Americana: Corvette
The ultimate midlife crisis machine. Uploaded by gminsidenews.com.
Back in 1953, about half of all vehicles sold in America were made by General Motors. GM had just about everything for the American driver – except a sports car. Designer Harley Earl fixed that. Using mostly parts from Chevy sedans, he created a concept car for the 1953 New York Auto Show.
What he created was like nothing people had ever seen before: The Corvette.
As great as the early Corvette was, it took the introduction of the Thunderbird by Ford to make GM serious about keeping a sports car in its lineup. The car got more power, more marketing support, and more attention. In 1963, the Sting Ray design was introduced. And Corvette became a Great American Thing.
Uploaded by collectordreamer.com.
The automotive world has honored Corvette on many occasions. It’s been Motor Trend’s Car of the Year twice. It’s been on Car and Driver’s 10 Best List fifteen times. And a Corvette has been the pace car at the Indy 500 ten times. And here’s the kind of in-depth trivia you expect from this blog – 1985 was the last year a CB radio was offered as an option on the Corvette. Can you imagine buying a Corvette, but demanding that it have a CB radio?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leuhrfJ2LZ0&hl=en&fs=1&]