• Happy Birthday Corvette
• Space Artifacts Added at NCM
• Win a 2013 60th Anniversary Grand Sport
• Motorsports Park One Acre Club Packets Available
• Sale Ends July 8 on Flint Bricks - 3 for $25
• Drive Your Corvette to Work Friday!
• NCM Insurance Agency Wins Rookie of the Year Award
• NCM Marketing Earns Award

June 28, 1953 workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan, assembled the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American icon. The first completed production car rolled off the assembly line two days later, one of just 300 Corvettes made that year. The idea for the Corvette originated with General Motors' pioneering designer Harley J. Earl, who in 1951 began developing plans for a low-cost American sports car that could compete with Europe's MGs, Jaguars and Ferraris. The project was eventually code-named "Opel."

The first Corvette was hand-assembled and featured a Polo White exterior and red interior, two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission and was designed to be opened from the inside, lacking exterior door handles. The car carried an initial price tag of $3,490 and could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 11 or 12 seconds, then considered a fairly average speed.

In 1954, the Corvette went into mass production at a Chevy plant in St. Louis, Missouri. Sales were lackluster in the beginning and GM considered discontinuing the line. However, rival company Ford had introduced the two-seater Thunderbird around the same time and GM did not want to be seen bowing to the competition. Another critical development in the Corvette's survival came in 1955, when it was equipped with the more powerful V-8 engine. The rest, as they say, is history!

Corvette's connection to astronauts began in 1959 when Alan Shepard showed up for Space Program training in his 1957 Corvette. Upon becoming the first American to travel in outer space, GM President Ed Cole gave him a white 1962 Corvette with a custom space age interior. Since then, astronauts and many other people who have been associated with the space program have been Corvette people.

On June 16 the CKCC came to NCM to add to the permanent display area dedicated to space. Pete Johnson, Club President, and Jack Legere presented Wendell Strode and Plant Manager Dave Tatman each with a video, a Mission Completed Award certificate commemorating all of the missions flown during the Space Shuttle program, Mission patch coins from the last flights of Discovery, Endeavor and Atlantis, a framed poster with a Mission patch and a commemorative coin minted with metal that was flown in space.

“I’m stunned and humbled that you would give us these gifts,” said Dave. “It is so cool to think that this iconic sports car that has been with us for 60 years now, is so inextricably interwoven into the space program. What a privilege to be associated with that. On behalf of everyone at Bowling Green Assembly, thank you for this honor, and thank you for giving us the privilege of building your dreams every day.”

We at the NCM are equally as thankful, and happy to be able to share these items with the Corvette community by adding them to the Space Program wall on the way into the Chevrolet Theater.

Have you been trying to talk your club, business or friends into supporting the Motorsports Park Project by joinging the One Acre Club? We have tools to make your pitch easier!

The Museum now has a video on the project, in addition to new brochures and a fundraising tracker. You can view the video on the homepage of the Motorsports Park website here, and you can request a free pitch packet for your group by contacting Connie at connie@corvettemuseum.org or call 270-467-8815.