With last’s week’s announcement that the 2014 Corvette Stingray will start at a base price of just $51,995, we thought we’d put that in context by looking at the inflation-adjusted base price for each model year from the Corvette’s 1953 introduction. With a little help from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator and the invaluable Corvette Black Book, we were able to put together the chart below that converts each year’s MSRP into 2013 dollars.

Some interesting facts:

• Most expensive Corvette in constant dollars? The 1989 C4, at $59,216
• Least expensive? $24,004 for the 1954 Corvette
• Over its lengthy run, the MSRP of the C3 nearly quadrupled, and even adjusted for inflation, it still rose more than $10,000
• The switch between C3 and C4 saw the biggest run up in real cost, jumping 15.5% from 1982 to 1984
• On average, the adjusted cost of buying a Corvette has gone down since the dawn of the C4 era, from the mid-$56,000 range to $51k for the C6

With the huge jump in technology for the new C7, it’s good to see that Chevy has managed to hold the line on costs and keep America’s Sports Car relatively attainable.