Chevrolet Corvette
The most desirable old American car is a 1957 Chevrolet. But it isn't the 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door hardtop - the favorite of advertising agencies wanting a "fashionable" old car recognized by many.
Rather, the most coveted old Chevy is the 1957 fuel injected Corvette. There have been a lot of sexy Corvettes since the auto was introduced in 1953. But the 1957 fuel-injected model is the most memorable.
Prophetically, the advertisement for the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette said, "It is our intention to make the Chevrolet Corvette a classic car, one of those rare and happy milestones in the history of automotive design."
I've wanted to drive the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette since I saw it on the cover of Road & Track magazine about 30 years ago.
But it wasn't until last weekend that I climbed into the snug cockpit with its big, thin-rim steering wheel and roared away - literally - for a drive.
The car belonged to John Luther, 52, who vividly remembers buying it Oct. 24, 1957. The fuel-injected version of the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette is rare and tough to find. It's even harder to find one with the original owner; most have had at least three.
"I was driving a 1953 Chevy sedan, with no inten tion of buying a car with a convertible top or V-8 engine - both of which the Chevrolet Corvette had," Luther recalled with a laugh.
"But I had to have the car after I drove it. I gave the salesman $10 to hold it because that's all the money I had with me. I quickly borrowed $200 from my girlfriend's father for the down payment."
A faded window sticker shows Luther's Chevrolet Corvette had a list price of $3,775. It came with $840.75 worth of options, including the fuel-injection system, "deluxe" heater and whitewall tires. Thus, the car stickered at $4,615.75 - a lot of money in 1957. "Two years ago, an Illinois Chevy dealer offered to trade me a new, $20,000 plus Chevrolet Corvette for the car, and I've been offered a lot for it by private parties," said Luther, a 30-year gas company employee. "But I'll never sell. How would I replace it?" What's so special about the 1957 Vette?
Introduced in 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette was about to be dropped in 1955 because of terrible sales. Then came the vastly improved 1956 Vette. It had a rakish body with a crisp-looking front end, concave bodyside sculpture, and semi-frenched taillights.
A hot V-8 was standard, and the leaky, antique side curtains of the 1953-55 Chevrolet Corvette were replaced with roll-up windows. One could even get an optional, trim-looking hardtop. Mechanically, the 1956 was a dream for its day, thanks to Chevrolet Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov. A mechanical genius, he became known as the "father" of the Chevrolet Corvette, although he hadn't been involved with the original model. Chevrolet Corvette production soared from 700 units in 1955 to 3,467 in 1956. Sales were even better in 1957, totaling nearly 6,400. The 1957 Chevrolet Corvette was identical to the 1956 model, with one major exception: It had a hot fuel-injected V-8.
The base 1957 model had a 283-cubic-inch V-8 that delivered 220 horsepower with a four-barrel carburetor. But the engine produced a sizzling 283 horsepower with the optional fuel injection. The power output is what made the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette a legendary car. Getting one horsepower from each cubic inch of engine displacement was an amazing accomplishment for any American automaker, let alone "lowly" Chevrolet.
The power came from the fuel-injection system and a camshaft designed by Arkus-Duntov. Once a laughable dud on the racetrack, the Vette regularly began beating exotic European sports-racing cars.
Road & Track tested a 1957 fuel-injected Vette and found it accelerated from 0-60 m.p.h. in 5.7 seconds and reached 100 m.p.h. in 16.8.
The car is incredibly fast, even by today's standards. What most impressed me about Luther's Chevrolet Corvette were its smooth-shifting four-speed manual transmission and seemingly effortless acceleration.
Luther's Chevrolet Corvette is pretty, but it's also tough.
"I've towed trailers with the car, and even used its engine in a Chevy station wagon for several years when I couldn't afford to drive two autos," he said. "The car has 150,000 miles on it." And, he said, "They've all been fun."
Chicago Sun-Times
May 31, 1986
Author: Dan Jedlicka
1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray
Humble but savvy Chevy blew the lid off the auto world by coming up with the first exotic, reliable, mass-production performance car for the average person. The Sting Ray, which cost about $4,000, had great ride and handling, and could suck the headlights out of the race-bred Jaguar XK-E, not to mention Ferraris and Aston Martins that cost three times its price.
It was almost mechanically indestructible, and could be serviced at the Chevy dealer down the block or at corner gas stations. Any kid with a steady job could buy one, which can't be said for today's Corvette.
The Sting Ray had styling that couldn't be better, a fuel-injected, 360-horsepower V-8 that would whisk it to 60 in 5.6 seconds, no-rust fiberglass body and an all-independent suspension that made a Ferrari suspension look old-fashioned.
Things only got better in the next few years, with the addition of items such as four-wheel disc brakes, and the price never got out of line during the Sting Ray model's 1963-67 run.