The 1955 Corvette
The year was 1955. After 10 years, World War II was beginning to fade from America's psyche. Ernest Borgnine won the Oscar for Best Actor, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California and "Rock Around The Clock" was burning up malt shop jukeboxes across America. Even though Don Larsen pitched what would be the only perfect game in World Series history, his Yankees still lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. For the Corvette, 1955 started out looking bleak. Sales of the 1954 model had been way below expectations over 1,100 '54s were still sitting on dealer lots when the '55 was introduced, and Chevrolet strongly considered pulling the plug on their fiberglass sports car experiment. Fortunately, events inside and especially outside of Chevrolet resulted in the Corvette getting a reprieve. First, arch rival Ford released the 1955 Thunderbird. The Thunderbird was more a three quarter scale, two seat version of the big Ford than a real sports car, and it appealed to the buying public for just that reason. The Thunderbird had rollup windows; the Corvette did not. The Thunderbird offered power steering, power windows, power brakes and power seat; the Corvette did not. Compared to the comfortable Thunderbird, the Corvette seemed far more primitive.
Where the Corvette did compete against the Thunderbird was under the hood. The Thunderbird featured a 292 cubic inch engine with a top rating of 198 horsepower. For the first time, the Corvette could boast a V8, the amazing new small block displacing 265 cubic inches and rated at 195 horsepower. Unlike the Thunderbird's Y block 292, the Chevy 265 was a high revving, responsive engine that transformed the Corvette into an exciting driving machine. The 265 was backed by either a three speed manual transmission or the two speed Powerglide.
Buyers flocked to the new Thunderbird, and sales were good, tallying 16,155. Corvette sales were not nearly as satisfactory. Chevrolet dealers had to move the six cylinder powered '54s and they were deeply discounted, which cut into sales of the new V8 powered models. When the dust settled at the end of the model year, Chevrolet had sold exactly 700 1955 Corvettes. That would have sounded the death knell for the Corvette, however thanks to the Thunderbird and supporters of the car within Chevrolet, the car was given a reprieve. In retrospect that was a sound decision, because three years later the Thunderbird would leave the two seat market and move up to the new four passenger, personal luxury market. Engineering, styling and comfort refinements to the Corvette, beginning in 1956, transformed the car and sales slowly began to blossom. After a tremulous first three years, the Corvette would come of age, and its future would never be as precarious again.
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