General Motors hired designer Harley Earl in 1927. Earl loved sports cars, and GIs returning after serving overseas in the years following World War II were bringing home MGs, Jaguars, Alfa Romeos, and the like.[2] In 1951, Nash Motors began selling an expensive two-seat sports car, the Nash-Healey, that was made in partnership with the Italian designer Pinin Farina and British auto engineer Donald Healey,[3] but there were few moderate-priced models.[4] Earl convinced GM that they also needed to build a two-seat sports car, and with his Special Projects crew began working on the new car later that year, which was code named "Project Opel."[4] The result was the 1953 Corvette, unveiled to the public at that years Motorama car show. 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.
Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after the corvette, a small, maneuverable fighting frigate.[5] The first Corvettes were virtually hand-built in Flint, Michigan in Chevrolets Customer Delivery Center, now an academic building at Kettering University. The outer body was made out of then-revolutionary fiberglass, selected in part because of steel quotas left over from the war. Underneath the new body material were standard Chevrolet components, including the "Blue Flame" inline six-cylinder truck engine, two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission, and drum brakes from Chevrolets regular car line. Though the engines output was increased somewhat, thanks to a triple-carburetor intake exclusive to the Corvette, performance of the car was decidedly "lackluster".[6] Compared to the British and Italian sports cars of the day, the Corvette was underpowered, required a great deal of effort as well as clear roadway to bring to a stop, and even lacked a "proper" manual transmission. A Paxton centrifugal supercharger became available in 1954 as a dealer-installed option, greatly improving the Corvettes straight-line performance,[7] but sales continued to decline.
The Chevrolet division was GMs entry-level marque.[8] GM was seriously considering shelving the project,[9] leaving the Corvette to be little more than a footnote in automotive history, and would have done so if not for two important events. The first was the introduction in 1955 of Chevrolets first V8 engine since 1919, and the second was the influence of a Soviet émigré in GMs engineering department, Zora Arkus-Duntov. The new 265 cu in (4.3 L) V8 became available with a three-speed manual transmission late in the model year turning the "rather anemic Corvette into a credible if not outstanding performer".[6] Although not part of the original project, Arkus-Duntov was the architect of the cars performance image and in 1956 he became the director of high-performance vehicle design and development for Chevrolet helping him earn the nickname "Father of the Corvette."[10]
Another key factor in the Corvettes survival was Fords introduction, in 1955, of the two-seat Thunderbird,[11] which was billed as a "personal luxury car", not a sports car. Even so, the Ford-Chevrolet rivalry in those days demanded that GM not appear to back down from the challenge. The "T-Bird" was changed to a four-seater in 1958.