The First Corvette Assembled On June 28, 1953

I'm not going to lie, I have been staring at this computer screen trying to think of something to write about for at least 40 minutes. I tuned into my surroundings to try and find inventive ideas, I scanned through news outlets to find something interesting, I turned on some music hoping that it would jolt some creativity into me, but my brain was still empty. I decided to look up on Google, "what happened today in history" and lo and behold, something interesting popped up. On June 28, 1953 the first Corvette was assembled in Flint, Michigan. The first Corvette was a "two-seater sports car that would become an American icon. The first completed production car rolled off the assembly lines two days later, one of just 300 Corvettes made that year."

The idea for the Corvette came from Harley J. Earl, a General Motors pioneering designer. "In January 1953, GM debuted the Corvette concept car at its Motorama auto show at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City." The Corvette had a fiberglass body and a six-cylinder engine.

On June 30, 1953 the first Corvette was completed and came off the production line. It was hand-assembled and had a "Polo White exterior and red interior, two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission, a wraparound windshield, whitewall tires and detachable plastic curtains instead of side windows." The early Corvettes did not have exterior door handles. The car also had a clock, cigarette lighter and a "red warning light that activated when the parking brake was applied-a new feature at the time." The Corvette was priced at $3,490 "and could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 11 or 12 seconds, then considered a fairly average speed."

The Corvette went into mass production in 1954, but the sales were not great and GM was thinking about discontinuing the car. Ford came out with the two-seater Thunderbird around the same time and GM "did not want to be seen bowing to the competition." In 1955, the Corvette was supplied with a more powerful V-8 engine. The Corvette earned the nickname "America's sports car" "and became ingrained in pop culture through multiple references in movies, television and music."

The first Corvette Assembled: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/workers-assemble-first-corvette-in-flint-michigan

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