Game Changer: Chevrolet Corvette

Before the 1950s, America wasn’t renowned as a country where sports cars were built. Certainly not any that were going to be sold through the Chevrolet outlet down the street.

Traditional sports cars came from England, from companies like MG, Jaguar and Austin Healey, and later from Porsche in Germany. General Motors wanted a slice of that market.

Its first offering appeared in 1953 and was called the Corvette. It was an attractive fibreglass-bodied two-seater, priced to compete with the imports but unlikely to make an impression.

Beneath the sleek body was Chevrolet’s lumbering ‘stove-bolt’ six-cylinder engine which delivered barely half the power of Jaguar’s 3.4-litre twin-cam engine. Worse still, it drove through a two-speed automatic transmission, not a four-speed manual.

Clearly, a car of this kind needed V8 performance and in 1955 that happened. With 4.6 litres and accompanied by manual transmission, the future of Chevrolet’s revitalised Corvette was assured.

US car-makers would normally restyle their models every two years, however, Chevrolet decreed that its Corvette C1 shape would last with minimal alteration from 1956 until 1962. Engine capacity and output did increase and by 1963 when a radically restyled C2 Sting Ray version arrived, the base engine had expanded to 5.3 litres and was developing 224kW.

Low and sleek with hidden headlights and knife-edge lines replacing curves, the new Corvette was exactly the car needed to combat Jaguar’s stunning E-Type. It was able to overwhelm the British car in performance as well, when optioned with a brutish 427 cubic-inch (7.0-litre) engine with 338kW.

A complete restyle for 1968 revealed the shape that would characterise Corvettes into the 1980s. C3 versions were longer, with more interior space and a range of engines, including an even more powerful version of the 427.

By 1973, as tougher safety and environmental rules began to bite, the high-performance, big-block engines were withdrawn. Emission controls would also drain power from those that remained but people the world over still bought and admired the Corvette.

During 1976 a record 46,000 Corvettes were sold. By that time, soft-top versions had disappeared and been replaced by a ‘T Top’ with lift-out panels and an integrated rollbar.

No Corvettes were built for 1983 as the factory geared up for a completely new car. The C4 design was broader and more angular than previous versions, with a high-performance 5.7-litre engine and seven-speed transmission.

Two years later a convertible rejoined the Corvette range and for 1988, with help from Formula 1 constructor Lotus, the suspension was completely revamped.

Major change came again in 1997 with the release of Chevrolet’s fifth-generation Corvette. The new C5 was longer and wider than the C4 but still powered by Chevrolet’s near-immortal 5.7-litre engine. Power, without a turbocharger, was 257kW and would climb past 300kW in Z06 form.

Since 2004, three more versions of the Corvette have been introduced and 2005 saw the return of a 7.0-litre engine. This time it came not as a massive cast-iron lump but a cleverly enlarged variation of the aluminium small-block. Producing 377kW, it was same basic engine as the one installed by HSV in its short-lived W427.

During 2019, Chevrolet unveiled its all-new C8 Corvette: the most radical design in the model’s 67-year history. The shape was completely different from anything seen before, with the convertible engineered to accept a retractable hard-top.

A global model officially sold in Australia from 2020, the C8 was the first mid-engined Corvette and is available in naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre Stingray coupe and convertible forms, as well as 500kW 5.5-litre DOHC V8-powered Z06 and, soon, E-Ray hybrid and top-shelf ZR1 forms.

More than 70 years after the original entered production on June 30, 1953, the Corvette nameplate is stronger than ever and even looks set to form a GM sub-brand that may include a sedan and SUV.

Chevrolet Corvette timeline:
C1 – 1953-1962
C2 – 1963-1967
C3 – 1968-1982
C4 – 1984-1996
C5 – 1997-2004
C6 – 2005-2013
C7 – 2014-2019
C8 – 2020-present