Corvette: Fifty Years Book

The Corvette story began as the dream of a core group of enthusiasts within the halls of General Motors. The dream became a concept, the concept became a show car, and that show car became the Corvette, which became the preeminent American sports car.

Even from its inauspicious beginnings as a small two-seater powered by a humble six-cylinder engine mated to an unlikely two-speed automatic transmission, the performance potential of the Corvette was obvious. Through the dedicated perseverance of key figures like Zora Duntov, the Corvette would evolve in tithe ultimate performance machine of the muscle car era. Powered by ground-pounding big-block V-8 Engines, bone-stock Corvettes of the late 1960s and early 1970s could turn sub 14-second quarter-mile times (provided the owner knew which option boxes to check when ordering the car). The Corvette would continue to evolve into an ever more refined machine, but not at the expense of performance. Far all its polished perfection, today's Z06 version is still one of the most potent production cars on the planet.