The 1954 Corvette

The Overview

The 1954 Corvette was the car Chevrolet actually tried to sell. After 300 hand-built 1953 cars, production moved in December 1953 from Flint to a renovated plant in St. Louis, Missouri, designed for more than 10,000 Corvettes a year. Chevrolet built 3,640 of them.

The car itself changed only in the details: longer exhaust outlets that stopped staining the paint, a single-handle hood latch, a choke moved to the left of the column, a new camshaft that lifted the “Blue Flame” six from 150 to 155 horsepower, and, for the first time, a choice of colors. Polo White was joined by Pennant Blue, Sportsman Red and a handful of Black cars.

What did not change was the Powerglide automatic, or the car’s real cost. Chevrolet advertised a lower $2,774 base price, then listed the only available transmission, the heater and the windshield washers as options. The price actually charged was $3,254.10, buyers saw through it, and about 1,500 cars were still unsold at the end of the year.

The 1954 Corvette Story

The 1954 Corvette began production in December, 1953. Although the first fourteen or fifteen ‘54 Corvettes were built in Flint, Michigan (like all of the 1953 Corvettes) GM shifted Corvette’s production to a newly renovated assembly plant in St Louis, Missouri. This plant was designed to produce more than 10,000 Corvettes a year.

There were very few initial design changes between the 1953 and 1954 model Corvettes, although refinements would be made throughout the 1954 production year. For example, the 1953 Corvette had two short stainless-steel exhaust outlets protruding inboard of the rear fenders.

This design resulted in exhaust gases being sucked back against the rear end of the car, thereby staining the paint. As a result, the 1954 model had longer outlets that were run below the car’s body. Other changes included relocating the fuel and brake lines inboard of the right-hand main frame rail, providing them with additional protection. Also, the canvas tops and rails were changed from black to tan.

Some of the inconveniences of the 1953 model were also corrected in 1954. The original two-handle exterior hood latch was replaced by a single handle mechanism after the production of the first 300 (approximate) 1954 models. The choke control was moved from the right to the left of the steering column. This eliminated having to reach over or through the steering wheel to operate the choke control with the left hand while simultaneously attempting to turn the ignition key with the right.

Under the hood, some additional changes were also made to the engine and drivetrain. For one, the use of a new camshaft increased the total horsepower of the “Blue Flame” six cylinder to 155bhp (as compared to the 150bhp of the 1953).

Other alterations included a new-style rocker arm (valve) cover (of which approximately 20% were finished in chrome - serial numbers 1363 through 4381 and of which all were now held down by four bolts through the outer lip of the cover instead of two center studs), a better designed wiring harness, dual air filters, a new type of starter and plastic insulated wire (instead of fabric insulated).

Perhaps the most notable change from the 1953 to 1954 models was the opportunity to purchase a Corvette with a choice of different color options. In 1954, General Motors offered the Corvette to consumers with the following color combinations:

Pennant Blue with a Tan interior (which accounted for 16% of the production models made that year), Sportsman Red with a Red Interior (which accounted for a mere 4% of the production models), Polo White with a Red Interior (which accounted for about 80% of the production models).

A fourth color combination - Black with Red Interior - accounted for as few as six of the production models from that year.

Some ‘54 Corvette owners have claimed that they have factory paint on their vehicles that is different from the four choices listed above, although no factory records exist to verify this claim. Still, paint bulletins from that period are known to have listed a Metallic Green and a Metallic Bronze as well.

While Corvette was finally available for purchase by anyone who wanted one, the car was priced in such a way that many potential “younger” buyers were scared off by the price.

With a window sticker price of $3498.00, the car was considered too expensive for the youthful market at which the Corvette marketing was aimed. In an attempt to make the car appear more price competitive, Chevy lowered the advertised base price to $2774 (which was still more than the price of a Cadillac with a standard V-8 engine) for the 1954 models.

Did you know? In an attempt to make the purchase price more palatable to consumers, GM introduced the 1954 Corvette to the public as a base model that could be tailored to the needs and personal wants of consumers worldwide. One such option was the transmission: Although the two speed Powerglide transmission was listed as a $178 option, no other transmissions were available for the 1954 Corvette, making the optional transmission a necessity if you wanted an operational car.

However, potential customers were shocked to learn that the only available transmission for the Corvette (the 2 speed Powerglide) was listed as an option, as were the windshield wipers and the heater. Truth be told, the actual price for the 1954 Corvette was $3254.10. Most consumers saw through this marketing trickery and sales of the 1954 Corvette suffered as a result of it.

One of the best selling points of the 1954 Corvette was its reliability. It wasn’t prone to breaking down and it did not demand constant tuning and attention to keep running reliably. As with the 1953 Corvette before it, the 1954 did have a few quirks: the synchronizing of the triple carburetors for smooth idle and throttle response was tricky (to down-right difficult) to accomplish.

Also like the 1953, water leaks continued to be a problem, although mostly from the top and the side window curtains. None of these items were considered major issues. Besides, General Motors released service bulletins to cover them, ensuring that any issues that did arise were properly addressed and repaired.

At the same time, one of the biggest on-going issues that faced the 1954 Corvette had nothing to do with the mechanical, structural or cosmetic short-comings of the car itself - at least not directly. The bigger issue was an indirect combination of all these items and the general public perception of the car as a whole.

Simply put, Corvette was not a pure “sports car”. Some considered it a boulevard tourer that lacked the performance and handling of a true, out-and-out roadster. Purists sneered at the automatic 2-speed Powerglide transmission and the limited performance of the “Blue Flame” six-cylinder engine (especially when comparable cars (like the Jaguar XK-120) offered more performance and a 4-speed manual transmission for less money).

Cosmetic issues, such as the car’s dummy knock-off wheel covers, manual folding top, and a re-circulating heater that didn’t allow for windows-up ventilation also generated criticism of the car and were all likely contributed to the overall lack of Corvette sales.

Production Numbers

While Chevrolet had hoped that Corvette’s production would be as many as 1,000 units per month, the actual number built for the model year was only 3,640 - less than a third of the projected total - and at year’s end the division found itself with a surplus of 1500 cars still sitting, unsold, in dealerships across the country.

Despite the initial, overwhelmingly positive response to the Corvette at the 1953 Motorama, it was becoming clear that Chevrolet’s sports car experiment was a failure. It wasn’t long before the rumors began circulating the Corvette was on the verge of extinction as corporate management argued about the car’s commercial viability.