Jamie Brassfield
English 110
12/4/08
History of The Corvette
To the French a Corvette is a fast, lightly armed warship, smaller than a destroyer, often armed for antisubmarine operations, but to anyone that is American a Corvette is a sleek, beautiful, expeditious car that has made its stamp in history. Corvettes are unique and reign supreme over every other car on the road today. They are the perfect for any American, from the retired grandpa to the teenager who just turned sixteen. It all began about fifty-eight years ago.
Corvettes first began being produced in the 1950’s when GM had the ample idea to start producing a sports car. At that day in time GM was producing half of the cars driving on the road. GM was the biggest company in the world at the time; they produced Chevrolets, GMC’s, Pontiacs, Oldsmobile’s, Buicks, Cadillac’s, and locomotives. They were such a huge corporation that the U.S Department of Justice threatened to break up the business. GM had to do something drastic to keep from losing everything they had accomplished.
Earl Harley who was a designer at GM, at the time, went to the highest executives of the GM corporation and told them they needed to start producing a sports car that would rule the roads. They had to produce a car that could compete with the foreign companies such as; Jaguar, Ferrari, and Porsche. In the fall of 1951 Earl began to ponder the idea of an open sports car that would cost around the same price range as a sedan, which at that time was about two thousand dollars. Earl gave his ideas to Robert McLean and soon after a concept car emerged.
It was very important to keep the cost of production down so the everyday American could afford to buy one. The chassis and suspension were the same as the sedans, and the drivetrain and passenger compartment were moved forward to make the weight distribution better which in turn improved the handling of the car. Corvettes were originally produced with an inline six that was...