On June 30th, 1953, exactly 69 years ago, the first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet factory assembly line, destined to become an iconic car.
The idea to create a two-seater sports car came after the end of World War II, when soldiers returning from Europe began importing stylish European cars such as MG, Jaguar, and Alfa Romeo to the United States.
Even the program to create a prototype of the new car was named Project Opel, because from 1929 to 2017, the German Opel was a part of the American General Motors.
The first generation of the Chevrolet Corvette, the same C1, was produced from 1953 to 1962. The initial cost of the car in 1953 was $3,513 ($35,580 in 2021 prices). Now, the eighth generation of Corvettes – the Chevrolet Corvette (C8) – is being produced, with production starting in 2020.
By the way, Corvettes were very popular among NASA’s first astronaut groups. Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, and others drove such cars. Chevrolet even offered astronauts two new cars each year, which were sold at the price of used cars. These NASA Corvettes can be seen in the original film “The Right Stuff” (1983) and the 2020 series based on it, as well as in the series “For All Mankind” (2019).
See the Pictures of the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette C1
