Sports Cars

What has become America's leading sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette, was introduced in 1953, long before Chevrolet had a hot-car image. While the car was an immediate sales success and has sold as fast as it could be built ever since, the earliest models were snubbed by the "real" sports-car fans, who continued to favor British, German and Italian imports. That first plastic-bodied sportster, while it looks very good and very much like a sports car, had the same mild-mannered six as the family Chevy and was available only with the sluggish Powerglide automatic, not a four-speed stick, as the sports car set favored. Only 300 '53 Corvettes were built. The car was largely unchanged for '54, pictured here, and they are among the most valuable post-World War II collector cars.

Shortly after the Chevy Corvette hit the market, the '55 Ford Thunderbird created more of a sales sensation. While the Thunderbird was actually introduced during the '54 model run, these cars were designated '55 models. Production totaled 16,155. The beautiful little two-seater was powered with a new overhead-valve V-8 with which Ford had replaced its old flathead in 1954. While the Corvette developed into a true world-class sports car over the years, the Thunderbird grew into a four-passenger "personal luxury" car in 1959.

Already near its death, Studebaker introduced the Avanti, a fiberglass-bodied sports coupe in '63. This '63 Avanti was powered by a supercharged V-8 and was as fast as it looked. Legend has it that Sherwood Egbert, Studebaker's chief executive officer, designed the Avanti on an envelope while traveling, shortly before he resigned because of failing health. The Avanti proved a strong sales generator, but it was too little and too late to save Studebaker, which ceased U.S. production in 1966. Studebaker sold the Avanti, its tooling and parts to Nathan and Leo Altman, who created Avanti Motor Corp., which built the car with a General Motors power train. The firm went through a couple of other owners and was assembled for a while in Youngstown, Ohio, before it died in 1990.

With styling reminiscent of a '40s-era hot rod, the Plymouth Prowler will be put into production for 1997 by Chrysler Corp. in the same plant in Detroit where it builds the Dodge Viper. The Prowler was first unveiled as a concept car at the 1995 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Reaction was so positive that Chrysler decided to put it into limited production as a Plymouth model.