While the ’57 Fuelie put the Corvette on the performance car world stage, one could argue that it was the ’63 split window that turned the Corvette into a lasting automotive icon. Whereas the first generation Corvette had sought to ape the design cues from Europe’s best, the second generation car was unmistakably American, a design which would inspire a multitude of sports cars (not to mention subsequent Corvettes) for years to come.

Although the split window coupe is arguably the more sought-after ’63 model these days, fans didn’t shy away from the drop top when the C2 hit showrooms in 1962, with buyers divided nearly 50/50 between the two body styles. Image: GM

The debut of the second generation Corvette for the 1963 model year brought with it a number of big changes for Chevrolet’s sports car, among them the introduction of a coupe body style for the first time in the model’s history.

But the success of the C2 Corvette was no happy accident, and the road to its eventual production started back in the middle of the 1950s when a collection of GM engineers began to develop the foundation of a considerably more advanced Corvette than the original, one which would incorporate stunning design with even more potent mechanical elements.

In 1957, GM’s Bill Mitchell gave some initial instruction to his team that included a challenge to create a car that was, “a complete breakaway from what we’ve seen around here in the past.”

Dubbed the Sting Ray after a concept race car penned by GM’s Peter Brock, Larry Shinoda, Mitchell and their respective teams in 1959, the second generation car would move beyond Harley Earl’s original design into uncharted territory, while performance improvements would continue to push the Corvette’s dynamic threshold.

Yet because of Corvette project head Zora Arkus-Duntov’s distaste for the rear window design , the iconic split window design would only exist for a single year, making the ’63 split window a particularly rare and highly sought-after model.

It’s been said that the split window design was nixed after one year at his behest due to rear visibility concerns. Considering the fact that Duntov was just as much a racer as he was a designer and engineer, it’s understandable that pragmatism would eventually win out. Image: GM

C2 Spells Big Changes

Borrowing heavily from the concept race car’s aesthetic, the second generation Corvette was a significant aesthetic departure from its predecessor. Up front, its headlights were now hidden, the first American car equipped as such since the 1942 Desoto, in order to maintain the sports car’s curvaceous shape when not in use – a design element that would remain with the Corvette until the debut of the sixth generation in 2005.

The first-ever Corvette coupe sported a fastback-style roofline which incorporated door cutouts into the roof for easier ingress and egress, while the car’s overall exterior design owed as much to wind tunnel testing as it did to the concept car the preceded it.  Below the rear windows, a large emblem doubled as the fuel filler cap, replacing its previous position on the left flank.

The underpinnings of the new Corvette were extensively reworked as well. Riding on a new chassis with a shorter wheelbase than its predecessor, the C2 benefited from improved weight distribution which moved mass off the front end of the car and moved it rearward, enhancing both handling and off-the-line traction, while a new recirculating ball steering system helped bolster its overall maneuverability.

Further aiding the C2’s handling was the introduction of independent rear suspension, a transverse leaf spring design derived from the CERV I concept by Duntov and his team that improved both cornering capability and ride quality.

While drive trains carried over from the outgoing C1 Corvette, few had much to complain about, as no less than four different versions of the 327 small block V8 were available, along with three transmissions and six different axle ratios.

Sitting at the top of the performance food chain again was the fuel injected iteration of the 327, boasting 360 horsepower, while carbureted versions of the 327 were offered in 250, 300 and 340 horsepower configurations.

Inside, the interior of the C2 Corvette was also substantially changed from the first generation car, with a more dramatic interpretation of the twin cowl design that was simultaneously more practical and driver-focused, with pair of oversized gauges for the tachometer and speedometer and an improved layout overall.

The Split Window Meets The Public

Any concerns the Corvette team might have had about the initial reception of this radical redesign were quickly extinguished shortly after the new model went on sale in 1962.

While the previous year had been a record setter for the outgoing first generation Corvette, the 1963 model year would see an astounding 50 percent increase in sales, with production more or less divided evenly between the hardtop and convertible models at 10,594 and 10,919 respectively.

But in an era where revisions could be carried out more rapidly than they are today, the 1963 model’s split window design would be among the first elements that would see alteration, with the 1964 model replacing the segmented sections with one continuous piece of glass for the sake of safety.

Legacy

While the C2 Corvette would maintain the general design of the debut year until 1968’s introduction of the C3 and its Mako Shark bodywork, due to its one-year availability the ’63 split window would go on to become a collectors’ item, one which is becoming increasingly harder to come by as the years go on.

Despite an industry-wide agreement to put the kibosh on factory racing efforts in 1957, after a disastrous crash at Le Mans in ’54 that claimed the lives of numerous spectators, Duntov knew that some customers would be using their Corvettes for private racing efforts in the SCCA and wanted to provide some semblance of factory support to those racers. His solution was to continue the development of racing-specific hardware for the Corvette, resulting in the Corvette Z06. Due to SCCA class rules, these Corvettes did not receive any power train modifications, but the suspension, cooling system, and brakes were upgraded substantially. Along with beefier sway bars, shocks and springs, the Z06 received a number of braking upgrades to assist with heat management, along with an oversized 36-gallon fuel tank for endurance races at tracks like Sebring and Daytona. Due to the tank’s larger dimensions, the Z06 package was initially only available as a coupe until the tank became an optional component in the package in subsequent years. Less than 200 of the original Z06s were produced.

Pristine examples of ’63 coupes originally outfitted with the fuel injected 327 and the available four-speed manual transmission are now valued well into six-figure territory.

After the 1976 model year, the Sting Ray moniker was relegated into Corvette history until 2013, when it re-emerged with the debut of the all-new seventh generation Corvette Stingray, taking its one-word configuration from the format used in association with C3 Corvette models from 1969 to 1976.