Vintage Red Corvettes For Sale

History of the Red Vette

In 1953, the first year of the Corvette, Corvettes were only available in Polo White. In 1954, Chevrolet decided to release the corvette in additional colors. The first three color options were Sportsman Red, Pennant Blue, and black. Polo white was considered standard.

Over the years the color of red has changed as much as, if not more than, the names they gave it over the years. 1954 was the first year for Sportsman Red, with 100 produced. 1955 saw a new shade of red and a new name of Gypsy Red with 180 produced.

1956 and 1957 brought not only a new body style, but also a new shade of red, Ventian Red, with 1,043 produced in 1956 and 1,320 produced in 1957. 1958 brought another new body style and another new shade of red, Signet Red, with 1,399. 1959 brought a few new minor body changes and a new name, Roman Red, with 1,542 produced. 1960 carried the same Roman Red as 59 with 1,529 produced. 1961 and 1962 continued the Roman Red with 1,794 produced in 61 and an unknown number produced in 62.

In 1963 GM started to install trim tags so people could track paint and interior colors. 1963 brought us a completely new corvette, the C2, along with a completely new red, code 923 Riverside Red, with 4,612 produced. 1964 continued with code 923 Riverside Red with 5,274 produced. 1965 saw another shade of red and another new name, code UU Rally Red, with 3,688 produced. 1966 contiued code 974 Rally Red with 3,366 produced. 1967 also had code 974 Rally Red with 2,341 produced.

1968 brought the C3 body style to the corvette, but continued with code 974 Rally Red with 2,918 produced. 1969 saw another new shade of red along with a new name, code 974 Monza Red, with an unknown number produced. Monza Red continued in 1970 with an unknown number produced. 1971 saw another shade of red along with a new name, code 973 Mille Miglia Red, with 2,180 produced. Mille Miglia Red continued in 1972 with 2,478 produced.

1973 & 1974 also used code 976 Mille Miglia Red with an unknown number produced. 1974 also had code 974 Medium Red with a unknown number produced. 1975 brought us code 74 Dark Red with 3,342 produced. They also used code 76 Mille Miglia Red in 75 with 3,355 produced. 1976 had "code 72 Red" with 4,590 produced. 1977 brought two new reds: code 72 Medium Red with 4,057 produced and code 83 Corvette Dark Red with 3,434 produced. 1978 brought a return to only one red: code 72 Corvette Red with 2,074 produced. 1979 continued with code 72 Corvette Red with 6,707 produced.

1980 brought another body style change and a return to code 83 Red with 5,714 produced. 1981 continued with code 75 Red with 4,310 produced. 1982 saw the end of the C3 body style and the end of code 70 Red with 2,155 produced.