There is little debate about Corvette’s role in domestic automotive history.
Corvette debuted in 1953 as a legitimate two-seater sports car built by General Motors for a North American buyer.
The iconic brand is still in production 73 years later and showed up in GM showrooms every year, except for the General’s 1983 lineup.
Jim Sutherland
Corvette has evolved and survived through the decades because GM made more good Vette decisions than bad ones and the sports car is still very popular in car circles. MyStarCollectorCar would like to list five good and bad moments in Corvette history.
The first reason is a home run of a moment in our opinion: General Motors created and built the Corvette for the domestic market. A two-seater sports car sold before the baby boom population explosion had reached its apex flew in the face of practicality for most car buyers who leaned toward barebones sedans and station wagons to house their large herd of kids.
1953 Corvettes were not people-haulers by even the most generous measurements, but they were very cool in a world of very uncool cars. It would be impossible to omit the ’53 Vette from our magic moment list.
The second moment on our list is also a very easy pick, namely the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. The ’63 Corvette Sting Ray marked the debut of a radical design change from the 1962 Corvette models. The ’63 Vette had hidden headlights in a sleek new front end, along with a radical new fixed fastback roof option for potential buyers.
The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray is arguably the sports car model’s finest hour (not moment) in Vette history.
The challenge for Corvette was to build a successor to its 1963-67 legend. It was an impossible task in our opinion here at MyStarCollectorCar.
Nevertheless, we felt the 1968 Corvette was a very positive moment in the car model’s history and is a solid choice for our third moment in Vette history. The newly designed ‘68 Vette looked like a stone-cold killer on four wheels and buyers could back up the menacing new style with plenty of horsepower choices that matched the car’s bad disposition with brute force.
General Motors floated a concept car known as the Mako Shark that begat the Mako Shark II in 1965. Both designs led directly to the 1968 version of the Corvette, and it was an excellent direction for the car.
The fourth moment on our Corvette timeline list took place during the 1978 model year when Corvette added a giant rear glass area to the car and tried to substitute “glassback” style for anemic performance. The ’78 Corvette’s overall design was a crash-and-burn in our opinion because the giant rear glass was an unpleasant distraction–and yet still not enough to offset the car’s lack of horsepower.
The net result is a raging tire fire that was not extinguished until the 1984 Corvette brought back enough performance to warrant the fifth and final place on MyStarCollectorCar’s Vette moments list.
The ’84 Corvette was a re-introductory model because there was no 1983 Corvette, presumably because the 1982 Vette was the last in a series of homely and neutered embarrassments. The ’84 Vette provided a significant upgrade in performance and began Corvette’s revival in the tire burner department.
Corvette continued to have many more moments past 1984 and now builds wild-looking mid-engined monsters that look far more race than street but are cold-blooded killers in either environment.
By now it should be clear Corvette is here to stay and will continue to enjoy the spotlight for the foreseeable future because the iconic car brand has enjoyed many more magic moments than dud moments over the past 73 years.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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