Article in today's Telegraph about the first US astronauts being offered 'free' Corvettes by General Motors...The original 1953 'vette, at $3490, was outside of an astronauts pay according to the Telegraph (the astronauts were on military salaries). Recognising the marketing potential, General Motors gave Alan Shephard a white '62 Corvette.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/featur ... -pioneers/
The telegraph shows a rather fetching model in red with white sides.
source Shutterstock (as reported in the Telegraph article)
The article goes on to say
"Shepard may have been beaten into space by Yuri Gagarin, but the cosmonaut had to settle for a more modest Matra-Bonnet Djet coupé – a gift from the French government"
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=matra ... -d3FLZva6M
NASA wasn't too pleased with GM's gift to Shephard because it might be seen as a government agency endorsing GM's cars! Florida Chevy dealer Jim Rathmann helped get round this problem
" The astronauts would take their cars to him for tuning and advice. With the help of General Motors, Rathmann set up a scheme that allowed the astronauts to lease any Chevy they liked, virtually for free. Not surprisingly, Buzz Aldrin, Gus Grissom and the rest were happy to sign up."
This lead to the "Astrovettes", daring young men tearing round in Corvettes! (advertising gold!). The cars are reported to have featured in the film "The Right Stuff" .
I'll just settle for looking at these cars from over half a century ago!
Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
Little Red (& White) Corvette
A virtual pub for off topic, light hearted pub related banter and discussion. No trainers
Jump to
- About the Site
- ↳ Welcome to the Lemon Fool (TLF)
- ↳ Announcements
- ↳ Suggestions to Improve the Site
- ↳ Welcome to US Fools
- Investors' Roundtable
- ↳ How Do I Invest
- ↳ The Economy
- ↳ Investment Strategies
- ↳ Green Investing
- ↳ Company Analysis
- ↳ Retirement Investing (inc FIRE)
- ↳ Property Investment Discussions
- ↳ Portfolio Management & Review
- ↳ High Yield Shares & Strategies - General
- ↳ HYP Practical (See Group Guidelines)
- ↳ Growth Strategies
- ↳ Trading my way to a million
- ↳ Technical Analysis
- ↳ Passive Investing
- ↳ Macro and Global Topics
- ↳ International & Expat Investors
- ↳ Other Investing
- ↳ Brokers and Share Dealing
- ↳ Crypto and NFTs
- Sectors & General Share Dealing
- ↳ Company Share news (LSE Main Market)
- ↳ Stocks and Share Dealing Discussions
- ↳ Investment Trusts and Unit Trusts
- ↳ Gilts and Bonds
- ↳ Mining & Metals
- ↳ Oil & Gas & Energy (Sector & Companies)
- ↳ REITs & Property Companies
- ↳ Banking Sector
- ↳ Venture Capital Trusts (VCT's)
- ↳ Pharmaceuticals & Bio-Pharma
- Managing Your Finances
- ↳ Dealing with Debt
- ↳ Bank Accounts Savings & ISAs
- ↳ Financial Software - Discussion
- ↳ Living Below Your Means
- ↳ Student Finance
- ↳ Pensions - Practical Problems
- ↳ Mortgages
- ↳ Credit Cards and Loans
- ↳ Taxes (Practical)
- ↳ Your Tomorrow Starts Today
- ↳ Personal Finance Calculators
- Lemon-Aid
- ↳ Does anyone know?
- ↳ Legal Issues (Practical)
- ↳ Technology - Computers, TV, Phones etc.
- ↳ Building and DIY
- ↳ Comfort Cafe
- ↳ Running a Business
- ↳ Charitable Giving
- ↳ Family Matters
- Lemon Lounge
- ↳ Room 101 - Escalation to Admin
- ↳ Room 102 - Site Issues, Complaints & General Chat
- ↳ Beerpig's Snug
- ↳ Lemon Socials
- ↳ Laughing Lemons
- ↳ Coronavirus Discussions
- Travel Lounge
- ↳ Cars, Driving, Motorbikes or any Transport
- ↳ London lovers
- ↳ Around the UK
- ↳ Airport Lounge
- ↳ Cycling
- Interests - Culture, Leisure , Food and Nature
- ↳ Sports Bar (all sports)
- ↳ Music, Theatre, TV and Film
- ↳ Food
- ↳ Drink
- ↳ The Natural World
- ↳ Books and Reading
- ↳ Photography
- ↳ Science
- ↳ History
- ↳ Health & Wellbeing
- Polite Debate & Discussion
- ↳ Current Affairs & News
- ↳ The Meaning of Life
- Any Other Business
- ↳ Land of Off Topic Posts
- ↳ Pedants' Place
- ↳ Bitter Lemons
- ↳ Curiosity Corner
- ↳ Games, Puzzles and Riddles
- ↳ Catastrophe Corner
- ↳ Testing 123...