No automotive aficionado with a pulse will argue that the Corvette is an all-American performance sports car legend.
         From the very start, it’s styling has set the marque
                                 apart from all others, and today the
                                                  fiberglass flier holds its head
                                                     high as the  best all-
                                                      around sports car
                                                     on the planet.
                                                   However, back-tracking to
                                                     the earliest years of
                                                    Corvette shows that the
                                                  road to stardom was not
                                              easily paved. When born in
                                           1953, the Corvette was, in fact,
                                         dismissed by many as an
                     underpowered pretender. Its detractors
charged  that the Corvette was fine for the country club set, but was hardly a worthy competitor of
the more exotic European