Corvette Sting Ray History

The Corvette C2 was the second generation of Chevrolet’s sports car, following on from the C1. It became popularly known as the Corvette Sting Ray and was unlike anything Corvette had released before.

The development of the new Sting Ray was influenced by various projects. Notably, the 1957 racing car Stingray which had been developed by Larry Shinoda and Peter Brock for chief stylist Bill Mitchell. Peter Brock’s initial sketches were of a coupe and an open-topped roadster. While the roadster sketch was used for the Stingray racer, when development began for the C2 the coupe sketch was refined into what would become the 1963 Sting Ray.

One of the new features for the new generation of Corvettes would be its availability as a coupe – the previous generation had only been sold as a convertible. The car was futuristically styled with a streamlined body and, most notably, had a split window – two panes of glass separated by a narrow space. This made the 1963 model particularly special, as the split-window would be removed in favour of a traditional single-pane window for the 1964 edition – one of the many reasons why the original model is so highly sought after by collectors today.

The Sting Ray featured a 327 cubic-inch small-block V8 engine that provided 250 horsepower, with the optional versions that could offer 300 hp, 340 hp, or the 360 hp of the fuel-injected Rochester engine. Although the brochure promised the availability of aluminum knock-off wheels – as seen on some of the pre-production models – they were not ready by the time the car launched. Instead, original customers of the 1963 model had steel wheels with six-ribbed hub caps fitted. Eventually, the aluminum knock-offs were made available in 1964 for $322.

General Motors (GM) had a racing ban in place which stopped its brands offering track ready cars. Despite this, Chief engineer for Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov, designed the Z06 package for the new 1963 model (some suggest the “Z0” in the name refers directly to “Z0ra”). Those customers who specified a need for a “fuelie” would get everything they’d need to maximise the performance of the new car: the fuel injected small-block V8 provided 360 hp coupled with a close ratio 4-speed transmission; the dual-circuit master cylinder and brakes with sintered metallic linings and fins reigned it in for the corners; while a bigger front stabilizer bar, stiff springs and larger shock absorbers could withstand the rigours of the track. Those who added the N03 option – a larger 36.5 gallon fuel tank – would see the benefit in endurance racing.

These options were not cheap: a base model coupe would set you back $4,257 in 1963 while the Z06 upgrade package with the N03 tank would add nearly an extra 50% to the price, costing $2020 ($1818 for Z06 and $202 for N03). In all, only 199 cars were given the Z06 upgrade, 15 of which were sent to racing teams. Fittingly, there were only 63 cars sold with the N03 tank, making the combination of a Z06/N03 “Big Tank” Sting Ray a rare find – especially when so many were raced and inevitably lost to wear or crashes! It is estimated that only 50 Corvette Sting Ray Z06/N03 are known to still exist.

When combining so many rare elements – the split rear window of the 1963 model, with the obscure upgrade of the Z06 package and the optional addition of a “Big Tank” for endurance racing – it’s easy to see why a Corvette Sting Ray Z06/N03 is so sought after by collectors today.