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      101 Legendary magazine road tester Tom McCahill tested a 1954 model in the May 1954 issue of Mechanix Illustrated and squashed the myth that 6-cylinder Corvettes were slowpokes in their day. He said the 1954 Corvette could “whip up to 60 mph in 11.2 seconds, which is fast enough to embarrass a 1954 Cadillac by several lengths.”

      102 Every mass-produced automobile model on the face of the planet was first built in small quantities as assembly line workers learned assembly details in slow motion. Typically, the first few dozen to 100 units of any new model fall into this “pilot car” category. However, in the case of the 1953 Corvette, because General Motors was working with an unfamiliar medium, fiberglass, the process was magnified. Every one of the 300 Corvette roadsters built in 1953 at the Van Slyke Avenue plant in Flint, Michigan, was hand assembled, and it can be said that no two were strictly identical. By contrast, the 1954 Corvette assembly plant in St. Louis benefitted from the many lessons gleaned during the six-month-long pilot run. The same 300 cars that took almost six months to assemble in Flint could be completed in St. Louis in 10 days!

      103 In an early 1955 issue of Motor Life, writer Ken Fermoyl wrote of the new 265 V-8 1955 Corvette, “The engine fits so nicely, in fact, that one suspects that the possibility of using a V-8 was considered when the Corvette was designed.” Was a V-8 even available in late 1952 when the Corvette concept was taking shape? Yes. When Ed Cole became chief engineer at Chevrolet in 1952, he scuttled a nearly finalized V-8 design, complete with running prototypes. Details are scarce, but the 231-ci V-8 likely had roots in the 1949 Caddy and Olds V-8s and was thus rather heavy for its displacement. The small-block 265-cube “mouse” V-8 that arrived in 1955 was likely a clean-slate restart with few links to the stillborn pre-Cole V-8 design.

      104 Only a decade after the last of 3,172 hostile German V-2 rockets landed during World War II, Chevrolet magazine ads proclaimed the 1955 265-cube small-block as the “V-8 that goes like a V-2.” Making reference to the terrifying German A-4 “vengeance weapon” (the root of its V-2 name in popular culture) likely touched a few raw nerves among military veterans, and Europeans, who’d have preferred to forget about them.

      105 Although not as highly guarded as the Coca-Cola soda formula or Kentucky Fried Chicken’s seasoning recipe, Corvette body supplier MFG perfected the ideal ingredients for its nonsteel panels: 30-percent glass fiber, 29-percent aluminum silicate filler, and 41-percent isophthalic resin. Each 340-pound 1953–1955 body shell contained 136 pounds of fiberglass, 153 pounds of resin, and 51 pounds of filler.

      106 After selling every single 1953 Corvette and sensing deep consumer demand, Chevrolet increased production twelvefold in 1954, to a total of 3,640 units. Unfortunately, a soft economy soured the plan, and by the planned start of the 1955 production cycle, 1,100 unsold 1954s remained on dealer lots. To avoid a worsening glut, Chevrolet trimmed the 1955 Corvette output to a mere 700 cars. Luckily, dealers were able to clear unsold inventory in time for the arrival of the totally restyled 1956 model. It cannot be overstated: Corvette came within inches of being discontinued in 1955.

      107 Corvettes and engine swappers have always gone hand in hand, usually with a crashed (or stolen) Corvette donating its 327 or 427 to some non-Corvette recipient in the name of quicker quarter-mile performance. But for many 1953–1954 6-cylinder models, swapping went the other way around. One of the earliest documented V-8 swaps was chronicled in the August 1953 issue of Motor Trend, where the 322 “nail head” and Dynaflow automatic from a Buick Century found a new home in a fresh 1953 Corvette. Motor Trend staffer Walt Woron reported, “From a standing start using Drive, I got to 60 mph in 10 seconds (versus 11.5 for the standard Corvette); using Low, then shifting into Drive at a relatively low 4,000 rpm, I chopped this time to 8 seconds.” Curb weight grew from 2,940 to 3,100 pounds.

      108 The same August 1953 issue of Motor Trend found Woron at the wheel of another V-8 Corvette, this one directly from Chevrolet. “The first difference I felt between the Corvette 6 and the V-8 was in the idle. The V-8 sounds more potent, somewhat like a race engine with its tough idle and exhaust tone like that from a boat. The first time I took off from a light was when I noticed a distinct difference.” The automatic test car ran 0-60–mph in 9.0 seconds and 0-80–mph in 15.8 seconds (2.6 and 4.4 seconds quicker than a typical 6).

      109 Although it was listed as an option, a radio was built into all 300 1953 Corvettes. The RPO code 102A signal-seeking radio added $145.15 to the total price and $43,545 to Chevrolet’s till for that model year.

      110 It happened again in 1954, with the RPO 102A signal-seeking radio installed in every Corvette and still priced at $145.15. But with 3,640 cars built in this second year of production, Chevrolet’s bottom line swelled by $528,346!

      111 And finally, in 1955, the RPO 102A signal-seeking radio remained a $145.15 “mandatory option.” With uncertain clouds looming overhead, Chevrolet only built 700 cars, with radio-equipment sales adding $101,605 to the bottom line. The radio’s optional status was finally realized in 1956, when 750 of the 3,467 new C2 Corvettes were built without a radio. Interestingly, that same year Chevrolet increased the price of the signal-seeking AM radio to $198.90, a hefty $53.75 jump.

      112 Heaters followed a similar pattern, listed as an option with no choice to exclude them. Retail priced at $91.40, heaters brought in an extra $27,420 in 1953 (300 cars built), $332,696 in 1954 (3,640 cars built), and $63,980 in 1955 (700 cars built). In total, 1953–1955 heater sales added $424,096 to corporate coffers. Radio sales for the same period totaled $673,496.

      113 “Bill Mitchell, director of GM styling, likes to point out that engineers have really bent over backward to help the stylist. The new V-8 engines allow lower,

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