The Chevy Corvette Sting Ray was all new for 1963. After having made great strides in performance and styling in its first ten years of production, the 1963 Corvette finally got the underpinnings to become a world-leading sports car. Gone was the previous generation’s X-frame, replaced by a new perimeter structure that allowed the seats to sit within the frame, rather than above it. This allowed for much more head room. The new chassis also carried an independent rear suspension sprung by a transverse leaf spring.
For the first time, the 1963 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray was offered as both a convertible and a coupe. Both cars featured a center ridge running from the top of the windshield on the coupe, and from the leading edge of the rear deck lid on the convertible. The coupe had a center bar through the back window dividing it in half, much to the chagrin of Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov. The bar, which greatly inhibited rearward vision, was the idea of Styling Section Vice President Bill Mitchell. It would last a single year. The following year the bar would be gone, improving vision in the rear view mirror, and cementing the 1963 Split Window Coupe as an American automotive icon.
Our feature 1963 Chevy Corvette coupe was delivered new to Land-Sharp Chevrolet in Kansas City, Missouri. It has been the subject of an extensive body-off restoration. The Corvette has been refinished in its original Tuxedo Black color over red vinyl interior. It is powered by its original fuel-injected 327 producing 360 horsepower. Power is transferred to the rear wheels by the Borg Warner T10 four-speed manual transmission and the Positraction rear differential. Stopping power comes from four-wheel drum brakes (four-wheel discs wouldn’t be introduced until 1965). The Corvette is equipped with a Delco AM-FM radio, a woodgrain steering wheel, painted steel wheels with spinner-style polished wheel covers, and Firestone Deluxe Champion bias-ply tires.
This handsome 1963 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray coupe will cross the Mecum Auctions block at their Dallas, Texas sale taking place September 20th through the 23rd.
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Comments
It’s a beauty!
Since it’s Mecum most likely the bid will go on.
That is not on Mecum. The collector car market has been cooling for over a year.
Take it from someone that owned one, the split rear window did NOT impede visibility! I keep reading that stupid statement and people actually believe it. Unless you’ve owned and driven one, you’ll probably believe that B.S.
ACZ, I recently sold my pair of red ’63s, a SWC and a convertible owned for a very long time. Until I got out of my split-window car and drove a “Big-Window” coupe, for years I too had thought the visibility issue was totally BS. Now I know better but as my life goes on after a severe case of COVID, if I had the chance to get my rear vis-restricted coupe back, I’d jump at it as I’ll always think the ’63 coupe is the most beautiful car GM ever made. I have often wondered however if the “split” had survived the following three years, would the “Big-Window” for ’67 be as popular as the one year split is today? We’ll never know but I just took a Museum delivery of a new C8 coupe and without the camera mode in the rear-view mirror, the rear visibility isn’t much better than the ’63.
Flyboh, I will agree with you on the beauty of the SWC. Even though I love the 71 LT1 coupe and the 02 Z06, that I have now, nothing really compares to the 63. It’s true what they say: “You never forget your first one”.
I’d love to photo op this beauty alongside my ’61 Corvair Monza that has the exact same color combo. What a beautiful Corvette.
Why in the world while pushing the go pedal down would a “vette head” ever be concerned with what or what not is visible in the rear window?
Really? wow, geeeeez…..
Someone has never driven a old school big block….dream on brother.