The hand-built pre-production Corvette prototype shown in 1953 was designated EX-122. It was the physical result of the early Corvette development effort and the direct forerunner of the first production cars.
EX-122 was displayed to the public at the General Motors Motorama on January 17, 1953, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The event gave GM a chance to test public reaction to an American two-seat sports car inspired partly by the growing popularity of European roadsters.
The prototype was not identical in every detail to the production 1953 Corvette, but the transition was remarkably quick. Chevrolet began production roughly six months after the Motorama appearance, with the car assembled in Flint, Michigan, using a fiberglass body.
Names such as XP-700, Mako I, and XP-87 refer to later Corvette concepts or experimental cars. XP-87, for example, was associated with the 1959 Stingray Racer, while the Mako concepts belonged to the 1960s. EX-122 belongs specifically to the birth of the C1 Corvette.