The December 1953 issue of Speed Age magazine. This paper is similar to newsprint, not glossy stock. Only the cover was glossy, however they always had thorough presentations. Regretfully the pages are yellowing and brittle. Below the first two facing pages in this article.

The left facing page above is enlarged below.

The right facing page is enlarged below. Wow 0 to 60 in 11.4 seconds! Fifty members of the press had 8 new Corvettes to drive at the Milford test track. $3.490, I'll take it.

Anticipated 1953 production was 250 Corvettes, so they made 50 more than estimate or 20%. Production for 1954 was very optimistic at 1000 Corvettes per month. The fiberglass tooling was stated as $400,000, therefore each of the first 300 Corvettes had $13,333 in fiberglass tooling costs alone. The plastic chosen was 40% resin and 60% fiberglass mat and produced 56 separate body parts. Assembled the body weighed 411 pounds, which was 200 lighter than steel.

The "Bag Method" of production is explained, as is the addition of Gelcoat.

Below they document a 16 pound sledge hammer being used to damage a fiberglass fender, and the accompanying repair at the Milford Proving Grounds.

Wow, GM's Ed Cole is reported to have said the initial 160 HP rating was scaled down to 150 HP to provide more efficient operation in traffic. Huh?

Note the page below includes and advertisement for a Marilyn Monroe Pin Up Poster and it is only two buck. I'll take five.

It sounds like the author had his test driven 1953 Corvette up to 115 MPH during his 7-mile test drive. He incorrectly concluded that a fiberglass body would eliminate the squeaks and rattles associated with metal cars.

LA Freeways: they don't build them like they use too.