National Corvette Day: Celebrating more than six decades of speed

DETROIT - On January 17th, 1953, Chevrolet revealed the first “Corvette dream car” at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel. The show car was named after a highly maneuverable Navy escort ship, and was also known as the EX-122.

Five months later, on June 30th, 1953, the very first production Corvette came off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. 

Production on that first run would be capped at 300 units, all in the now-iconic Polo White/Sportsman Red interior/exterior color scheme. The only options were a heater and an AM radio.

The first generation of Corvette was produced from 1953 until 1962, when it was replaced by the legendary “Sting Ray” Corvette. Since then, there have been five more generations of Corvette, including today’s seventh-generation “C7,” which was named Automobile Magazine’s 2014 “Automobile of the Year.”

In the 1970s, NASA astronauts including Alan Shepard, the first American in space, were famously supplied with a new Corvette every year… bought with just 3,000 miles on them at a “used” price.

And in 2008, in honor of its 55th birthday, the U.S. House formally declared June 30th “National Corvette Day,” a fitting way to celebrate the car that has been called “America’s Greatest Sports Car.”