Chassis No. E54S003620

Engine No. 0II7I89 F54YG

The original Corvette was one of several "dream cars" featured in General Motors' Motorama extravaganza for 1953. It was almost called "Corvair" but instead Chevrolet named it "...after the trim, fleet naval vessel that performed heroic escort and patrol duties in World War II." But when the Corvette made its Motorama debut at New York's Waldorf=Astoria hotel, something unexpected happened – over 10,000 potential buyers expressed an interest in owning one. Six months later Chevrolet was slowly building the first production Corvettes, with fiberglass bodies chosen to speed development and manufacture. With only minor changes from the Waldorf show car, 300 1953 models were produced, slated only for high-visibility VIPs. That first run of Corvettes were all painted Polo White, powered by a torquey 235 cu-in 150 horsepower "Blue Flame 6" and two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission.

By December 1953 Chevrolet had moved production from a temporary site in Flint, Michigan to a proper assembly line at its St. Louis plant. Now Corvettes were available for everyone, priced at $3,760 for 1954. New colors were also available, including Pennant Blue, Sportsman Red, and Black, along with the original Polo White. By mid '54 horsepower was bumped five horsepower with a new camshaft. Though Chevrolet's legendary V8 engine would not be ready until the 1955 model, Road & Track was impressed with the straight-six predecessor: "The Corvette will give any sports car of comparable power and weight a "real race" between 20 and 90 mph... Frankly, we liked the Corvette very much."

Finished in the daring livery of Black over a Sportsman Red interior this restored Corvette Roadster features the 235 cu-in (3.9-liter) Blue Flame inline-six engine coupled to a two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission as all 1954 examples do. Black paint on a 1954 Corvette is exceptionally rare with less than one percent of Roadsters so finished. It is unknown if this Roadster was completed in GM St. Louis plant in this rare color, but it is quite the sight offering a refreshing respite from the traditional Polo White.

Sourced from the United States, it is quite rare to see such early examples on offer in Europe-especially those built before the model gained notoriety in the late 1950s at Le Mans. Offered with a 2015 evaluation from Expertisebureau Hermanns NV Belgique and a copy of a Corvette Operator's Manual, the 1954 Corvette stands as the epitome of post-war American sporting design, capturing the optimism, innovation, and jet-age spirit that defined an era.