A 1977 Chevrolet Corvette.Chevrolet The Corvette is Americas sports car. Sure, it wasnt the first to come along, and it has seen plenty of competitors come and go, but GMs plastic two-seater remains the favourite sports car of a nation.Today we have the National Corvette Museum, where various models are enshrined (when they arent being restored from sinkhole damage).And on any given weekend, you can find several Corvettes (along with their fashionably dressed owners) at basically any classic car show.Still, the Corvette has not existed free of criticism. From its troubled beginning as a flimsy show car, professional car reviewers have not held back on sharing their honest opinions on the Corvette.Having been obsessed with Corvettes since well, before I was eating solid foods, Ive built a veritable library of period road tests of the model. And so on the eve of the C8s debut, I pored over my collection of Corvette road tests and found the rudest things reviewers said about each of the seven generations so far.C1: 1953 to 1962The production C1 Corvette was born haphazardly out of GMs Motorama show, and its kinda evident when examined up close. Most reviewers were simply happy Chevrolet was actually building the thing, but it wasnt all roses. Especially in the handling department.A driving impression not entirely favorable concerns cornering, said Motor Life in 1954. The outlet said it showed a definite unwillingness to tuck back in after flinging the back end out in a corner, and mentioned that the ride was not as comfortable as other Chevrolets.From its clean design in 53, the Corvette had grown a smattering of Harley-Earl-dictated chrome details by 1958, some of which displeased the editors of SCI magazine. They disliked the washboard-like phony louvers on the hood and Pontiac-like chrome strips on the trunk. In regards to handling, the magazine said it would simply plow right off the road as power was applied. Hardly high praise!Yes, the C1 Corvette had a handling problem, and by 1961 it still hadnt gone away. When either end of the Corvette does swing out in a corner, it swings pretty quickly and without much warning , so some vigilance is required said SCI in a 1961 road test. In 1962, Motor Trend found the ergonomics rather poor and the build quality even worse, but still said the car was completely satisfying.They said the steering wheel is mounted in a vertical position and most drivers will find it too close.It also leaves little room between the drivers lap and the bottom of the rim. This and the miserably mounted throttle pedal (it kept falling off) are the only real beefs we have about this otherwise completely satisfying car. So the C1 was ill-handling, was (in some years) covered with chrome trinkets and had old-world ergonomics. But lots of that would change in 1963.C2: 1963 to 1967The C2 Corvette was a revolution. Benchmarked against the new Jaguar E-Type during development, the C2 was fast, beautiful, and technically advanced. Made only for a short spell, the C2 is now the classic Corvette. But what drawbacks did the car have when it was new?I tried to find evidence to support the oft-repeated tale that reviewers found the split rear window annoying and found absolutely nothing to support that. Even when turning a critical eye to the car, most reviewers had very few bad things to say about it. Some equated it with the contemporary Ferrari 250 GT. But it wasnt perfect.In 1963, Car and Driver said On bumpy turns its at its worst, veering freely from one course to another, making high-frequency corrections standard operating procedure. Regarding the four-wheel drum brakes, the magazine noted fade is easily provoked. Four-wheel discs would be introduced in 1965 to quell that issue.But by 1967, Car and Driver was still unhappy about the handling. The Sting-Ray rides softly and vaguelyyoure never sure what the car is trying to tell you, editors wrote. In all, reviews here were fairly positive. Maybe the C2s classic status is well-earned.C3: 1968 to 1982The C3 is possibly the most misunderstood car ever made. Its definitely the most misunderstood Corvette. I own a beat-up 1970 model, and nearly caught fire after I claimed it was the second-best Corvette generation of them all. Over its lengthy 14-year run from 1968 to 1982, it morphed from a no-nonsense sports car bristling with power and seething with lumpy-cam attitude; to an overweight, outdated fashion statement on aluminum wheels.The fastest and most powerful Corvettes of the classic era were C3s and the slowest and least powerful V8 Corvettes were also C3s. The complaints I found for the C3 reflect this shift.Early complaints for chrome-bumper cars like mine point to its brutal, animalistic nature. In 1968, Car Life said, The 427 rides like a truck. It shakes so badly on normal roadways that you have to hang on to the wheel just to keep it from bouncing out of your grip. The fiberglass body twists like a snake, and the big V-8
Origin: 66 Years of Corvette complaints: a history of hating America