Why GM Almost Killed The Corvette In 1954

By the end of 1954, Chevrolet had sold just 3,640 Corvettes, and GM was seriously considering killing America's first sports car after only two model years. Underneath its fiberglass body sat a warmed-over sedan six-cylinder engine, and rivals like the Jaguar XK120 exposed just how underpowered it really was. What saved the Corvette wasn't a sales miracle. It was a memo, written by a low-ranking engineer who wasn't even a GM employee when he first saw the car at Motorama. What Zora Arkus-Duntov wrote to Chevrolet's chief engineer, one week before the Ford Thunderbird hit dealer lots, may be the most important document in Corvette history. #ClassicCars #Corvette1953 #ChevroletHistory