1953 Corvette Road Test - Remembering Motor Trend's First

Welcome to another special eight-page section of history, lore, and trivia from the archives of Motor Trend magazine. This month, we kick off our anniversary package with a reprise of MT's first-ever test of a '53 Chevrolet Corvette. We'll also look back at a number of significant industry events of '65, examine the historical happenings covered in February issues of the past five decades, and showcase some great car ads from the height of the tailfin era, 1959. As far as this month's trivia questions: Do you recall what Chevrolet concept vehicle ultimately gave rise to the '68 Corvette? Or the name of the other long, tall Texan-besides Carroll Shelby-who created his own successful racing cars? Or what was unique about the engine in Ford's original Mustang I show car? You'll find the answers to those questions, and lots more, here.

Excerpts From Our Original Corvette Test-Nov. '53.

Having driven sports cars that could meet the purist's conception of a sports car without batting a headlight, and having looked at the Chevrolet Corvette as one that would be blinking all over the place, I've been pleasantly surprised. The Corvette not only has "go" from a traffic light, punch at high speeds, an uncanny ability to stay flat through sharp turns and a solid ride, but has eye-appeal as well.

Even though the car has a Powerglide, Chevrolet was clever enough to put the selector lever of this automatic transmission next to the driveshaft tunnel. This not only gives you the impression of a standard gear box, but you will find you can get plenty of performance out of it in combination with the 235-cubic-inch, 150-horsepower engine.

Probably one of the biggest surprises I got with the car was when I took it through some sharp corners at fairly good speeds. I'd heard that Chevrolet had designed the suspension so that it would stay flat and stick in corners, but I took it with several grains of salt. I needn't have eaten all that salt. It sticks better than some foreign sports cars I've driven.-Walt Woron, Editor

This Month In Motor Trend History:Automotive History And Trivia Of The Past 50 Years

February TriviaFeb. 3, 1990: General Motors unveils its "Impact" electric car, predecessor to the EV-1.

Feb. 6, 1954: First Mercedes-Benz models to be introduced in the U.S. are the 300SL "gullwing" coupe and the 190SL roadster.

Feb. 12, 1957: A tragic fire at Jaguar's Brown's Lane factory destroys hundreds of cars including rare D-types.

Feb. 15, 1975: The 500,000th Corvette comes off the line matching the white paint with red interiors of the original '53 models.

Feb. 16, 1962: A Carroll Shelby-modified A.C. Ace to is shipped to Dean Moon's shop where a Ford 260-cu.in. V-8 is installed. And so, the first Shelby Cobra is born.

Feb. 17, 1972: The 15,007,034th VW Beetle is produced, beating Ford Model T record, set 45 years earlier during its 18-year run.

Feb. 23, 1964: Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 driving a Plymouth with a new (later banned) "Hemispherical Combustion Chamber Maximum Performance Engine" of Chrysler's design.

Feb. 23, 1966: Only year and a half after its introduction, the 1 millionth Ford Mustang is produced.

1965The Year of the Performance Revolution(A) MT strapped its famous fifth wheel to a Ford-powered Sunbeam Tiger for the February issue and got 0-60 in 8.9 seconds-none too shabby for a 160-horse, 260-cubic-inch V-8. (B) Three Deuces was a good hand, under the hood of this special-edition, 389-cubic-inch Pontiac GeeTO Tiger. (C) Chevrolet's Mako Shark was one of the most significant concept cars of the '60s, debuting the Coke-bottle shape that would become the '68 Corvette. (D) "More Than a Magazine" then and now. This ever-so-pensive reader was Editor and Publisher Charles E. Nerpel. (E) Although Pontiac, Ford, and Chevy seemed to be making the biggest splashes in '65, you couldn't ignore the Red Sea-parting powers of Chrysler's "Elephant Motor," the thundering 425-horse 426 Hemi, as in this Coronet demure hardtop "sleeper." (F) "Holy Shelby, Batman." We put the GT 350 through its paces and through the air in the process. (G) A main reason Pontiac won MT's Car of the Year Award was the GTO. In a joint promotional effort, Pontiac, Hurst Corporation, and Motor Trend teamed to employ this '65 GTO convertible as the pace car for the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside International Raceway. Dan Gurney won the event, as he did in 1963, 1964, and would again in 1966.

Classic ADS Classic ADS Classic ADSTailfinsThe '50s was a period of unprecedented change in America. Nowhere was this more clearly evidenced than in the realm of automotive styling. As we moved into the "space age" and science fiction gave way to science fact, cars took on a more futuristic appearance-and the fin was in, big time. The ultimate embodiment of this winged wonder occurred in '59. Cadillac laid legitimate claim to the most "fintastic" offering of the year, but the "new slant on driving" provided by the '59 Chevrolet and the "splendidly right design for this day and age" of its equally over-the-top Buick counterpart also pressed the issue hard. Over at Chrysler Corporation, the "forward look" pioneered by legendary design ace Virgil Exner was definitively manifested in the last Plymouth Sport Fury model of the decade. All of them were real head-turners, and remain so today.