C1 Corvette - “Birth Of A Legend”

Where It All Began

As we near the end of the second decade of the 21st century, there is no question that the Chevy Corvette has become one of the most recognized, most celebrated and most powerful production cars in the world. With the latest pinnacle of Corvette-dom – the C8 Corvette Z06 – wearing the current crown of the best Corvette ever made.

However, this current “King of the Hill” ascended to its throne in exactly the same way that earlier generations of Corvettes ascended to similar precipices before it. They got there by taking what had been learned in the development of earlier-generation Corvettes, by carrying forward the bits of the car that made it great, and by discarding the rest in favor of building a newer, stronger, FASTER version of that earlier iteration of the American sports car.

In many ways then, the Corvette is very much like the proverbial “phoenix” from Ancient Greek mythology. Each new iteration of the Corvette is “a beautiful bird born from the ashes of its former self.” Is this a fair analogy? From our perspective, we would say most definitely YES!

Consider that each Corvette, in its own time, was the “dream car” that captured the imaginations of an entire generation of men and women. However, it was an ever-changing dream that reflected the era in which it was being dreamed. Also consider this: the anticipation of the arrival of each “next-generation Corvette” is almost always accompanied by a dramatic decline in unit sales of the current model. For those that could afford it, it also meant that the current “dream car” lost enough of its allure that it was time to trade-up to the next model.

But in all of this, even as Corvette continued to evolve beyond the C7 Corvette into something completely new and different, a mid-engined masterpiece, it is important to remember that the crowning achievements of the C8 evolved from the success of the C7, which in turn was an evolution of the C6, and so on until we get back to where it all began; the 1953 Chevy Corvette.

When considering the history of the brand, it is fascinating to look at the “origin story” of Corvette and recognize just how much the first-generation (C1) model evolved in a period of just ten years.

For the purposes of this discussion, the C1 Corvette can effectively be divided into four sub-eras (based mostly on the outward physical build of its body): the 1953–1955 Corvette, the 1956–1957 Corvette, the 1958–1960 Corvette and the 1961–1962 Corvette.

All eight-generations of the Chevy Corvette.