YOUR ICON OF ICONS: CHEVROLET CORVETTE

Was there ever any doubt? MotorTrend readers are largely American, and as much as we love Jeeps, Mustangs, and F-150s in this country, the Corvette has been “America’s sports car” for nearly as long as this publication has existed. That’s why you chose it via our online vote as the most iconic car of the past 75 years.

-  Scott Evans

Rewind 71 of those years to January 1953 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and you might not have predicted this moment. Interest was strong in GM’s new fiberglass-bodied sports car, yes, but with a 150-hp “Blue Flame” inline-six under the hood backed by a two-speed Powerglide automatic, it wasn’t exactly the all-conquering automotive hero we know today. Chevrolet built just 300, and even those had trouble finding homes—you could only buy them in white with red interiors, which didn’t help the case. The do-it-yourself ragtop and curtain windows that only worked with the roof in place weren’t any more enticing when it came time to close a sale.

It was, however, enough to get the attention of an engineer by the name of Zora Arkus-Duntov. Despite his honorary title of “father of the Corvette,” General Motors didn’t hire ArkusDuntov until five months after he saw the car at the Motorama show in the Waldorf Astoria ballroom. Legendary GM designer Harley Earl came up with the original idea, his lieutenant Robert McLean styled it, and Chevy R&D boss Maurice Olley engineered it. Within a few years, Olley and Arkus-Duntov had the car straightened out and fitted with the first smallblock Chevy V-8 and a manual transmission, and it was off to the races.

Beyond the cars themselves, fortuitous associations with stardom cemented its place in American pop culture, first as the main characters’ car on the popular TV show Route 66—sponsored by Chevrolet, with the company always ready to replace the car at the beginning of each season with an updated model—and by the end of the ’60s as the car of the Apollo astronauts.