You’ll Love These Dazzling ‘Vettes At New Gilmore Museum Exhibit

There are a handful of American cars that are truly iconic; fiberglass that can make you drool. If not at the head of the list, certainly in the top two, you'd have to put the Chevrolet Corvette. And this is why you'll have to make it over to Hickory Corners and take a look at the Corvette exhibit in place this summer at the Gilmore Car Museum.

The exhibit is titled "The Greatest Generation – a dramatic presentation of Chevrolet Corvettes from each generation of GM’s legendary American sports car." The exhibit looks at how Corvettes "developed from early fiberglass-bodied roadsters with 150-horsepower inline six-cylinder engines and two-speed transmissions, to today’s fire-breathing, mid-engined C8 Corvettes with more than 600 horsepower and 200+ mile per hour top speeds." All eight generations of Chevrolet Corvettes are in the exhibit.

There's something for any car enthusiast. For example, did you know the Corvette was built as a proto-type dream car, and it was named for a class of fast naval warship. It was unveiled at General Motors’ Motorama auto show at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City in January 1953. And because the public went nuts over it,, GM put the 'Vette on the fast track into production "in a record 6 months, and the first production Corvette rolled off the assembly line in Flint in June 1953.

And here's where the Gilmore people get you: The #26 Corvette ever produced, on that Flint assembly line in 1953, is on display inside the new Gilmore exhibit.

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Along with that rare "dream car", also in this exhibit are,

• The  GM Motorama presentation of two 1954 Corvette concept cars: The Nomad Station Wagon and Corvair “dream cars”
• Incredibly rare 1969 Corvette L-88 Stingray Coupe with high-performance 427ci V8
• An “airborne” Joie Chitwood Auto Thrill Show 1958 Corvette
• The top secret Alpha Build C5 Corvette test car, in unrestored “as-tested” condition.
• Six concept, styling, and development cars never previously displayed together.

Tickets will cost you $16, less for "youths" and kids are free.