History C1 1957

Green-eyed Monster

The MY 1957 Corvettes certainly created envy in the eyes of the other automobile manufacturers.  This year represented one of those, as Corvette magazine called it (September 2004, "Mint Condition"), infrequent times when a "marriage of perfect styling and performance" occurs.   Sales increased dramatically from 3,500 in MY 1956 to 6,339 in MY 1957. 

..but what could have been a four-headlight, three grille MY 1957 didn't happen.   With Chrysler and Ford enhancing most of their product line in 1957 with new bodies, the pressure was on Chevrolet to do the same with the Corvette.  Instead, as former stylist Robert Cumberford was quoted in Leffingwell's Corvette:  Fifty Years, "It just got behind.  The regular car line had too many new things and they couldn't handle it:  a new engine, gearbox, chassis, suspension, body and interior.  The new pick-up truck had a hood with Corvette-style hood speed-bumps.  That took body engineers away who would have made the four-headlight, three-grille 1957 Corvette.  This is the car that everyone knows as the 1958." 

Of the two, styling and performance, perhaps the stronger suite this MY was performance.  "Dual quads" were available sitting atop the new 283 c.i. on either a 240 or 275 horsepower version of the engine.  The rarer, MY 1957 "fuelie", was also available producing either 250 or 283 horsepower!  The latter was a GM milestone...reaching one horsepower per cubic inch!