Chevy says 10,594 of its new-fangled Corvette Sting Ray split-window coupes left the St. Louis factory during the 1963 model year.
So would you pay nearly a half-million dollars to say you own the last one ever built?
You can do just that right now on eBay, as body #10594 is being auctioned off with a “Buy It Now” price of $499,900. With 17 days left in the bidding, no one has yet made an offer.
Based on the photos accompanying the listing, the car is indeed in splendid condition, having undergone a recent restoration of the body and paint, described now as “flawless” by the seller.
The ’63 Sting Ray, of course, was the first time Chevy had offered the Corvette in coupe form and more importantly it was the only year they offered the controversial split-window coupe. The vision-blocking fiberglass strip – beloved by designer Bill Mitchell and loathed by chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov – was then removed from the rear windows of coupes produced during the remaining four years of the five-year C2 run.
Besides its distinction of being the last split-window coupe built, this car also has other desirable features, including its original matching-numbers drivetrain that includes a solid lifter 327/340 horsepower engine (one of 6,978 produced) and a Muncie 4-speed manual transmission and 4:11 Positraction rear axle.
Other rare options include leather interior (1,114 produced), power brakes (3,336), power steering (3,063), wood-grained steering wheel (130), and backup light (318, an option introduced late in the year).
“A lot of time and money was spent on the restoration,” the seller says. “This Split Window has undergone a ground-up restoration including the interior, exterior, and undercarriage components. The paint was just finished this year and is flawless. The original engine has never been out of the car.”
Calling it a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to buy the last SWC made, the seller points out that the car has been driven just 100 miles since being restored.
So, does having the last SWC mean a lot to you, or are you like Ricky Bobby and you’d prefer to have the first SWC made instead?
Source:
eBay Motors
Related:
Corvettes for Sale: The Last Corvette Daytona Prototype Racecar
Where Are They Now? The Last Corvette of Each Generation
Meet The Man Who Bought the Last C7 Corvette
-
Now THAT’s a beautiful machine.
Good luck to anyone who’s placing a bid.
OK two things, there are no back up lights and the tail lights are not in the correct location, there to far inboard. Other than that it’s not a bad car
Al. Good eye. However no reverse lights in 63 however good possibility this car had a set of extra tail lights installed( big thing back in the day) and looks like they took the outboard 3rd tail light out as opposed to taking the inboard light out.
Okay — the location of the tail lights is just weird. Neither of the 2 lights appears to be in the original location, so this does not appear to be a case where at some point a 3rd light was added on the inboard side and then at some later point the original outboard light ended up being filled in. If this was a triple tail light car at some point, it appears that when it was returned to a double tail light configuration rather than just filling in the extra inboard light they decided instead to center the 2 lights on either side of what had been the middle light (and originally had been the inboard light). Why would someone go to all that extra trouble just to end up with the lights in the wrong location? And why wasn’t it fixed during the recent restoration? Strange!
Way to much money for a non original car.
It is a beautiful car, but for top show quality, I can’t imagine that the multi-wrinkled console cover would get you top billing. Could be that was the original pattern and if so, it looks crappy. Easy enough for an upholstery guy to fix.
Regarding the backup lights, the text above says this car came with that option, although it’s not obvious in the only rear facing pic we have – “…and backup light (318, an option introduced late in the year).”
I have a C3 and a C6 and would love to have a Split Window in my little collection. My first choice would be this one, but not for half a mil, maybe 150K.
I wouldn’t want it for the simple reason that the taillights are in the wrong location as others have pointed out. It just looks all wrong from the rear.
Hopefully someone willing to part with $500k is smart enough to do the research first. Unfortunately there are way too many people with more money than brains buying corvettes
My immediate thought after a quick first glance was why is this car on eBay and not at a Barrett-Jackson or Mecum auction? Half a million dollars seems a little steep for eBay. Then I noticed the “flaws”–tail light issues, no backup lights, non-original console cushion–pointed out in prior comments. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a beautiful car…but then I’m partial because the Saddle Tan/saddle tan is my favorite ’63-’64 color combo!
Checked out a SWC on Bring a Trailer and DougR is right, tail lights on this car don’t line up with the “correct” configuration or a 3 lite modification. I’m going to venture a guess that this was done at the factory maybe by error or on purpose by a worker wanting to see if anyone would catch it. If so, that would make this car very special. Another guess is that this car was hit in the rear and the repair did away with the back-up lite and (somehow) the tail light location got changed.
Being that the Last 1967 Corvette sold at auction at BJ for $660,000.00
This might be a bargain..?? The rear tail lights if not done by the factory
is an easy fix so that’s not an issue for me. One rare car..!!
First last who cares that is Z 06 NO 3 money he is asking. The car was bought a couple of years ago at another auction I think in the 250 k area.
Comments are closed.