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Corvette Buyer Guides for Corvette C1-C4 Generations

If you want to buy a Corvette of this era then this book is for you.There is so much information that will help you decide which model to buy. Each chapter covers each year model in great detail.This book is your guide to buying the Corvette model that suits you.The color photographs do this book justice and represent each model.

Corvette C1-C4 History

Most of the lineage of the CorvetteC1-C4 history evolved around Harley Earl. He is often referred to be the Father of the Corvette. General Motors Hired him in 1927 and in 1953 along with his Special Projects crew built the first car for the Motorama car show. GM was seriously considering shelving the project, leaving the Corvette to be little more than a bump in automotive history, and would have done so if not for two important events. The first was the introduction in the 1955 model year Chevrolet's first V8 engine since 1919 (a 265 CID [4.3L]), and the second was the influence of a Soviet immigrant in GM's engineering department, Zora Arkus-Duntov. Arkus-Duntov took the new V8 and backed it with a three-speed manual transmission. That modification, probably the single most important in the car's history, helped turn the Corvette into a genuine performer. It also earned Arkus-Duntov the rather inaccurate nickname "Father of the Corvette." Another key factor in the Corvette's survival was Ford's introduction, in 1955, of the two-seat Thunderbird.

The Name Corvette?

Where did the name "Corvette" come from? Originally it was code named "Opel." Corvette takes its name from a small, maneuverable fighting frigate or small ship. The credit for the naming goes to Myron Scott.

CorvetteC1-C4 Why Fiberglass?

The body was made out of then-revolutionary fiberglass, selected in part because of steel quotas left over from World War II. This would be the equivalent of today's Carbon fiber and Kevlar composite technology! The Corvette C1-C4 still used fiberglass along with limited areas in the C5, and C6.

The Logo for CorvetteC1-C4

C1 Corvette Emblem

Pre production Corvette emblem

The original concept for the Corvette emblem incorporated an American flag into the design, but was changed well before production since associating the flag with a product was frowned upon. The fleur-de-lis (flower of the lily) is used in the Corvette symbol still to this day. Chevrolet is a French name and the fleur-de-lis is a French symbol meaning peace and purity. General motors searched the Louis Chevrolet family history in an attempt to discover a crest or some type of heraldry that they could utilize. They came up short on finding anything useful. They decided to use the fleur-de-lis along with the famous blue Chevrolet bow tie on a new flag which replaced the American flag on the Corvette.

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