Corvette History Through Ads: Performance is King in ’56
by Rick Tavel
special to Corvette Forum
? 3-17-2013 All Rights Reserved Do Not Duplicate Without Permission
We thought it would be entertaining to bring our readers a weekly look into the history of the Corvette through old advertisements. Our first ad is one of a series of ads produced by Campbell-Ewald to highlight the performance capabilities of the first generation car.
This ad and others in the series were generated because of Zora Arkus-Duntov’s push to publicize the racing capabilities of the new Corvette and the performance options offered in 1956. Duntov realized that the Corvette would never be viewed as a serious sports car unless the car competed in and won major races.
This ad was run in 1956, the first year of the 265 cubic inch, 225hp, dual four barrel, V8 engine. It was also the first year of the famous Corvette body side ?coves?, which can be seen in this ad. Interesting the 225 HP engine was a $172.20 option that 3080 of the 3467 customers chose. Due to these improvements the production Corvette became competitive with other sports cars of the generation and began a history of dominance on the race track.