The First Corvette -- 1953 Corvette
Вставка
- Опубліковано 13 січ 2013
- Today marks the official announcement of the next generation of Corvette, the 7th generation of Vettes since America's sports car was first introduced in 1953.
What better time to take a look at what that ground breaking car looked like and the hopes and aspiration everyone had for the Corvette.
Who would have thought it would still be with us 60 years later? - Авто та транспорт
Lucky to have grown up during that time and there is no comparison to then and now. Please God help us.
Three great things were born in 1953: The Corvette, Playboy magazine, and me.
Hans delbruck53, also me August.
@@georgewielosik1567 You beat me by 3 months.
And my husband
Such great content even after several decades. People back then knew how to get your attention for the long term.
BEAUTIFUL THEN AND BEAUTIFUL NOW!!!
I am a true life long car nut, this film although one eyed is one of the best I have found on U tube, being Aussie we did not get some of your great cars of the 50s 60s I was born in 51 and liked US four wheeled art from a young age. This is specially great to see as my Dad had a 53 Chevy when I was very young, my sister & I saw a lot of country in that car even my Mother who was a nerves wreck liked it, she is 96 now but her favourite was a 1936 Oldsmobile that I never saw but there are photos
A friend of mine had a '54 Vette years ago, probably 1969 or '70 and offered it it for sale to me for $1000.00. I did not buy it. Another friend had a '58 Vette around the same time with no engine or trans but it did have a hardtop and some damage to the right rear quarter panel which he had repaired. It was red and his price was a whopping $75.00! I did not buy it.. In the early '70s I looked at several '66 or '67 427 powered Vettes priced at about $3000.00. I did not buy one. Another friend of mine bought a brand new '66 427 425 HP 4 speed, silver hardtop roadster. Man, I loved that car so much it makes me shiver to think of it now. I did finally buy a '77 Vette in the early '90s. It was a good car and got a lot of looks with it's Plum House Of Colors paint, but I am still kicking my my rear for not buying and keeping one of those early Vettes.
77's still aren't worth much
Wow this goes on forever before you see anything about the Corvette!
lol classy tho
I would use another word for this long opening
They wanted to build up the anticipation.
I was born in 1953...I owned at one time a 1953 BelAir Coupe with the reverse rear sail pilar...They show one in this film...The Corvette and the BelAir used the very same engine...Now known as The Blue Flame Six...I so miss that car...Thanks for this posting.
+WD40W Thanks for sharing. A great era for classic American cars.
no only the same drive train but the same frame , i don't see any mention in most of these videos about that, they shortened the 53 and 54 chevy passenger car frame to use for the chassis.
WD40W They had two different Sixes depending on whether the car had manual or automatic transmissions. The automatics has hydraulic valve lifters and the manuals had mechanical valve lifters and slightly less horse power. My folks owned a 1953 Two Ten two door sedan with manual transmission. When I got old enough to drive in 1964 I learned to drive in it.
i am wonder what a revers rear sail pilar is.
Dave Garroway , first host of the Today Show on NBC premiered in 1952 ,so this one year later a first class gentelman, not like Matt Lauer
Thank you, Edward, my comment above was a question whether it was Dave Garroway or Gary Moore. You cleared it up for me.
Steve Allen was the first host of the Tonight Show. I don't even know who hosts it nowadays 😕
But Dave Garroway was dull as dishwater.
@@glennso47 Jimmy Fallon.
Favorite Corvette: 1963
Split window🙂
This is the EX-122 prototype car, notice how the side chrome doesn't go all the way across the side of the car, and the spear points down instead of up? This is one of the first Corvettes ever built.
Thank you for the confirmation.
+Anthony Forti this is definitely the best corvette of all times, the second best model of corvette is c2 convertible I think
Yes, and it would have been under the Corvette script, not above it on the production car.
The 1953 Corvette body was crudely built mostly by hand. As you can see the doors do not line up correctly and budge out at the bottom. But this was the very first attempt to build a light fiberglass body that could be molded to a shape that no metal stamping die could reproduce. Corvette has thankfully come a long way and the quality of the build reflects final product.
far from the first attempt, a little auto history will show several people did a pretty good job with the glass cars before corvette and along the same time also. kaiser and muntz were just two that come to mind quick, some boat company built bodys for another company, and kurtis i believe did the muntz body for the madman, who also was responsible for the original tape player for cars, he made a 4 track player before the lear jet guy built the 8 track, i have one with several tapes sitting in my bedroom right now.
Origin of a Legend. C1-C8. Awesome cars!
thanks for sharing the video i enjoyed it and the other one about assembling the fiberglass body piece by piece
im a car nut and love restoring and racing my old chevies
Thank you for posting your archive. I am an unapologetic fanboy of the pre- "Y2K" GM cars. I'm gonna bet the Corvette in this film was a well-worn workhorse, driven hard and put away wet often...note the three puddles underneath the car at 9:32. Looks like radiator, oil filter, and rear main seal and/or transmission leaks. You can see them in the light at 9:36. All fixable of course.
Aaaak! Puddles in the light at 9:56, not 9:36.
This is the actual Motorama car., not a production car. Hand built in a hurry. That it leaks everywhere is kind of a surprise tho since it has a regular production motor.
Love my 66 convertible and all outher year’s
Great stuff :)
THE CHEVROLET CORVETTE TURNS 70 THIS YEAR!!! TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!
Can’t believe we went from this to a C8 ZR1
That Corvette looks so LOW !!! Glad the roads were smoother back in those days!
They still used the railroads to move the majority of the freight back then, not nearly the number of big trucks destroying the roads like we have now.
Oh crap! I just returned to being a young boy wanting something I know I can't have... (I'm 71)
I’m a senior citizen and I still can’t have one. But then I have never wanted a Corvette. I don't even want a Chevy nowadays. They are synonymous with junk.
I restore cars,Been fixing cars with father n uncle since i was 5.I allso worked @ a ford dearler from the age of 15 till i retired.
I'm sorry.
Fighting that steering at 10:15 : )
Good observation. I hadn't noticed because I was watching his smile and the scenery go by... Most cars of that era had "Worm and Roller" steering, not the more precise "Rack and Pinion", so lots of play on center. I suspect this car was very worn, and the steering box could probably have been adjusted for wear to reduce some of that looseness.
Most Americans like some play on center of steering... who wants to drive a car that darts off the road with the slightest twitch of the steering wheel hand? Ditto for the soft, floaty ride of older cars... who wants to be beat up by the end of long trip? '53 Corvettes were new when this was made in 1953, so I doubt the steering was worn out...
Thanks 8:12 for the Corvette!
I own one for 55yrs
at 6:33 looks just like in back to the future hill valley scene where biff is picking up his car from repair.
Not even remotely.
Hey, America. Remember that old, floor-mounted gear shift lever? He's outside and he want's back in.
Even back in the day you had to come from money to get a new car every two years👍😎🇨🇦
this is a 235 six cylinder stovelbolt
Kool vid
I've had a number of muscle, fast and sports cars over the last 50 years but never caught that Corvette 'itch", but the new C-8 has got me extremely interested despite some of the motor, and other, problems that have come up recently. When a car has been totally redesigned like the C-8 has been, problems are sure to come about but I'm confident Chevrolet will get them resolved and maybe I'll get one of those beasts!
I caught the Corvette fever when I was young I have a supercharged C7 Z51 with a manual transmission the C8 has gotten me kind of interested I would like to see it with a manual transmission I'm not in the market for a C8 right now I think they have some bugs to be dealt with first
Fast forward to 8:12 for the Corvette.
Happy 70th anniversary Chevrolet Corvette
WoW. It's got the identical tail light lay out of 1960 Imperial tail fin. Boy how did that happen. Magic of the Times.
you mean the other way around. this was a 1953 Corvette, so the Imperial tail lights was taken from the 53 Vette
I was noticing with the windscreen that low where I live you would be cleaning the bugs off your forehead👍😎🇨🇦
What did you do on the engine project? Were you an engineer?
No. They wouldn’t let me drive the choo choo train 🚂😭
I got a chance to ride in a 55 Corvette.
I'm 6'2" and the top bar of the windshield was right smack dab in the middle of my vision.
I don't think I'd be very comfortable with the top up.
No exterior door handles, and no roll up windows.
Under powered inline6, and only a powerglide.
Would I own one?
FRICK YEAH.
I always wondered How anybody bigger than 5.5 could see out the window, That is what I thought !!!
I would take one in a heart beat to🙂
Seats and/or floorpans were too high in the early ones, IMHO. Looks like they're in a booster seat. Love the styling of the '53, it's always been my favorite. Don't like the modern ones and I ovn a C4, can't stand the new 2021.
some cool vettes > 53 ...63... and the stealth 83 ha haaa chuckle ...thankz KR***
When General Motors was a great corporation. My have they fallen.
Had GM just did it right the first time with the corvair, Vega, citation, 350 diesel and so on. GM would still be that great superpower and perhaps the bankruptcy would've never happened. The mark of excellence used to mean something
160hp wow
160 HP from a straight six in the early 50's was respectable
I had a '60 'Vette. A rolling turd.
I wonder where this was filmed. Those enormous houses they were passing were right on the waterfront.
Probably Grosse Pointe.
The observatory looks like the one in Goldengate Park in San Fransisco
Would be stolen in LA few hours..
1953 vette with 150 hp
That thing steers like a 1998 Dodge Ram with 200,000 miles on it, doesn't track worth a shit.
With the story of dad and this is 53. He was born in 1900 to 1910.
No outside door handles.
It's tomorrow now.
The steering wheel is almost as large as the car!
The power steering was so overboosted. He is fighting the steering wheel. Lol
OMG 😱
And two years later Ford came up with what you really wanted , it was called a Thunderbird and invented the personal luxury car complete with V8 engine power windows an steering and brakes , and by 1958 a 4 passenger body and clobbered the Corvette in sales about 8 to 1 .
I worked on the fuel injected blure flame one.
No FI until 1957. No Blue Flame 6 got FI.
@@jhsfiftyonefifty4060 it long time agoas a
........ this car is much wider than the later stock 1953 Corvette.
I'm late to this video, but now automotive engineers have "jumped the shark" in my opinion.
Too much technology (gadgets) that aren't really needed, but add lots of $ to car prices. And usually can only be repaired by a dealer at huge prices.
I love Honda autos, but will not buy a new one or a late model.
My nephew's Honda had a bad starter switch. I last replaced a steering column switch a few years ago for about $75. The dash mounted switch on newer Hondas cost $1500. Does the same job, no real advantage, but 20 times more costly.
I'll keep my 2001 Miata - none of that nonsense.
Dave Garroway may have been classier than Matt Lauer, but he wasn't above dishing out a load of you know what in describing the first Corvette!
Internal door handles???
Obviously there is.
Notice the gaps in the drivers door alignment.
The video is good except for those fkng ads interrupt it.
Adblock, you old geezer
You had me until that big ass cast iron powerglide
Tucker made a better safer car and the big 3 took care of that
And now we let China do the wondering and dreaming!
I'm trying to remember the narrator's name, is it Gary Moore or Dave Garroway? It's been a very long time since I've seen either one of them.
Yes, that's him!!!
they talk down to us.
My friend once said, "Yeah, my moms car can go up to 200 mph" I replied " how much horse power" he said "41" I said "BRUH"
Well, a horse is capable of a max of 14.9 horsepower, and 14.9 times 41 is 610.9, so if that's what he meant, then it would make sense. But that's probably not how he was thinking
We all knew a kid like that!
Rather an oblique approach...after all, it's just a big plastic tub on wheels with a 1930s type engine and transmission!
Oh yah, and your alien plastic sleek computer today is sooo much better well designed. What the hell are you making fun of? Like today's some representation of design.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar It was good natured ribbing...I like C1s.
@@saxongreen78 I like people who don't think testing a vehicle 68 years after its debut, is a fair accurate comparison, after it's engines rotted through 1953 to now 2021. Unless you so called tested it in 1954-55-56-57-58-59-60 only, then I don't need, want, or care to think your intelligent enough to leave a crib to tell me what engine you think works better. I had a Corvette from 1953, and my neighbor across the ways did as well, It went up to 130 miles per hour, we would take the automobile out on the beach line, always empty, and drive it down blazing through. People could easily drive fast in the 1950's, we just didn't need to, because we don't want to die. Isn't that a funny thought, now your Tesla can go 300 apparently although I know their bluffing by at least 80 miles more, and it would turn the passengers into bloody strands by 90 miles per hour. We had trouble crushing both British and American sedans in the 1960's, they had strong hard frames, and a softer metal bending in the front and back of the car. Gave the machine a difficult attempt to smash them from either side, let alone smashing elevator style (down). Solid concrete filled roofing. I've seen a 90 mile per hour 1951 Oldsmobile crash....it wasn't even horrific, they would be safe in the passenger compartment it's just the force of still going 90, into your dashboard that killed the cat.
Stop believing what the internet forces down your gullible throat about what's safer and faster. Speed killed the curiosity of the cat, not the curiosity.
Starts @8:13
the first corvette was a SHIP and then they make a sports car out of boat fiberglass .. giggle ha haaa
A boat builder made the first fibreglas sports cars earlier using a Jeep frame...
BuzzLOLOL uh the corvette was a type of ship,,thats the corvette,,, now you know
Machine Gun Nest The first Saturn cars. Weren't they made of fiberglass or some sort of plastic?
@@glennso47 Yes, I have my second one. No noticable rust. Lol
That was a disappointment you wasted too much time on all that other trivial knowledge and told us almost nothing about the Corvette
Needs 30" wheels!
White, male society. Wow! We haven’t come that far. 😞
OMG,TOO MUCH PLAY IN THE STEERING WHEEL.
Slow down Bud your going to fast . Crash .
A plastic tub with a ridiculous engine and transmission. Guess ya gotta start somewhere.
It's not even plastic? What kind of half assed attempt at a weak observation was that. God I hope you hit a tree knowing someone that stupid exists named you.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar Sounds like you have a ridiculous engine and transmission, too.
@@northerniltree how is the engine ridiculous. Clearly you just don't like the 1950's, so your getting another one of your being a bitch boners so that you may ruin the day once again
Europeans have super car - better than the Chevy Corvette ..
A Polish engineer to the small Peugeot 207 interceded engine of the Lamborghini ..
seen on UA-cam :
Peugeot 207 swap v10
Peugeot 207/Lambo
oh yeah theres a household name
#1 The father of the corvette is Zora arkus duntov from Belgium.
#2 corvette beat ferraris often. look it up.
#3 LS swapping is what people do.
@@blarg539 harley earl is the father of the corvette according to the Corvette National Museum it was his idea🤷♂️
@@blarg539 LS's everywhere but the 327 was my favorite
53 corvette. The ugliest Vet ever made.
+Thomas L Not sure I'd agree it was ugly but it wasn't very sporty for a sports car.
those cars come alive visually when there moving...yess .. yes they are cool as ice
Wow...Ugliest? Talk about disrespect 👎
The 1953 Corvette body was crudely built mostly by hand. As you can see the doors do not line up correctly and budge out at the bottom. But this was the very first attempt to build a light fiberglass body that could be molded to a shape that no metal stamping die could reproduce. Corvette has thankfully come a long way and the quality of the build reflects final product.
The '63 and '53 are the best Corvettes.