You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

1953 -- Chevrolet introduces its Harley Earl-designed Corvette.

The first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off the production line on June 30, 1953, at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan.

Only 300 Corvettes were built that year -- each of them by hand -- making this the rarest Corvette.

Each fiberglass-bodied two-seater was white with a red interior and a black canvas top.

The 1953 Corvette featured a Powerglide automatic transmission and a "Blue Flame" six cylinder 235ci 150 hp engine with three carburetors and dual exhaust.

1953 -- General Motors issued three specialty convertibles: the Buick Skylark, the Oldsmobile Fiesta, and the Cadillac Eldorado.

Of the three, the Buick Skylark was the most successful with a production run of 1,642 units

1954 -- American Motors Corporation (AMC) was an American automobile company formed with merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company.

At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history

1954 -- Padded dashboards introduced for safety.

1955 -- The Chrysler 300, introduced in 1955, was the most powerful production car in the US.

1955 -- The first Chevy small block V8 entered production in 1955, and had a displacement of 265 cubes.

1955 -- Pontiac's 287 cubic inch "Strato Streak" V8 was introduced.

1956 -- Electric door locks introduced on several luxury models.

1957 -- The Ford Ranchero was produced first, then came the Chevrolet El Camino.

The first Rancheros were built in 1957 and the first El Caminos came two years later, in 1959.

1957 -- Pontiac's Tri-Power (3-2 bbl carbs) become available.

1957 -- The Peanuts characters were first animated in 1957 for a Ford Fairlaine automobile commercial.

1958 -- The first remote adjusted side view mirror.

1958 -- Ford introduces the first electric trunk release.

1958 -- Chrysler introduces the day-night rear view mirror.

1959 -- Pontiac start using the split grille and the arrowhead emblem.

1960 -- All-weather anti-freeze plus coolant introduced.

1960 -- The first car fitted with an alternator, rather than a direct current dynamo generator, was the 1960 Plymouth Valiant.

1962 -- The car with having the distinction of being the U.S. Production car with the quickest 0-60 mph time was the 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS 409. It did it in 4.0 seconds.

1963 -- Seat belts first offered as standard equipment.

1963 -- Chevy's first 427 was called the Z11 (a stroked 409), advertised at 430 HP & 435 ft-lb torque (some were as high as 650HP). With 13.5:1 compression and dual 4 barrels, yet only 50 were built and those were sold to a select few big names.

1964 -- Even though Chrysler make engines with hemi heads in the 50s, it wasn't until 1964 when they revived the hemi head design and officially used the "Hemi" name

1964 -- The Ford Mustang is generally considered the first "pony car", a new class of automobile first introduced in 1964 and designed to be more compact and more affordable than the larger muscle cars that inspired them.

First introduced at the New York World's Fair on April 17, 1964, the Mustang captured the imagination of the American public and guaranteed the success of the pony car.

In fact, the Mustang was perhaps the most successful product launch in automotive history.

Racking up over 22,000 sales in its first day and one million sales in its first two years, the Mustang inspired a wave of imitators including the Pontiac Firebird, Mercury Cougar and Chevrolet Camaro, but none could match the success enjoyed by the Mustang.

Originally named for the P-51 Mustang, a fighter plane, Ford's new car quickly became associated with the horse of the same name and this became the basis for the now-famous Mustang emblem.

Ford’s answer to the Chevy Corvette, and other legal street racers of the 1960′s, was Carroll Shelby’s Mustang GT350.

1965 -- The Chevrolet Impala sold more than one million units in North America, setting a record that still stands today.

Originally introduced in 1958, the Impala was the best-selling automobile in the United States during the 1960s.

Early Impala models sported six taillights, a unique feature which, for a time, became the Impala trademark. The Impala was named after an African antelope.

1965 -- Rear seat belts became standard on most cars.

1966 -- The last year for Pontiac tri-power engine.

1966 -- The car with the honor and the distinction of being GM’s 100 millionth car built in the U.S. was a Olds Tornado which rolled out of Lansing, Michigan, on March 16, 1966

1966 -- The first car to include anti-lock brakes was the 1966 Jensen FF which came equipped with the Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock braking system (originally developed for use on aircraft).

Although sometimes unreliable, the Jensen FF's anti-skid system was a huge technological breakthrough at the time.

Three years later, in 1969, the Lincoln Continental Mark III improved on the idea, placing sensors on the rear wheels that modulated pressure on the rear brakes when they began to lock up.

1967 -- All US cars are mandated by the Federal Government to come equipped with dual master cylinder brake systems.
1968 -- The only year the "California Special" edition of the Ford Mustang was available.

1969 -- The first model car to have it’s radio antenna embedded in the windshield was the 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix.

1969 -- Cadillac introduce the first electric sunroof

1970 -- The 1970 Gremlin, (AMC), was reportedly designed on the back of a Northwest Airlines air sickness bag and released on April Fool’s Day, 1970

1970 -- Ford's Bunkie Knudsen ordered the design of a larger Mustang for 1971 in order to fit Ford's beefy 429 ci Cobra Jet V8 under the hood.

By the time the '71 was introduced in September of 1970, the muscle car market had collapsed due to increasing insurance rates and increasing emission regulations. Very few '71s were ordered with the 429 engine.

1972 -- Cars traveled along LA freeways at an average speed of 60 mph. In 1982 the average was only 17 mph!

1974 -- National 55 mph speed limit enacted after oil shortages.

1974 -- The average American family spent 33 percent of their yearly income for a new car. In 1995 the average was 50 percent.

1975 -- The television series Starsky and Hutch debuted and would run until 1979, featuring two streetwise cops and their red and white 1975 Ford Gran Torino.

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]