1953, 3rd built. $1.08 mil. This was a test mule for GM, things like 14 hour cold room shake testing, and 5000 mile Belgian block test.
Side bar: John Wayne bought #51, Corvettes #004-006 are the first Corvettes sold, delivered to executives of the DuPont Company.
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/vettehis/index.htm
The first Corvettes were actually "rolled" off the assembly line. Chevrolet was not prepared for grounding to a fiberglass body; the cars would not start.
The only thing really new on the 1953 Corvette was the fiberglass body. Everything else was directly off the Chevrolet parts shelf. Because of this, the first Corvette was essentially a regular 1952 Chevrolet that looked like a million dollars!
Of the 314 Corvettes hand built in 1953 only 183 were sold because of "average" performance at such a high price, $3513 the Jaguar Xk120 sold for $3345, $168 less than the Corvette.
