56 Corvette Back in 1956, most of America’s roads were still covered in dirt, there were only 168,903,031 people in the country (about 121 million less than in 2002), most families, if they had any cars at all, had only one, and Congress was still debating the Interstate Highway Act. No American had ever heard of Honda, Toyota, or Nissan, and Volkswagen’s success was but a pinprick irritant to Detroit’s Big Three. And in 1956 General Motors was the biggest, most successful company the world had ever seen. With annual sales of $13 billion, GM was twice the size of the second largest company, Standard Oil of New Jersey |