ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the iconic status of the Corvette is constructed through the social history, generational influence, and community of the consumers who collect America’s sports car as a lifestyle symbol. The preservation of the car’s history is embodied in the brand community’s mission and leisure activities and as a cultural object, the Corvette is memorialized in the National Corvette Museum. American nationalism was predicated on the progress, competition, and innovation of the largest automobile corporation in the world. National values of efficiency, progress, and materialism were manifested in the production of automobiles. Marketing themes of patriotism and independence rooted themselves into the Corvette brand as the classic American sports car for generations to come. General Motors’s special interior design even embedded the car with American iconography. Chevrolet manufactured the C4 generation models from 1990 to 1996 with an “Easter egg”.
