Corvette: America's First Sports Car (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Notes-History Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	49:38 (Case: 57)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Gary Legon
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Roger One-Take
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Thorkus Pub. Co.

    Corvette: America's First Sports Car was entertaining, informative and made me want to go out and buy one. This documentary is the best that I have reviewed so far in a series by the same production company.

    Corvette: America's First Sports Car takes an in-depth (and sometimes tedious) look at the most recognisable sports car that America has ever produced. The Corvette was first released in 1953 and was unlike anything to come out of the American automotive industry to that point in time. It was designed to compete with the smaller, better handling European sports cars.

    The Corvette was a hit from day one. The general public lined up at showrooms for half an hour just to catch a glimpse of the car. Eager buyers often had to wait 3-6 months for the cars to get delivered. It was a convertible, it was a two seater and it was fast. The Corvette found its market and over the next 50 years it never failed to please. Unlike the Thunderbird, its early competition from Ford, the Corvette did not evolve into something completely different. GM kept the Corvette true to its heritage and every model throughout its five different phases is considered a classic by enthusiasts.

    Corvette: America's First Sports Car examines all of the Corvette models ever produced. Particular attention is paid to the Classic models from the 50s and 60s, though a far amount of time is spent covering the later models also. It takes the viewer through the complete history of the Corvette. Commercials and showroom footage from the 50s are shown, and test track racing film is displayed. It also examines GM's attempt to gain a racing pedigree for the Corvette, which was only partially successful.

    A considerable amount of time is spent at Corvette car shows, demonstrating the time and effort put into caring for, restoring and modifying one of these classic American sports cars. Wherever you go, and no matter what part of the world you are in, if you are in a Corvette you will get noticed.

Video

    The video transfer quality is acceptable, but not reference standard.

    The transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame.

    The transfer is adequately clear and sharp. On occasion minor grain and softening of the picture is noticeable. The shadow detail is acceptable but there was little chance to thoroughly assess it. With the considerable amount of chrome present, low level noise was remarkably well controlled with only minor instances occurring. Some examples are present at 8:20, 17:07 and 17:50. The quality of the older footage varied widely and exhibited the expected flaws.

    The colours were clear with no unusual characteristics evident. However, they did seem washed out and a little bland, as with the other productions in this series.

    There were no noticeable MPEG artefacts. Film-to-video artefacts were minor with aliasing noticeable on the front grilles of most of the cars. Film artefacts were common throughout the documentary, but for the most part these were small and not distracting. Once again, the only cases of major film artefacts occurred during the classic footage.

    There are no subtitle options available on this feature.

    This is a single layered disc and thus there is no layer change present.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer, like the video transfer, is adequate but not reference standard.

    There is only one audio track available on this disc, being English Dolby Digital surround encoded 2.0 (192Kb/s) stereo.

    The dialogue is clear and easily understood at all times. Most of the dialogue is offered by the narrator, who articulates clearly and succinctly . Audio sync is not an issue with this disc.

    The music was by Thorkus Pub. Co. and was innovative and refreshing for this type of documentary. It was a welcome departure from the stereotypical music of the previous offerings. Much to my amazement I did not hear "Wild Thing", not even once. The music suited the on-screen action well.

    As this is predominately a dialogue-driven documentary, there is little use for the surround speakers and the subwoofer remained silent.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are a small number of standard extras on offer.

Menu

    The menu system is static and silent.

Notes-History

    This is a compressed history of the Corvette. It is consists of nine pages of notes and only touches on the major aspects of the Corvette's history.

Gallery-Photo

    A small selection of photos of the legendary car. It includes 12 different models that span the Corvette's existence.

    As far as we are aware, this DVD is not available in any other region.

    This is an interesting and entertaining documentary that examines the history of one of the most noticeable cars ever produced. It has an adequate video transfer, an adequate audio transfer, and minimal extras. I want a Corvette NOW!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall