The Chevrolet Corvette was designed by sports-car lover and GM designer Harley Earl in 1951. The first Corvette was introduced to the public at the 1953 Motorama car show. The body was fiberglass, while underneath the hood were standard Chev parts, including an inline six-cylinder truck engine, Powerglide automatic transmission, and drum brakes.

Sales of the Corvette were lackluster, probably due to the lack of power and manual transmission that sports car enthusiasts demanded, and the project was nearly shelved until it acquired a V8 and three-speed manual transmission.

For collectors, the first generation of Corvettes are the most sought after. There were only 300 Corvettes produced in 1953. 1954 offered new color choices while the 1955 model introduced the V8 engine. The body was redesigned in 1956, and a fuel injection system was added in 1957. The 1958 Corvette was the flashiest Corvette ever built, with lots of chrome and quad headlights. Over the next few years, the Corvette sparkled less on the outside, but grew in horsepower on the inside.
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