Back in 1963, when the first Corvett Z06 came along, it shipped with an impressive 360 horsepower: little more than half of that produced by today’s Corvette Z06, but certainly more than enough to shock and frighten in the 1960s.
But before the first Corvette Z06 came along, in 1962, there was the first-generation Corvette RPO 687. That car would serve as the beastly premiere application for the same Rochester fuel-injected 360 HP L84 V8 which would push the ’63 Z06 to such great heights.
The car pictured above is such an example, so-equipped with the L84 “fuelie” V8, and as Autoevolution reports, only 246 examples were ever made for the 1962 model year. The L84 small block in this car(and the C2 Z06 after it) had a 327 cubic-inch displacement (5.4 liters), and was mated to a T-10 4-speed manual. A Positraction – a.k.a. GM-branded limited-slip – differential helped to put all that power down to the road.
The example pictured above has a black interior, wrapped in a black-on-black exterior, which lends the car an incredible sense of menace. It sold for just $100,000 at auction back in 2012, which seems far, far too cheap for such a specimen. It has the RPO 687 oversized brakes with air-cooling scoops, an auxiliary hardtop, off-road exhaust – the list goes on.
Despite the bonkers performance of the contemporary 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, we at GM Authority are quite certain which we’d rather have.
Comments
Z06 originally referred to the 36 gal fuel tank. Those cars were called tankers back then. Also hp was given as a gross number so 360 back then is more like 280 or so on today’s net hp system.