Pre-Production...

In 1951 a group of Harley Earl's "Special Projects" crew began work on a GM sports car. Bob McLean designed a general layout for the car which was originally code named, "Opel."
William Durant, the founder of GM, said a wallpaper pattern he saw in a Paris hotel in 1908 inspired the bow tie logo. Supposedly, he ripped off a small piece of it and brought it back to Detroit.
Myron Scott, at the time Chevrolet's Chief photographer, is credited with coming up with the Corvette name, drawing from the small, fast warships of the "Corvette" class.
The Jaguar XK120 is believed to have been the inspiration for the first Corvette.
The Corvette was the first and last car with a true "wrap-around" windshield.
Corvette was not the first to be made with a fiberglass body, but it was the first to be built by a company the size of Chevrolet.
Corvettes have been assembled in three different cities. Flint, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and Bowling Green, Kentucky.