History of the Chevrolet Corvette

The Corvette truly is an American icon. While that’s often used almost as a cliche or to keep the car from being compared to foreign supercar offerings from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini, when it comes to domestic sports cars, the Corvette has only ever really had one challenger – Dodge’s Viper – and that one seems to come and go, sneaking in a jab at the ‘Vette then disappearing from the market again for a few years.

In production continuously since 1953, the Corvette has become one of the most respected badges in the sports car arena, although in the beginning, that certainly wasn’t the case. Originally offered with a V6 that made a paltry 150 horsepower, the car was qualified as a sports car only due to it’s design and layout and not on actual sportiness. However, seeing the potential to grab a spot in the market, GM began boosting the car’s output and refining the design every few years to keep it fresh, and so began the evolution that brought us to the current pinnacle of American sports car engineering, the C7.

As mentioned in this ten minute rundown of the car’s history from Dount Garage, it was designer Zora Arkus-Duntov who came on board to push the car to a higher level of performance, quality and design that would earn him the title of Father of the Corvette.

Although he pushed for a mid-engine Corvette for years, Dutov would never see his vision for the ultimate version of the car realized, although there have been many rumors and even some spy shots of a mid-engined Corvette that have fans of the car abuzz with hopes the new layout will finally come to life.

This is a great walk through the car’s existence, and while there are some points left out, it’s hard to cram 65 years of lineage into a 10 minute video, so we think Donut Garage killed it, as usual!