[VIDEO] Flint-Made 1953 Corvette Returns Home to for Back to the Bricks

Don’t blink. You might miss this rarely seen 1953 Corvette, in fact the 123rd one ever made.

This Polo White over red classic has been in the Becker family since 1965, when Ron Becker’s father bought it, but not many people saw it because he would never show it while he was alive.

For the Corvette’s 70th anniversary, his sons Ron and Darwin Becker decided to let the public enjoy the car, including an appearance at the Sloan Museum’s car event and GM Styling Dome earlier this summer and most recently Wednesday during the Back to the Bricks event in Flint, Michigan.

That last appearance was especially appropriate since the ’53 Corvettes were originally built at the General Motors plant in Flint.

Those workers could never have imagined that the car they were building back then would turn into such a legendary vehicle, nor that the city of Flint would be hosting an annual Back to the Bricks event that draws 500,000 visitors for a week-long showcase of classic, custom, and collector vehicles of all kinds.

During the event, Flint proudly hosts a National Reunion for Corvette enthusiasts, like the Beckers who wound up winning the annual Harlow H. Curtice Hometown Memorial Trophy presented to the Buick or Chevrolet that Harlow Curtice would most likely enjoy driving.

The winning car was selected from the cars on display at Back to the Bricks by a team of engineers representing the Mid-Michigan Section of SAE.

Curtice was a longtime Flint resident and civic supporter and retired as GM’s 11th president on Aug. 31, 1958. Nicknamed “Red” for his shock of red hair, Curtice is generally remembered fondly – a real achievement for an executive in a field known for its extraordinarily competitive nature. Even in the controversial book “On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors,” which chronicles John DeLorean’s time with GM, Curtice is described as “warm, flamboyant, and exciting,” and as “a man whose mere presence would command attention and stop conversations when he walked into a room.”

As executive vice president of GM, Curtice had approved the 1953 Buick V8 engine and the 1953 Corvette for production in Flint. On Feb. 3, 1953, just five months before the first Corvette was built in Flint, he was elected GM president.

Ron and Darwin inherited their father’s 1953 Corvette after their mother passed away, and the car’s original owner was a Flint GM executive who put a Pro-type V8 engine in it, making it an extremely rare vehicle. “It’s a Flint car,” Ron said this week. “It’s kind of come home.”

Back to the Bricks kicked off Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting at the Durant-Dort Factory, where Josiah Dallas Dort teamed with Billy Durant in 1886 to build the Flint Road Cart Company and Durant-Dort Firm that would eventually become General Motors.

Factory One still stands at 303 W. Water St., in Flint’s historic Carriage Town neighborhood. After decades of decay, GM renovated the building in 2017 and it now serves as an automotive archive, research, and event center open to car lovers, community members, and historians who want to learn more about the origins of the car industry.

“I’ve not been here, but I’m a GM retiree,” Ron Becker said. “I actually went in today for the first time and it is remarkable.”

Back to the Bricks events continue through Saturday, when the main event will bring thousands to downtown Flint for the festivities.

Source:
mlive.com

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