In 1957, the American Manufacturers Association, mainly consisting of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, met and deiced to cease all factory-backed racing programs in light of incidents like the 1955 Le Mans Disaster. A consequence of that decision also saw virtually all programs dedicated to developing performance cars for the street halted as well—namely the Corvette.
Even though this meant that cars like the Corvette would continue to be sold, the development of a second-generation model became the lowest priority item for the heads at GM.
Although that may have been the general consensus, there was one executive that still believed in the Corvette, the newly appointed head of GM Styling, Bill Mitchell. So, under complete secrecy, Mitchel and a small team developed the C2 Corvette—risking his entire career at the process.
Read more about how the AMA ban almost killed the Corvette over on Classic Motorsports, from a young employee of the GM Styling team of that time, Peter Brock.
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