It may seem hard to believe, but the Chevrolet Corvette turns 60 in 2013. Over the car’s six-decade life, it’s been transformed from an underpowered and hastily slapped-together roadster (the original 1953 model) to a world class sports car (most recently, the Corvette ZR1) and endurance racing legend.

The Corvette is now on its sixth generation, and a new C7 model is scheduled to be introduced for the 2014 model year. Production of 2013 Corvettes (all of which can be equipped to honor the car’s 60th anniversary) will be limited, as the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky gears up to produce the new model.

To celebrate the car’s 59th birthday and kick off the countdown to 60, Chevrolet has produced a brief highlight reel of Corvette footage throughout the years. There’s the expected racing scenes, a few ad snippets and even a brief look at the ZR1’s lap of Germany’s Green Hell, the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

While the Corvette has changed with the times (and with the expectations of its customers), every example is an instantly recognizable symbol of American motoring history. We can’t know what future versions will look like (or how they’ll be powered), but it’s fairly safe bet that as long as there’s a Chevrolet, there will be a Corvette.