CORVETTE C1

Condition

The Chevrolet Corvette C1 is the first generation of the Corvette. The car was built from 1953 to 1962 and during this time it was optically and technically revised several times. These include the „small block“ V8 engine introduced in 1955 and the fiberglass body.
The first Corvette was presented to the public at the „Motorama“ in New York’s Hotel Waldorf Astoria in January 1953. The audience reacted positively and six months later serial production began.
Series production started in Flint, Michigan, on June 30, 1953, just six months after the first presentation.
In 1954 production was moved to St. Louis (Missouri).
Installation of disc brakes, manifold injection and designed a sharper camshaft to increase engine performance. The premiere celebration of the revised Corvette was held again in 1956 in the New York Hotel Waldorf Astoria.
Initially, the car had the two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission, with a manual transmission also being an option. However, sales only picked up when then-new Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov paired the V8 version with a three-speed manual transmission. The Corvette C1 from the years 1959 and 1960 is one of the most popular variants with most viewers, due to the large full chrome snout, paired with the four headlights and the typically American curved tail fins.

According to the documents, this sparkling Corvette C1 was ordered in the body color red, including other highlights such as a radio, heater and defroster.
The plant in St. Louis Missouri delivered the finished car in 1959 to the dealer „Heinrich Motors Inc.“ in N.Y., which still trades under the name „Heinrich Chevrolet“ in N.Y. exists.
The Corvette C1 arrived in 2012 from Boring in Oregon (USA) to Bad Kreuznach in Germany.
Shortly thereafter, it ended up in the hands of a collector in Koblenz and remained there until the collector died in 2017.
The Corvette was then sold by us, the Koch Klassik company.
Due to a storm with heavy hurricane gusts in the summer of 2017, a glass front in our sales rooms was badly damaged and broke. Unfortunately, this Corvette was located exactly on this window front, which caused the paintwork to be lined with thousands of glass splinters.
For this reason, the Corvette was completely sanded down and repainted in mid / late 2017, the beige soft top was also renewed and the entire interior was revised.
In the course of this, some of the technology was overhauled and power steering was retrofitted.
This was followed in April 2018 by a valuation report by Classic Data with a condition grade of 2+ and a replacement value of €120,000.
The vehicle has only been moved sporadically in recent years to prevent damage when stationary, since 2019 it has only been about 400 km.
In recent years, the Corvette has undergone regular maintenance at one to two-year intervals, so regular engine oil and filter changes have been carried out and any repairs made, such as a new alternator, the front wheel brake cylinders renewed, the handbrake adjusted, the clutch lubricated and other small things, such as the window crank and the seat adjustment on the passenger side repaired.
Please contact us if you are interested or have further questions about the vehicle.
Errors and changes excepted. In the client’s order.