Ken
Gone but not forgotten
Corvette anomaly worth a lot of money now
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]May 16, 2004
BY DAN JEDLICKA AUTO REPORTER
The Chevrolet Corvette was introduced in 1953 but didn't make a profit until 1958, when Chevy gave the car the same glitzy styling that its conventional cars received.
The 1953-55 Corvette looked futuristic, and the 1956-57 model was one of the best-looking sports cars ever built. The 1958 Corvette had the misfortune to appear in what many consider Detroit's worst design year of the 1950s. It consequently got cluttered styling that led many Corvette fans to cover their eyes.
The revamped 1958 'Vette had the same basic shape as the 1956-57 model, but got four headlights -- all the rage that year -- no less than 18 fake hood louvers, phony air scoops and lots of chrome, including odd-looking twin chrome strips on the trunk lid. About the only thing the car escaped was tailfins.
The 1958 Corvette also was bigger and heavier -- almost a foot longer, several inches wider and 200 pounds heavier. That ignored the conventional rules for sports cars, which were supposed to be light and trim.
Yet, if you overlooked the styling, the 1958 Corvette was the strongest, fastest Corvette ever. It also was the first one with a good instrument panel and decent bumpers.
Five 283-cubic-inch V-8 engines were offered, including a 230-horsepower version with a single four-barrel carburetor and a fuel-injected version with 290 horsepower.
The new model's base price was a reasonable $3,591, or only $415 more than the 1957 model. Carried over were bargain-priced high-performance options, including a four-speed manual gearbox, heavy-duty brakes and suspension and the fuel-injected V-8.
General Motors had considered dropping the Corvette after 1955, when only 674 were sold. But the much-improved 1956 model found 3,467 buyers. Besides, GM didn't want Ford's successful new two-seat Thunderbird to beat the Corvette, so it allowed work to begin on the 1958 model. (The "lead time'' in the industry then was approximately two years.)
GM had built the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket concept car for auto shows, and Corvette stylists had planned to use some of its radical features for the 1958 Corvette. But problems with a new Chevrolet truck line and the all-new 1958 Chevy conventional auto line drew engineers from the Corvette project.
That killed plans to give the fiberglass-body Corvette aluminum body construction and a unitized chassis for more rigidity to eliminate the typical Corvette fiberglass body rattles that continued for years.
The 1958 Corvette thus had to make do with just a facelift, and it wasn't a very pretty one. Chevy thought the 'Vette needed more glitter to give it wider appeal, which was then considered to be necessary to increase car sales.
Garish features included the twin chrome strips on the trunk lid. They'd already been used for a customized 1957 Corvette built for Prince Bertil of Sweden, so it seemed OK to use them for the 1958 production Corvette.
Chevrolet management somehow thought a lean, clean and racy Corvette such as the 1956 and near-identical 1957 model just wouldn't work, although sales of the 1957 'Vette had jumped to 6,339 cars. So, as auto writer Karl Ludvigsen wrote: "If the objective was, as one designer said at the time, to make the Corvette look like a [glitzy] Cadillac, that aim was certainly achieved.'' At the time, GM was trying to make all its cars look like the Cadillac, which was considered America's top car.
Road & Track magazine described the 1958 Corvette as "the subject of sundry improvements, including the corrosive influence of the 'stylists.'''
The new Corvette still was a hot performer. Sports Cars Illustrated magazine said: "We were able, in a very short time, to discover how the 1958 Corvette behaves in nearly every conceivable road situation. It may be summed up as 'very well indeed.'''
With high-performance options, the new Corvette performed as well as expensive European sports cars from Jaguar and Porsche. Even an exotic such as a Ferrari was little, if any, better. The Corvette won plenty of races on tracks against stiff competition, but none of the victories were mentioned in Corvette advertising because of an "official'' racing ban in the American car industry.
The 1958 Corvette was a lot more comfortable than previous Corvettes and thus had wider appeal, drawing a record 9,168 buyers and turning a profit for the first time. The profit was small, but the 'Vette was one of few American cars to show higher sales in the recession-wracked 1958 model year.
To many, the styling changes and additional bulk seemed appropriate at the time. Most buyers weren't interested in the highest-performance versions of the Corvette, which could be ordered with a power top and automatic transmission. Nearly half of 1958 Corvette buyers opted for the base 230-horsepower V-8, which made the 'Vette plenty fast for most people.
Chevy listened to critics and cleaned up the styling of the little-changed 1959 Corvette; the hood louvers and trunk lid chrome strips were removed, and the interior vinyl even looked better. Sales climbed to 9,670 cars and the Corvette made even more money.
The 1958 Corvette remains a love-it-or-hate-it car, although this model's uniqueness has added to its value in recent years. For instance, a base 1958 Corvette is valued at $57,350 in top shape, while a base 1959 is worth $55,300, according to the Collectible Vehicle Value Guide. Who could have guessed that items such as phony louvers and needless chrome strips would be worth a few thousand extra bucks?
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[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]May 16, 2004
BY DAN JEDLICKA AUTO REPORTER
The Chevrolet Corvette was introduced in 1953 but didn't make a profit until 1958, when Chevy gave the car the same glitzy styling that its conventional cars received.
The 1953-55 Corvette looked futuristic, and the 1956-57 model was one of the best-looking sports cars ever built. The 1958 Corvette had the misfortune to appear in what many consider Detroit's worst design year of the 1950s. It consequently got cluttered styling that led many Corvette fans to cover their eyes.
The revamped 1958 'Vette had the same basic shape as the 1956-57 model, but got four headlights -- all the rage that year -- no less than 18 fake hood louvers, phony air scoops and lots of chrome, including odd-looking twin chrome strips on the trunk lid. About the only thing the car escaped was tailfins.
The 1958 Corvette also was bigger and heavier -- almost a foot longer, several inches wider and 200 pounds heavier. That ignored the conventional rules for sports cars, which were supposed to be light and trim.
Yet, if you overlooked the styling, the 1958 Corvette was the strongest, fastest Corvette ever. It also was the first one with a good instrument panel and decent bumpers.
Five 283-cubic-inch V-8 engines were offered, including a 230-horsepower version with a single four-barrel carburetor and a fuel-injected version with 290 horsepower.
The new model's base price was a reasonable $3,591, or only $415 more than the 1957 model. Carried over were bargain-priced high-performance options, including a four-speed manual gearbox, heavy-duty brakes and suspension and the fuel-injected V-8.
General Motors had considered dropping the Corvette after 1955, when only 674 were sold. But the much-improved 1956 model found 3,467 buyers. Besides, GM didn't want Ford's successful new two-seat Thunderbird to beat the Corvette, so it allowed work to begin on the 1958 model. (The "lead time'' in the industry then was approximately two years.)
GM had built the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket concept car for auto shows, and Corvette stylists had planned to use some of its radical features for the 1958 Corvette. But problems with a new Chevrolet truck line and the all-new 1958 Chevy conventional auto line drew engineers from the Corvette project.
That killed plans to give the fiberglass-body Corvette aluminum body construction and a unitized chassis for more rigidity to eliminate the typical Corvette fiberglass body rattles that continued for years.
The 1958 Corvette thus had to make do with just a facelift, and it wasn't a very pretty one. Chevy thought the 'Vette needed more glitter to give it wider appeal, which was then considered to be necessary to increase car sales.
Garish features included the twin chrome strips on the trunk lid. They'd already been used for a customized 1957 Corvette built for Prince Bertil of Sweden, so it seemed OK to use them for the 1958 production Corvette.
Chevrolet management somehow thought a lean, clean and racy Corvette such as the 1956 and near-identical 1957 model just wouldn't work, although sales of the 1957 'Vette had jumped to 6,339 cars. So, as auto writer Karl Ludvigsen wrote: "If the objective was, as one designer said at the time, to make the Corvette look like a [glitzy] Cadillac, that aim was certainly achieved.'' At the time, GM was trying to make all its cars look like the Cadillac, which was considered America's top car.
Road & Track magazine described the 1958 Corvette as "the subject of sundry improvements, including the corrosive influence of the 'stylists.'''
The new Corvette still was a hot performer. Sports Cars Illustrated magazine said: "We were able, in a very short time, to discover how the 1958 Corvette behaves in nearly every conceivable road situation. It may be summed up as 'very well indeed.'''
With high-performance options, the new Corvette performed as well as expensive European sports cars from Jaguar and Porsche. Even an exotic such as a Ferrari was little, if any, better. The Corvette won plenty of races on tracks against stiff competition, but none of the victories were mentioned in Corvette advertising because of an "official'' racing ban in the American car industry.
The 1958 Corvette was a lot more comfortable than previous Corvettes and thus had wider appeal, drawing a record 9,168 buyers and turning a profit for the first time. The profit was small, but the 'Vette was one of few American cars to show higher sales in the recession-wracked 1958 model year.
To many, the styling changes and additional bulk seemed appropriate at the time. Most buyers weren't interested in the highest-performance versions of the Corvette, which could be ordered with a power top and automatic transmission. Nearly half of 1958 Corvette buyers opted for the base 230-horsepower V-8, which made the 'Vette plenty fast for most people.
Chevy listened to critics and cleaned up the styling of the little-changed 1959 Corvette; the hood louvers and trunk lid chrome strips were removed, and the interior vinyl even looked better. Sales climbed to 9,670 cars and the Corvette made even more money.
The 1958 Corvette remains a love-it-or-hate-it car, although this model's uniqueness has added to its value in recent years. For instance, a base 1958 Corvette is valued at $57,350 in top shape, while a base 1959 is worth $55,300, according to the Collectible Vehicle Value Guide. Who could have guessed that items such as phony louvers and needless chrome strips would be worth a few thousand extra bucks?
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