"General Motors hired designer Harley Earl in 1927. Earl loved sports cars, and GIs returning after serving in Europe during World War II were bringing home MGs, Jaguars, Alfa Romeos and the like. Even the small independent manufacturers, Nash Motors, began selling a two-seat sports car in 1951. Earl convinced GM that they also needed to build a two-seat sports car and, together with his Special Projects crew, Earl began working on the new car later that year which was code named 'Opel'. The result was the 1953 Corvette, unveiled to the public at that year's Motorama Car Show. Taking its name from the Corvette, a small, manoeuvrable fighting frigate, the first Corvettes were virtually hand built in Flint, Michigan in Chevrolet's Customer Delivery Centre. The outer body was made out of a revolutionary new composite material called fibreglass, selected in part because of limiting steel quotas left over from the Korean War. Underneath that radical new body were standard Chevrolet components, including the 'Blue Flame' inline six-cylinder truck engine, two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission and drum brakes from Chevrolet's regular car line. The addition of a V8 engine mated to a three speed manual transmission was probably the single most important in the car's history, and helped turn the Corvette from a two-seat curiosity into a genuine performer.
This delightfully handsome Corvette C1 was recently brought into the UK and has since been MoT’d and registered with the DVLA; a V5C registration document is supplied with the car. Clearly this has been a very well cared for Corvette as she is in such good order throughout. The yellow coachwork is of a good quality and there is no sign of any corrosion. Mechanically she starts ‘on the button’ and sounds fantastic. With summer just around the corner what better way to cruise around."