June 30th 1953 - the First Corvette Leaves the Factory

In January 1953, during the annual GM Motorama, the first prototype Corvette was unveiled, and the crowd went wild. Wild enough to put the Harley Earl concept into production later on in June, with a very limited supply of only 300 gems. And what a gem!

It absolutely doesn’t matter what angle this car from 67 years ago pops into your field of vision from. Once it does, it's done. You’re locked in. You follow it without any other thought on your mind.

During the '50s, it seems we appreciated different shapes and lines on a vehicle. The body is composed of curvy lines and very few places on the vehicle are straight. As far as body shape goes, it's on the other spectrum compared to the modern day 2020 mid-engine Corvette, which has more of a straight-edge and sharp look.

Large front and rear-wheel wells rise up above the wheels, creating an hour-glass shape for the entire vehicle. And in the pinch of that hour-glass you’ll find the driver and passenger. The hood of the car rises up nearly to the height of the dashboard. The trunk does the same, once again offering a full round look to the car. On the back you’ll notice fins housing the stop lights and further pushing the hour-glass shape into view.

Back then, Chevy's sports car came ready for you to be cruising the streets in a drop-top only. That’s right, all 300 of these Spartans came ready to cruise ‘round town with the wind blowing through your hair.

The Polo-White body and red leather interior with white stitching is just…yeah. No words to describe it. Funny, huh, how a writer can be at a loss for words.

The wheels obviously came with white-wall tires, duh! That’s why we still love this style on vehicles of that era. It just works. To top it all off, those chrome two-spinner hub-caps and a silver accent around the beauty just whispers in your ear, “Wanna take a ride?”

If you have a close look at the original C1 you’ll notice that there are no door handles to enter the vehicle. This is where people probably took up the habit of jumping into convertibles. Just kidding, there is a handle that opens the door, but from the inside. This for me is just ‘flexing.’ Think about it1 The C1 doesn’t allow you to open it up and take it for a spin unless it’s a sunny day out and she can really shine. Sorry, in this relationship, it’s only about her. You’re just the driver. And you’ll know that when people start talking to you about it.

All 300 C1s featured a hand-built fiberglass body, which housed a Chevy Blue Flame six-cylinder engine with a two-speed Powerglide transmission. That six-cylinder pushed out 115 hp in other Chevrolet models of that time, but was modified to 150 hp for the C1 Corvettes.

However, it seems that 150 HP wasn’t enough to get the C1 sold as well as its competitors. The lack of speed was enough to make people turn away from the C1. What were they thinking? Nowadays, some folks would sin for a car like this.

It’s rumored that less than 200 of them were sold, so keep looking. Who knows where one’s just laying around like a battle-scarred warrior just waiting to brought back into the light.