1963 Corvette Z06 Tanker to be Offered at Mecum Houston

Feb 23, 2016

4181

1963 Corvette Z06 Tanker to be Offered at Mecum Houston

If you’re looking to add an extremely rare Corvette to your collection, then you’ll want to head to Houston, Texas in April to bid on this 1963 Corvette Z06 Tanker. The silver on black big tank C2 is highly documented and comes with NCRS Top Flight and Bloomington Gold honors.

Just 199 Corvettes had RPO Z06 on the options list in 1963. Far less than that are known today and they’re priced accordingly whenever they come up for sale. They were equipped with heavy duty brakes and suspension, the 360hp fuel injected 327CI engine, and a 4 speed transmission. A radio wasn’t available and the 36 gallon fuel tank was only available for a portion of the production run. The option package added a healthy $1,818.14 (~42%) to the base Corvette price of $4,252.

Lot S166 at Mecum Houston was produced on February 12th, 1963 and subsequently delivered to Jim Connell Chevrolet of East Cleveland, Ohio. Flash forward to 1986 when it was rediscovered in unrestored condition by Howard Baker. It has spent most of its life in several noted Corvette Collections, has been inspected by Z06 authority Eric Gill, and has undergone an extensive history investigation by Bill Gould of Auto Ancestry.

This Sting Ray features all of the requisite Z06 options including the racing inspired brakes and suspension, T10 4 speed transmission, radio delete, and numbers matching 360 hp fuel injected 327. Other hard to find items include Kelsey Hayes 2-bar knock-off wheels wearing Firestone non-D.O.T. blackwall tires and the aforementioned 36 gallon gas tank.

As you’d expect with a high end Corvette, this one’s made the all of the show circuit rounds claiming Bloomington Gold Certification, NCRS Top Flight, and Chevy VetteFest Gold Spinner Awards.

The car is documented with restoration photos, receipts, and owner history back to 1967. It also comes with copies of previous titles, the owner’s manual packet, as well as the Bloomington Gold certificate and judging sheets. The new owner will also get a three ring binder with correspondence from past owners, several appraisals, Z06 surveys, plus the NCRS Shipping Data Report.

So how much will this rare Corvette bring at auction? Well, the last big tank Z06 Mecum sold went for $750,000 at Kissimmee in January. Will this Z06 bring the same money? Guess we’ll have wait until mid-April to find out.