9781422279557

I NT RODUC T I ON

O n July 1, 1953, a birth announcement appeared in the pages of that journal of record, The New York Times. The small item was headlined:

SPORTS CAR PRODUCED Chevrolet Corvette Has Body of Laminated Glass Fiber

The rest of the text, no more than a few paragraphs in all, went on to report that, a day earlier, on June 30, the first Corvette had rolled off the line at the assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. It’s amusing to speculate how the average New York Times reader might have reacted to the news, if it was even noticed at all. The idea of an “American sports car” may well have raised a smile due to its improbability, while the body of “laminated glass fiber” (i.e., Fiberglas) might have lifted a few eyebrows. Closer to today, on the other end of the life cycle, we have the real-life example of the late Mr. George Swanson, of Pennsylvania, who in 1994 was buried in his beloved white Corvette. Surely no pharaoh of antiquity was ever entombed with such a royal chariot. Aficionados of the car must agree that Mr. Swanson definitely had a case of Corvette Fever. Now, with its Golden Fiftieth Anniversary only a few years away, the Corvette occupies a unique position not only in Detroit’s automotive history, but also in the pantheon of American popular culture. The Corvette has been immortal- ized in song and story, movies and television. In this age of seen-it-all media saturation, a Corvette can still create a sen- sation. And, with the release of the all-new Corvette C5, it’s a surety that Corvettes will go on creating a sensation well into the twenty-first century. The smiles that once might have greeted the idea of an American sports car have long since faded away. With its high performance and bold design, the Corvette is a world- class symbol of automotive excellence. Even during the darkest days of Detroit, when the industry was awash with

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