As part of their 100 year celebration, GM named the 1953 Corvette as one of their top ten vehicles ever produced

According to GM, "Sports cars have always been the stuff of dreams and fantasies, but they were all expensive and hand-built in low volume until GM came up with a different idea. When the first Corvette was revealed to the news media and public at GM’s 1953 Motorama show at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, most observers thought it was just a “dream” car that would never go into production. Yet just six months later, the first Corvette went on sale, creating an entirely new market segment and a new kind of performance car aficionado. Not only was it the world’s first production sports car: it was the first car with a fiberglass body, which reduced the car’s weight and allowed its designers to make its shape and contour much more daring than possible with traditional steel. The 1953 Corvette featured a 150 horsepower 6-cylinder engine and could accelerate from zero-to-sixty miles per hour in 11 seconds. Just 300 were built that first year, all of them white with red interior, but production increased to 3,640 units the following year and new color and performance options were added. It was the beginning of an American icon."