Used Car of the Day: 1955 Chevrolet Corvette

by Tim Healey

Published: July 28th, 2023

used car of the day 1955 chevrolet corvette

There's a Brit in California selling a classic first-gen 1955 Chevrolet Corvette.

The forum is aimed at UK-based buyers, but the car is in California and I am including it in this feature because I assume our seller is open to an American buyer. There'd certainly be no need to ship, if that's the case, though the seller says the car can be shipped overseas via Oakland.

The car itself is in rough shape and in need of restoration, though it does apparently start and run.

The numbers match and both original tops come with it, and it has the original side screens. The color combo is yellow and green.

If you have the time and money to get knee-deep into a major restoration, click here to get started with this C1.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 31 comments

Dukeisduke on Jul 31, 2023

A low option car (the dog dish caps were available), and a no radio car. I see a blower motor under the hood, so at least it has a heater/defroster.

1 Reply
Olddavid on Jul 31, 2023

I was born along with the Corvette at around this time. In those days, the new models were announced like some Barnum and Bailey show - with giant search lights, huge curtains on showroom windows and every minor celebrity each of the dealers could cajole into taking part. When the Corvettes first came out even the dealership employees - save the dealer principle - were banned during setup. It was always about the same time we went back to school so seeing the crates with promo material was always a kind of downer for us kids. My memory of these early cars is that the mechanics in the shop didn't think much of it. I would guess about this time the accountants, who would eventually prevail, were screaming due to losses on the model. Roger Smith, the head numbers man, became CEO and things began to change. And we know what a rousing success his tenure became? Oh yeah, this has value only in it is matching numbers. What ever happened to Corvette Vickie? You know from the ads in AW? She may need wheels in retirement.

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