Everything that we know about the first production 1953 Corvette VIN 001 may have been wrong, and in fact, the car may have been rediscovered thanks to some quality detective work by early Corvette enthusiasts Corey Peterson, John Amgwert, and others. Corey recently went public with details about the find and why he thinks the car they found is really the VIN 001 1953 Corvette.
The quick history about the first production Corvettes is that VIN 001 and 002 were driven off the line, and they were promptly destroyed in tests by Chevy engineering. VIN 003 was also an engineering test car and at one point, the frame was separated from the body and ended up as the chassis for a 1955 model. A special 1953 cutaway car was created by restoration expert Kevin MacKay with that frame, and it’s on display at the NCM today.
In the video released by Corey, he presents information about those early cars, and says that VIN 001 was given an internal Chevy engineering number of 3950 and VIN 002 was named 3951. After requesting documents on those 39XX engineering cars from the Heritage Center, Corey found that VIN 001 was shown to another group of engineers about a week after its completion and from that, a list of 22 line items to improve various aspects of the car was generated.
In additional work orders surrounding VIN 001 (3950), it appears the car was also used as a test bed for making those engineering improvements, and some of these features are still on the car today. Seeing these new work orders jogged a conversation Corey had previously with another Corvette researcher going back 10 to 15 years ago about a 1953 Corvette that had been left years ago at a restoration shop in Oklahoma.
In 1987, several enthusiasts discovered the VIN 003 Corvette and brought it to a restoration shop in Oklahoma. Once the car was finished, another 1953 Corvette owner from the East Coast reached out to the same shop so they could perform a restoration for his car. Corey does say that the owner believed it was the VIN 002 car at the time. Initial work was started on the car, but the car’s owner never came up with the cash, so it was pushed to one side and eventually it would be there for nearly 20 years.
Corey says that several prominent Corvette researchers visited the car in Oklahoma as they tried to figure out why it had a number of unique features, but it was the work orders that helped to bring it into focus. Corey explains that one of those 22 line items said the car lacked “knee room,” which is the distance the steering wheel and the seat, and apparently it was a tight fit in that first Corvette. A work order was issued to lower seat bolsters and “Free ‘A’ Point lowered 3/4s of an inch,” which saw the floorboards where the seats are mounted lowered 3/4s of an inch. The Corvette in Oklahoma had sections of the floorboard cut out and it was lowered 3/4s of an inch. Another work order detailed the fuel door assembly which was redesigned and then it was fitted on the Oklahoma car. That was a key find according to Corey as it reconciled why the early car had the fuel door box that came later on the 1954 Corvettes.
At this point, the car had now been stored at the Oklahoma restoration shop for 20 years, and the shop owner hadn’t spoken with the 1953 Corvette’s owner in 15-18 years. Corey says the shop owner said he wasn’t even sure if the guy was still alive today. Corey asks if he can reach out to the car’s owner and called the guy up one day. Corey reminds him of the 1953 Corvette at Lloyd Miller’s shop in Tulsa, and offered to help the car’s owner to complete the restoration. At the mention of Lloyd’s name, the ’53s owner asks, “is Llyod still alive?” to which Corey replied, “Lloyd was wondering if you were still alive.”
Corey then had his opening and offered to buy the car from the owner, and eventually they were able to come to an agreement. Corey now is the car’s official owner and says he ran a background check that showed it had never been listed as stolen, nor had the VIN number been involved in any court cases. Finally, the background check showed the car’s MSO (Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin) was indeed triggered by Chevrolet.
This is an amazing story that could rewrite the known history of those early Corvettes and more info will be coming out on the car. I believe I heard Corey mention doing a documentary as a way to detail and make public his findings later this year. The video can’t be embedded, so visit YouTube and watch the whole thing.
Update
One of the people that Corey worked with was John Amgwert, an original founding father of the NCRS, and longtime editor of The Corvette Restorer magazine. John previously wrote about the Earliest Corvettes that appeared in the Summer 1993 V20 #1 issue of The Corvette Restorer and it dovetails with the information that Corey discussed in the video.
Our original story referred to Corey Peterson as Corey Robertson. It’s been corrected and we regret the error.
Source:
LifeBeginsat170 / YouTube
Related:
[VIDEO] Watch as a 1953 Corvette is Rescued from an Old Barn
Happy Birthday, Corvette! America’s Favorite Sports Car Turns 69 Today
[RIDES] Bill’s 1953 Corvette at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals
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Does this site need an editor? That was almost unreadable.
It’s an interesting story that has many moving parts and different players, so watch the video for the full story.
@ W+P: The facts are slightly complicated, but the article was well-written!
(One typo in paragraph #4: ‘9530’ should read ‘3950.’)
“The facts are slightly complicated”
Here, I’ll make it simple; A man named Corey Robertson ripped off a clueless elderly man for a car worth millions of dollars and is now bragging about it on the internet.
Wow, This is amazing. This could possibly be the Holy Grail of 1st Generation Corvettes
Or, The Holy Grail of Corvettes in General. Thanks for the info. Great story.
Had I known then what I know now, I would have changed my name to DuPont!
I suppose it is the advertising popping in that makes it very difficult to read this interesting article. Surely there is a better way to provide content.
Yes, they were called magazines…
…’One of the more entertaining comment trails I’ve read recently.
History is complicated.
People are complicated…
Thanks so much for spurring my curiosity ~ I’m headed to the video now … … …
(“thumbs up!”)
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