This rather short documentary looks at the history of America’s ultimate sports car, the Corvette. Presented in a style that would best be classed as a combination of instructional video and extended television commercial, it contains everything that Corvette lovers could ask for – and quite a lot they wouldn’t ask for. Named after its creator, Swiss racing driver Louise Chevrolet, this institution in American automobile and cultural history gets the full treatment here.

The Corvette was first released in 1953 to compete with European sports cars and was an instant success. The purchase price of the first model was $3000, so the target market was a little limited, but the sales were encouraging for future models. 1963 saw the first Sting Ray produced with sales growing larger every year. You will note at this stage that the name Sting Ray was two words and remained so until 1969 when the one word, Stingray, was used. The sports car industry boomed in the US with Corvette’s main competitors being the Ford Mustang and Oldsmobile, but these models soon became sedans, leaving the Corvette as the only genuine sports car. The two seater sports car is something Corvette has maintained throughout its history, right up to the release of the C5 model in 1997, which is as far as this release covers. The C5 was so named due to it being the fifth generation of Corvettes.

This is quite an interesting look at the history of this range of vehicles. The way it is presented is a little boring though, coming across much like those instructional videos you used to see in high school. It also tends to be a bit self indulgent in promoting Chevrolet, but that is to be expected and most watching this will be fans anyway so it won’t be too much of an issue. There are some annoying long pauses in the dialogue at times too. These may be intentional and seem to allow the viewer to sit and admire the vision of a certain car at the time, as if to say, aren’t you just so impressed?

MMMmmm, shiny!

The other thing that can’t go by without mention is the awful music. Apart from the recognisable and expected Born To Be Wild, the majority of music sounds like it wouldn’t be lost as backing music for a porn film. I guess overall though it really is porn for revheads so most won’t mind. Also be warned that at times this feature really goes into detail. It gives information that only true car buffs will understand and I would assume those with that knowledge will appreciate the extra stats, but for most of us the information will sound much like "Blah Blah Blah!".

Many only ever dream of owning a Corvette, but for the rest of us this is a nice look at its history. Although this documentary appears a little dated and is extremely self-indulgent, it should satisfy those with an interest in this type of thing.

Presented in full frame and therefore not 16:9 enhanced, this transfer is rather disappointing. Considering it covers up to 1997, it looks very dated. Granted the majority of footage used is from the ‘50s and ‘60s, but even footage from the ‘90s is of similar quality. The biggest problem is grain, it is constant, but there are also problems with film artefacts and aliasing. Colours appear washed out most of the time also.

Audio is supplied in Dolby Digital stereo and this does a decent enough job. Being a narrative throughout there really is not a need for a stereo track and there is no noticeable directional action to speak of. Dialogue is clear throughout and the awful music can be heard loud and clear. Not a great need for an awesome soundtrack for this one so this is more than acceptable.

A couple of extras accompany this release. There is History which contains nine pages of text and a Gallery which contains 12 pictures of Corvettes. Both are reasonable extras and to be honest, there is not really much else that could have been added.

One for the revheads or those who dream of one day owning a Corvette, this is a reasonable look at America’s ultimate sports car. For the majority out there, this will be of no interest but for those who do this should give you all you need.