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The 1964 Sting Ray coupe, now minus the controversial window divider bar. Round taillights had been a Cor- vette staple since 1961.

woes and besieged by foreign imports, Corvette never compromised those standards of superb style and technological prowess. What other American-made car commands the loyal, and, in some cases, fanatical following of the Corvette? You don’t have to be an owner to get Corvette Fever. In fact, just seeing the car may be enough to make you a believer. Just take a look at some of the beautifully photographed Cor- vettes in this book, and see if you don’t agree. There are Corvette clubs, rallies, and events such as the annual Bloomington Gold festival in Spring- field, Illinois, the nation’s largest Corvette show, where hundreds of vin- tage ‘Vettes and thousands of fans gather to celebrate the machine. The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, and the Corvette assembly plant across the street, are two of the most popular tourist attractions in all of their home state of Kentucky. There’s a General Motors maxim which goes, “There’s a little bit of Corvette in every Chevrolet.” This is almost literally true, not just for the Chevy badge but for all GM, since the Corvette has been used so often as a test bed, a proving ground, for advances in automotive technology that have eventually become industry-wide standards. The fiberglass body, disc brakes, rack-and-pinion steering, independent suspension, comput- erized engine control modules, and so many others, all had their initial try-outs in Corvette before being more widely adopted. And, as in the case

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