Little red Corvette: Baby you're much too fast. Little red Corvette. You've got a brand that's gonna last. (Real laudio to Prince's Little Red Corvette)

It's the 50th anniversay of the Corvette. In true automotive marketing style, the party started a year ago. An official unveiling of the 2003 model Corvettes, along with the 50th Anniversary Corvette, are highlighted festivities of the Corvette Museum's year-long celebration.

The Corvette family plays together. Brent Dewar, marketing general manager for the Chevrolet division of General Motors, described the celebration as a family event. Many organizations focus on the community and family aspects of the cars, Dewar said. ''We support them, and we sponsor them.'' One is the National Council of Corvette Clubs Inc., which has created an organization within it called the Future Corvette Owners Association. That group sponsors essay contests and other events to involve kids in the Corvette family. ''To really have an American sports icon, you must capture the imagination of the kids,'' Dewar said.

What began as a show car in 1953 for Chevrolet to compete with European nameplates, such as Jaguar, ended up being a sports car icon for Americans. Fifty years later, thousands and thousands of Corvettes were registered to participate in a national caravan to celebrate what is definitely not a mid-life crisis for the brand.

If you've got the horsepower, check out this Quicktime Video of the original Little Red Corvette. Purists know that the first Corvettes were available only in white. This '53 original, perhaps the oldest vette on the planet, was factory modified by the GM Experimental Department, stuffed with a V8, and repainted the definitive brand color. Corvette has become the quintessential American automotive brand: a two-seater family value.