1953- The Corvette was Debuted

The first Corvette made its debut at a General Motors (GM) Motorama auto show after the head designer, Harley Earl, decided to design a two seat sports car. The first production model was made with an all-fiberglass body, a white exterior and red interior, a 150-horsepower engine and a price of $3,500 (not including tax and optional features such as heating and AM radio). But business wasn’t going so well, with only a portion of the cars sold after two years.

After the 1955 Ford Thunderbird Convertible became a fast-selling car, GM wanted to improve the Corvette so they would not have to discontinue it and look like a failure next to their rival. A Belgian/Russian designer named Zora Arkus-Duntov  became head engineer for the car and making it very popular by making many improvements on it- such as making the vehicle’s horsepower increase from 150 to 195, then to 240 horsepower, then finally 283 horsepower, setting speed records left and right. By 1977, 500,000 Corvettes were built. In 1979, the 1 millionth Corvette was made, and in 2009, the 1.5 millionth.

(Taken from: www.history.com/this-day-in-history)