Gone was the curvaceous, European-looking theme of the C1, with the ‘Vette’s body now boasting far more aggressive lines that look like the sleek shortfin mako shark. Like the upcoming production version, the vehicle was designed by Larry Shinoda, who drew inspiration from the 1959 XP-87 Stingray racer.
Under the supervision of Styling and Design head Bill Mitchell, the new Corvette’s design was ironed out as early as 1961 and, as they did in the past, the team created a show car that would help promote it. First shown to the public at the 1953 Motorama in New York City, the concept would become known as the Corvette and with a few minor changes, it entered production a few months later.Ĭontrary to popular belief, the C1 wasn’t the commercial success that GM had envisioned but it did pique the American buyer’s interest in a homebuilt sportscar, so the corporation poured resources into the development of a successor. To build hype around it, the corporation commissioned Earl and the Chevy team to build a show car which was codenamed EX-122. When GM decided to build a rival for the European sports cars that were flooding the North American market in the post-WWII years, the same Harley J.
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Earl, the drop-top beauty unveiled in 1940 previewed a series of novel features and design cues that influenced the division’s mass-produced models for over a decade. Dubbed Buick Y-Job and designed by the legendary Harley J.
Like the Corvette itself, the notion of a concept (or show) car was born in the U.S., under GM’s roof.
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