- May 1, 1953: Zora Arkus-Duntov starts work at Chevrolet as assistant staff engineer to Maurice Olley in Research and Development.
- May 1, 1957: A fully-synchronized four-speed
transmission is first made available on the 1957 model Corvette, as
a US$188.30 option.
- May 1, 1988: The first round of the SCCA Corvette
Challenge race series is held in Dallas, Texas. Mark Dismore wins
the race.
- May 3, 1993: Corvette chief engineer Dave Hill
unveils the CERV-4 test car at the General Motors Technical Center in
Warren. Most of the hundreds of people attending did not even
know the test car was being built. It cost Chevrolet about US$1.2
million to build.
- May 5, 1994: The two Corvette C5-R cars participate in a one-day test of the Paris Le Mans circuit, prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
- May 13, 2000: The eight-day One Lap of America
race finishes. A 600 hp C5 entered by Chuck Mallett finishes Third.
Fifth is a Lingenfelter ZR-1, and 7th is a Lingenfelter twin-turbo C5.
- May 21, 2000: The Nevada Open Road Challenge
is held on a 90 mile stretch of highway S.R. 318 between Lund and Hiko.
78 of over 200 cars are Corvettes. A modified 1992 Corvette takes top
speed of 227 MPH. Another Corvette averages 207 MPH, taking first
place.
- May 22, 1953: Work on building Corvette test cars #854 and #855 is ordered terminated, with completed components to be used as spare parts.
- May 25, 1953: In Indianapolis, Indiana, the Custom Car Show includes Corvette show car #853.
- May 25, 1986: In Indianapolis, Indiana, the
70th Indianapolis 500 race is held. A yellow convertible 1986
Corvette is the official pace car.
- May 28, 1978: In Indianapolis, Indiana, the
62nd Indianapolis 500 race is held. A 1978 Corvette is the official
pace car, driven by Jim Rathmann. This is the first Indianapolis 500
pace car with a stock drivetrain.
- May 28, 1995: In Indianapolis, Indiana, the
79th Indianapolis 500 race is held. A 1995 Corvette performs the role
of Official Pace Car.
- May, 1956: Zora Arkus-Duntov builds the Corvette
SR-2 Sebring racer.
- May, 1975: A Car and Driver Reader's Choice
Poll names the Corvette as "Best All-around Car".
- May, 1986: At the first annual vintage races
at Riverside Raceway in California, Bob Paterson races his Grand Sport
Corvette #003 to first place, among eight powerful Cobras.
- May, 1994: General Motors' Strategy Board convenes
with Corvette group executives for the Concept Approval phase of the
Four-Phase process of building new cars. Conditional approval
is given to pass from Phase Zero to Phase One, subject to a review in
one month regarding production downtime between the 1996 model and the
1997 model.
- May, 1994: A Reeves Callaway Corvette qualifies
at Le Mans for the pole position in the GT2 class. At the 6-hour mark,
the car is leading in its class, and is 8th overall. But at the
9-hour mark, the car runs out of gas, due to a fuel economy miscalculation.
Corvette history compiled
by Ken Pollson.