Daily Slideshow: Corvette Year-by-Year Comparo: 1954

1. The Contenders

History doesn't favor those who came first, it favors those who succeed first. To avoid becoming a footnote you have to win enough hearts, minds, and usually, cash, to make a dent. The footnote next to Chevrolet's Corvette informs anyone interested that Kaiser Motors showed their fiberglass-bodied Kaiser Darrin 161 to the public in September 1952, beating the EX-122 Corvette prototype show car's January 1953 debut by a few months, however, Chevy's sports car beat Kaiser's to market—Corvettes were already on their second factory when Kaiser Darrin's hit showroom floors in January of 1954. Though the idea behind both cars was similar—create a homegrown competitor to sporty European roadsters—their execution was miles apart.

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2. Powering the Plastic

Part of Darrin's production hold-up can be attributed to the fact that Kaiser didn't have an engine for it. The show car used a stock Kaiser Henry J 80 hp, 161 cu in L-head six-cylinder as a placeholder, and after a deal fell through to purchase 303 c.i. Rocket V8s from Oldsmobile, Kaiser tried souping up the stock engine with a higher compression aluminum head, a more aggressive cam, and three carbs, but the modifications caused parts failures. Kaiser's merger with Willys-Overland in March of 1953 made the Willys Hurricane-6 F-head available for use in the Darrin, and though the engine only had 90hp on tap it was a sturdier powerplant than the Kaiser unit. As the decision to go with the Willys engine was being finalized, workers at the Willow Run engine plant that manufactured it went on strike, further delaying production. The Hurricane-6 powered the light, 2,175 pound Darrin to a 95 mph top speed and yielded 0-60 mph times of around 15 seconds, while the Corvette's OHV Blue Flame six, with 155hp (up 5hp from 1953) enabled 0-60 times in the mid-11s and a top speed somewhat over 100mph.

Advantage: Corvette

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3. Feeling the Power

In 1954 automotive journalists weren't rolling Lamborghini yet. In a period test of the '54 'Vette, Road & Track described, in detail, their 0-60 testing methods: "Rubber burning starts can be made by grandstand drivers using the technique of turning the engine at 2000/2500 rpm and pulling the Powerglide selector level quickly from neutral to low range. Our acceleration times quoted were all made using drive range and normal starts. We experimented with "jerk" starts and found no better times from zero to any speed. The time for zero to 60 mph could be improved very slightly by placing the selector in low range. The car always starts in low anyway, but this procedure forces the transmission to stay permanently in first speed, where incidentally a speedo reading of just over 70 is possible with the tachometer well past the last calibration mark of 5000 rpm." The magazine added their voice to the ranks of critics who longed for a proper manual transmission, though R&T’s reviewer seemed to think his example had a Powerglide 2-speed automatic that worked like a CVT: "Admittedly it gives a tremendous performance through a well-graduated series of infinitely variable ratios," and fretted over the possibility of automated downshifts causing tragic consequences: "Suppose you are doing 45 mph at the time and need more power to pull-out of an incipient spin. A jab on the throttle, if done too energetically, will force a downshift to low and the ensuing jerk will certainly cause loss of control." ‘Grandstand drivers’ could drop the clutch on the Darrin’s 3-speed manual transmission, but they’d still be behind at the end of a drag race.

Slight Advantage: Darrin

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4. Fashion

Chevrolet concentrated on increasing production in 1954, so the changes to the second year 'Vette were minor, with the biggest news being three new color combos joining the original Polo White body with Sportsman Red interior scheme: Pennant Blue over Tan, Sportsman Red over Red, and Black over Red. The Kaiser Darrin's design has aged less gracefully than the C1's, the shell-like grille of the Darrin, it's most prominent feature, fairing the poorest to most eyes. The Kaiser's stylist and namesake, Howard "Dutch" Darrin, outfitted the car with doors that slid forward on tracks into the body, rather than opening outwards—the design left relatively narrow openings for occupants to navigate, the doors/tracks needed to be kept clean to operate properly, and the side-curtains (the doors lacked roll-up windows) tended to leak. Early Corvettes weren't built for driving around in downpours either but at least you could get out of them in a hurry.

Advantage: Corvette

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5. Dough

Kaiser's Darrin was priced at $3,655, only a slightly less than the first-year Corvette's base price of $3498, but still a hefty premium over most other America convertibles of the time. Kaiser built 435 Darrins (plus six prototypes) but had trouble selling them all—Darrin himself bought many of the unsold cars and offered them for sale in his Hollywood showroom, supercharging some of them, and outfitting six with Cadillac V8s. Kaiser built their last vehicle of any kind a year later. The good news from Chevrolet for 1954 was that the Corvette' price dropped to $2774, and 3640 second-year models were produced, though not all were sold by the end of the year. If you have your heart set on a 1954 'Vette today you're in luck because prices are less than half of what you'd pay for a '53, most can be had for under six figures. The Darrin? The scarcity of examples and the allure of period kitsch puts prices about 50% over values for second-year Corvettes.

Advantage: Too Close to Call

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6. The Bottom Line

Popular Mechanics published a survey of Corvette owners in their October 1954 issue. They discovered that 36% of the respondents had owned a foreign sports car in the past, and of that number half of them rated the Corvette more highly, 19% at the same level, and 22% below that earlier car. The survey found that many didn't consider the Corvette a true sports car, but also that many were unhappy with the sports car-like leaky side curtain windows. The Darrin was American, fiberglass, and similarly priced to the Corvette, and for a few less performance-oriented buyers it may have been an alternative, but it was never really serious competition for America's first sports car. Compared to their rivals from abroad, 'Vettes were less expensive than fast Jaguars and Aston Martins, and less finicky than Austin 100s and Triumph TR2s, but they weren't yet all things to all people (at an affordable price), though the wheels were turning at GM, and big news would arrive for 1955.

Advantage: Firmly Corvette

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