NEW YORK – Sixty years ago today, spectators lined New York City’s posh Park Avenue, waiting to get a glimpse of the ground-breaking Chevrolet Corvette on display at the General Motors’ Motorama show. Today, the Corvette is back in the Big Apple, marking the historic milestone with the all-new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
The all-new Corvette Stingray debuted earlier this week at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The introduction of the original Corvette took place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on January 17th, 1953. That year, more than 1.4 million people saw the curvaceous design and futuristic approach of the Corvette at displays around the United States. 60 years on, the 'Vette is a car woven into the fabric of American culture and is without doubt the star and talking point of the Detroit motor show.
The 2014 Corvette Stingray coupe goes on sale in the third quarter of 2013 - So we're not sure why the press keep calling it the all new 2014 Corvette Stingray.
Corvette Facts:
- The Corvette was originally championed by GM’s legendary styling director Harley Earl, who insisted there was room for an American entry in the European-dominated sports car market. It was also his idea for Corvette to have a fiberglass body.
- Corvette was named for a small and fast class of naval ships.
- The 1953 Corvette had a base price of $3,498 and offered only two options – a heater for $91 and an AM radio for $145.
- Every Corvette model has used innovative materials, from fibreglass in 1953 to advanced carbon-nano technology and carbon fibre on the 2014 Corvette Stingray.
- A V-8 engine was first available in 1955. That year, it was selected by 90 percent of customers. After that, all Corvettes featured strictly V-8 power.
- The Stingray name was first used for a prototype race car, the design of which influenced the second-generation Corvette that debuted in 1963. The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray split-window coupe has since been called one of the most beautiful and influential designs in automotive history.
- Corvette’s legacy of mainstreaming technology previously reserved for high-end luxury cars includes the introduction of fuel injection in 1957, independent rear suspension in 1963, four-wheel disc brakes in 1965, antilock brakes in 1986 and a tyre-pressure monitoring system in 1989.
- Corvette is the longest-running, continually produced sports car in the world.
- Nearly 2 million Chevrolet Corvettes have been sold since it went on sale in 1953 and in 2012, it accounted for approximately one-third of all sports car sales in America.
