1957 Corvette. Photos from www.rkmotorscharlotte.com

Introduced in 1953, the Corvette had gone from a practically hand-built machine in the first production year to a full-fledged sportscar by 1957. After a few years of mediocre performance, Chevrolet engineers decided to do away with the 6-cylinder engine in favor of Chevrolet’s newer 283ci small-block V8. This marked the first year that Corvette had truly high performance.

The 3-speed manual transmission was standard, as was the 283ci small-block. New to the small-block was Rochester manual fuel injection which helped the engine deliver 283-horsepower. The constant flow fuel injection system pushed the platform into the high performance range for the times.

That was the magical one horsepower per cubic inch number that engineers had been shooting for.

An optional camshaft (RPO 449) gave the engine an extra 10 horsepower but the option was not popular and few were ordered. A 4-speed manual transmission became available in April of 1957. Only 664 of the special 4-speed manual transmissions were ordered from the factory.

The Corvette was being pushed by Zora Arkus-Duntov, a former racer and considered by many to be the father of the Corvette. Duntov created the 1957 Corvette that could be ordered race ready with special options like the fuel injection system. The Rochester mechanical fuel injection systems were in short supply at the time and only 1,040 found their way onto the factory Corvettes.

Other options included a 283 horsepower engine with fresh air and tachometer package, a heavy duty racing suspension, and 15×5.5-inch wheels.