as we will see shortly with the 1953 Corvette New York showcar EX 122...

 

The 1954 Corvette Corvair replica obviously had a tremendous amount of effort put into it's creation. Some views of the exterior below. Also with the interior picture by David W. Temple showing the red/white look that the owner want.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

When the General Motors Motorama arrived in Miami the dark red Corvette Corvair had been replaced with a new car painted Seafoam Green. Also include were more amazing dream cars from General Motors Styling. Some pictures of the second Corvette Corvair >

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Also present for the Miami auto show was a new version of the production 1954 Corvette that featured a removable hardtop. This introduction previewed a special new Corvette hardtop option that would become very popular with convertible buyers in later years. The hardtop was not officially offered at that time.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The public saw all the latest show cars that General Motors presented in the travelling Motorama Dream Cars events. However the cars themselves led a pampered life being carefully transported from one event to the next in special transport trucks.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The 1954 General Motors Motorama dream car display in New York featured this blue 1954 Corvette Nomad wagon version. That design did not make it into production.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

While the General Motors display of Motorama vehicles only travelled in the United States there was also something special created for the Canadian automotive customers.
General Motors Design decided to build a second 1954 Corvette with a removable hardtop to display at various events in Canada. This Corvette serial number 260 was pulled off the line in St Louis and shipped to General Motors in Detroit. There the Corvette saw a number of modifications. There was a hand built solid bronze windshield frame that was then chrome plated plus a custom front windshield was installed. Then the Corvette was painted a candy maroon color. The interior color was changed to white. This look was also used for the dark red 1954 Corvette Corvair built some time earlier. The hardtop Corvette was the first to feature roll up windows and a glove box. This Corvette hardtop show car was driven by the President of General Motors of Canada. Some time later this hardtop Corvette was put on display at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto Ontario Canada. The CNE ran for a couple of weeks before Labour Day which was the first weekend in September. After the auto show was done the Corvette was used for smaller dealer promotion events. General Motors of Canada kept the vehicle there for a further 3 years. Then in August of 1957 a Chevrolet parts distributor who knew about the special Corvette was able to negotiate the purchase of the special hardtop Corvette from General Motors of Canada. It had taken 3 years of persistence to finally persuade General Motors of Canada to finally sell him the 1954 Corvette for $1,500. The 1954 Corvette was some period of time later sold to someone else and made it's way to a used car lot in British Columbia where another Corvette person purchased the Corvette still complete with it's famous hardtop...

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

However fate was not as kind to the first built 1954 Corvette Motorama Dream Car. This pale yellow Corvette hardtop version that had previewed for many Corvette buyers the future with it's roll up windows and a hardtop roof suffered the same fate as many other show cars. After it's time as a show car was finished and with no thought for history; the Corvette was simply crushed.

One more view of the General Motors display featuring the 1954 Corvette hardtop and the Corvette Corvair.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

When the crowds came to see the new General Motors Autorama Dream Cars there was a surprise. Harley Earl had created a competitor for the new Corvette. It was an Oldsmobile with a fiberglas body that sat on a 1954 Corvette chassis. However the Oldsmobile featured a 324 cubic inch Oldsmobile Rocket V8 with 250HP. The Corvette by comparison had 150HP. This new V8 engine was backed by a 4 speed Hydra-Matic transmission with a 3:55 to 1 rear axle compared to the Corvettes 2 speed Power Glide transmission. Harley Earl had created by comparison a much more sporty car than the Corvette effort represented at that time.
Harley Earl liked the Oldsmobile F88 so much that he ordered built a second version of the F88 and had that new car painted red for his own use as a street car. This was very much how Harley Earl operated with a constantly changing selection of automobiles for his personal use. It was said that he was the most influential person and the 'driving force' within General Motors.
The original gold Oldsmobile F88 he had taken apart and boxed up for shipment to California in about 1959. The recipient was Harley Earl's friend E.L. Cord. The Oldsmobile F88 was still in the boxes when it was sold and resold by various collectors. Eventually the Oldsmobile F88 was with much effort restored and sold to a collector for some 3.2 million dollars.

For whatever reason the idea of an Oldsmobile sports car was set aside and for the future existed only as a Motorama Dream Car. The Corvette could continue to be developed exclusively by the Chevrolet Motor Division without interference from the other divisions at General Motors.

Some pictures of the Gold version and the later blue version of this Oldsmobile F88. The show car was constantly being changed and modified including at one time being painted white to >

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login