Corvette: Year by Year When the going gets tough… 1954 was a very rough year for the Chevrolet Corvette. The biggest problem was that the latest GM sports car suffered from an identity crisis that could not be solved on any psychiatrist's couch. The Corvette featured removable plastic side curtains for windows and a two speed automatic transmission. The plastic side curtains were popular on foreign sports cars at the time such as MGs. But the sports cars could boast about their four speed manual transmissions, not two speed automatics which were appropriate for boulevard cruising, not performance. The Corvette appealed to neither crowd. The asking price for a 1954 Corvette was also an issue. It cost $2,774.00 without options, more than a Cadillac which featured a V8 engine and a top that did not leak. On the sports car side there was the Jaguar which also cost less than the Corvette AND featured a sophisticated, more powerful engine along with a genuine four speed transmission.

So was the Corvette a boulevard cruiser (above) or (below left) an all out sports cars destined for the race track? Consumers could not decide and stayed away in droves. Below right: the two speed automatic transmission with its funky shifter (a manual would not be available until 1955) did not help the situation. GM had a public relations problem in 1953. With a production quantity of only 300, buyers exceeded the number of available Corvettes; black tab top curtains 66x72those that were built were available only to celebrities and other well connected individuals, leaving enthusiasts angry at being left out. ikea spotty curtains1954 solved the problem with increased production and an ad campaign (left) tried to appease the customer base.made to measure curtains basildon

Chevrolet attempted to widen the appeal of the Corvette with new colors including Pennant Blue (left) and Guardsman Red although the majority were still Polo White. A few Black cars were also built. All of the soft tops were beige and the Pennant Blue offered a beige interior. The other interiors were red. In the middle of the 1954 model a more aggressive camshaft boosted the horsepower from 150 hp to 155 hp.luxury embroidered lined eyelet curtains ready made ring top 1954 Corvette For Salecurtains pitsea Click Here for more infoikea curtains blad 1954 White Corvette Convertiblecurtains zellers canada

Blue Flame Six, powerglide, numbers match. Polo White paint with Sportsman Red interior (more) 1954 Corvette Options, Prices AM Radio, Signal Seeking (100.00%)Notes: Base Corvette: $2,774.00 Notes: Color quantities are estimates as reliable GM records are not available. Note: Clicking on an image with this symbol () will lead to a larger image. Introducing the Vette Spotter app for the iPhone. The Vette Spotter app can identify the year of any Corvette. All years and generations are covered, from 1953 to 2014. Over 350 photographs and detailed text are included.We offer a wide selection of Corvette parts. Find your year and model below: Wednesday, December 28th 2016 @ 7:05pm EST 247 Bids (View History) Have a similar piece to sell? Get in touch with one of our experts. Current Bid + $1 Current Bid + $2 Current Bid + $5 Current Bid + $10 Current Bid + $25 Current Bid + $50 Current Bid + $100

EVERYTHING BUT THE HOUSE, EBTH, and the Keyhole Logo are trademarks of EBTH, Inc. Website design and website “look and feel” are © copyright 2013–2017,There are some amazing, one-of-a-kind items waiting to be discovered. Sign in to start bidding! Sign up now to instantly receive a $20 coupon code We know you'll discover something great! By clicking "Sign Me Up", you agree to our What a great find! All we need is a credit card on file for you to place your bid. Click the button below to add it in and get started on your bids! Already have an account? Corvette pricing had been a sore point with critics and would-be customers. In a ploy to make the car appear to be more competitive in this respect, Chevy lowered the advertised base figure from $3,498 to $2,774 for 1954. In so doing, the company made the Powerglide automatic -- still the only gearbox available -- a $178.35 "mandatory option." When all the legitimate options were added -- directional signals, heater, radio, whitewalls, parking brake alarm, courtesy lights, and windshield washer -- the sticker was still about the same: precisely $3,254.10.

Needless to say, most potential buyers saw through this marketing sleight of hand, and the pricing chicanery did nothing to spark sales. The early Corvette may have had its faults, but unreliability wasn't one of them. It wasn't a temperamental prima donna that was prone to breaking down like a Jaguar, nor did it demand constant attention like a Ferrari. Not that the Corvette didn't display a few quirks: Synchronizing the triple carburetors for smooth idle and throttle response was tricky at best; and water leaks were a problem, mostly from around the top and side curtains, though the leading edges of the door openings were suspect on some units. But these problems were hardly major, and Chevy issued service bulletins to cover them. The powertrain was as boringly reliable as in Chevy's everyday passenger models, which was expected but pleasant nonetheless -- especially in a sports car. For all that, the Corvette arrived at a crucial crossroads by the end of 1954. Though Chevrolet had hoped that '54 volume would be as many as 1,000 units a month, the actual number built for the model year was only 3,640 -- less than a third the projected total -- and at year's end the division found itself with a surplus of some 1,500 cars.

Would-be buyers were put off by Chevrolet's ill-conceived "teaser" marketing approach, which amounted to "look, but don't touch." Additionally, the Corvette was not considered to be a "pure" sports car but a cross between a boulevard tourer (like the Kaiser-Darrin and the soon-to-be-introduced Ford Thunderbird) and an out-and-out sports-racing roadster (like the Triumph TR2 and Jaguar XK-120). Purists sneered at what they considered to be out-of-place features, like the Powerglide transmission and nonfunctional cosmetic items like the car's dummy knock-off wheel covers, while comfort-lovers objected to inconveniences like the clapped-on side curtains, manual folding top, and a recirculating heater that didn't allow for windows-up ventilation. That there were fit-and-finish problems on top of all this didn't help matters. But perhaps the real problem facing the Corvette was a sports-car market that remained tiny at best. Multi-car ownership was still far from common, and most motorists still needed a more practical vehicle as their primary mode of transportation.

Though adequate to support low-volume imports like Jaguar or even Triumph, the market was still ridiculously small by Detroit standards, which demands sales in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands every year. That the car was high priced further limited potential sales. Despite the initial huzzahs of the Motorama crowds, favorable press reaction, and steady product improvement, it was becoming clear that Chevrolet's bold sports car experiment had laid a considerable egg. It wasn't long before rumors began drifting through GM corridors that the Corvette was on the verge of extinction as management debated the car's commercial viability. A stay of execution would come, oddly enough, largely because of GM's corporate pride and competitiveness, with rival Ford introducing the Thunderbird on September 23, 1954. Although a two-seater like the Corvette, it was more of a "personal car" than a flat-out sportster. A comparatively plush and comfortable steel-bodied boulevard cruiser with handsome lines, the T-Bird included amenities like roll-up windows and a standard V-8 engine that made it quite quick.

Ed Cole was prepared for the competition, however, and he had a new powerplant ready for production, which would also play a part in the Corvette's renaissance: the brilliant new 265-cid small-block V-8 he'd been working on for Chevy's totally redesigned 1955 passenger cars. At about this time, a new member joined the Corvette team, who, as it turned out, would help ensure the vehicle's long-term viability. Zora Arkus-Duntov was a 45-year-old German-trained enthusiast, race driver, designer, and engineer who had been "fiddling" with Corvettes in his spare time since joining the GM Research and Development Staff in 1953. As a racer, he not only knew what serious drivers demanded of sports cars but how to achieve it. Duntov, whose seat-of-the-pants feel for what was right -- and wrong -- with Corvettes would make him a legend among GM insiders and Corvette enthusiasts alike. So respected was he that when it came to management showdowns over suggested changes, the white-haired wizard usually won.