Two changes in '57 made the Corvette a superior, more desirable car. First, John Dolza and Zora Duntov designed the famous fuel-injection for the small block that gave a nominal 283 HP from a 283 CI engine. It was the first mass-produced American car to reach the one to one cubic inch to horsepower ratio. It was also the first American production car to offer fuel injection. Second, the T-10 Borg Warner 4-speed manual became available in late '57. The Corvette was fast by international standards completing the quarter-mile in 14 seconds at a speed of 95 mph. Top speed was rated at 130 mph.

Corvette offered a full competition racing package, RPO 684, for what was viewed as an inexpensive price of $725. This brought a lot of amateurs onto the racing scene. The package included cerametallic brake linings in finned drums, wider wheels, quicker steering, positraction, bigger shocks, a heavier anti-roll bar, and heavier front and rear springs. This moved the Corvette up into the B-production class, but that fact did little to keep the Corvette from winning the B-production and B-modified national championships. Also, the Corvette had a good showing at Sebring with a 12th, 15th and 16th finish which included winning the GT class.

Besides the three cars at Sebring that won the GT class, GM had another factory racing team headed by Duntov. In '56, Duntov began building the Corvette SS. It was to be a pure racer. Duntov's vision was for the Corvette to head in two directions. One would be his pure racing Corvette SS and the other would be the street car availble to the public. Once again, GM disregarded his ideas, but design features of his SS would continually show up in future Corvettes.

GM did give him funding for one Corvette SS to be tested at Sebring, but put a lot of stipulations on the project. GM wanted the Corvette SS to be a stylish automobile and because of the time spent on styling and body design the Corvette SS never made it to track prior to Sebring. It was doomed for failure and completed only 23 laps of the 12 hour race with varied mechanical problems. Duntov did manage some success despite GM's efforts to contain him. Using spare parts from the SS, he put together a second car. For this car he was able to concentrate on the racing aspects of his design. The car was not pretty, but made it to Sebring in time to get 2000 track miles prior to the race. Duntov arranged for legendary drivers Juan Fangio and Stirling Moss to test the car. The two superstars of racing loved the car and predicted great things for the Corvette. Duntov rebuilt both of his cars in preparation for Le Mans, but would never be able to test them because of the eventual ban on corporate sponsored racing. The Corvette SS was dead.

Corvette factory racing ended as quickly as it began. On June 1, 1957 the various auto manufactures got together and signed an agreement banning factory racing teams. They didn't want to be seen as racing promoters and wanted their companies to be seen as safety-minded, quality producers of all kinds of automobiles. After this agreement, Corvette options included an "off-road" package which was merely a cover for a racing package.

Other notes for '57: Duntov was crowned the Chief of Corvette production. His 310 HP SR-2 won the standing mile run in the modified class with an average speed of 93.047 mph at Speed Weeks at Daytona Beach. Chevrolet's Corvette New Magazine started and the Northern California Corvette Club became the first Corvette club.

DID YOU KNOW?: The 1957 Corvette was the first mass produced American automobile to offer 1 horsepower per cubic inch of engine displacement (283hp/283ci).