looked at the Chevrolet Corvette … I've been pleasantly surprised,” wrote Motor Trend Edi- tor Walt Woron in the November 1953 issue. "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. Probably one of the biggest surprises I got with the car was when I took it through some sharp corners at fairly good speeds. It sticks better than some foreign sports cars I've driven.”
Despite the 20 percent price reduction for 1954, the Corvette nameplate still took a long time to get moving. While Chevrolet built just 3,947 six-cylinder Corvettes from 1953 to 1955, BMC would crank out an impressive 14,634 Austin- Healey 100-4 units between 1953 and 1956. The big sales numbers wouldn’t start for Corvette until 1956, when it got a new body design to match its recently added manual transmission and small-block V-8. And ultimately, of course, Corvette won the war, as some 1.5 million ’Vettes have now been built, with the seventh- generation model having debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, in January 2013.
Today, the 1953 Corvettes are prized among collectors, with values for good examples hitting $300,000 or higher and with an es- timated 200 of the 300 built accounted for. By contrast, depending upon condition, the similar-appearing 1954 model-year Corvette is worth one-fourth as much.
AN AUS T IN B Y CHANCE Though Donald Healey had prior car-build- ing experience, the new “100” model was his brightest star to date and would become the defining automobile (alongside the later six-cylinder 3000 model) of his tenure as a British automaker.
The Healey 100 debuted at the London International Motor Show at Earls Court in 1952, where BMC made a deal with Donald Healey right then and there to produce the car, significantly increasing the production capacity but requiring a name change from “Healey” to “Austin-Healey.” Still, with fault- less lines, strong performance and features like knockoff wire wheels and an adjustable “racing position” windscreen, it looked the business and could compete with distinction on street or track.
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