Full Throttle: 1963 Corvette Stingray

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - Not too much gets a Corvette lover’s juices flowing than the words split window.

The 1963 Corvette Stingray coupe was a drastic design change for the corvette.

Known for this split back window, a feature that was a bit controversial at the time, and General Motors only made it for one year.

Dr. Pat Ruopp bought this car in 1986 and it’s been in the family ever since.

Dr. Ruopp says the car was black when he bought it. It had been red before that. But he had the car restored back to its original color of ermine white.

It has the original 327-cubic-inch engine and even today is a stunner to behold.

General Motors made around 10,000 convertibles in 1963 and around 10,000 of these coupes.

Some people were turned off by the back split window, including director of high performance vehicles for GM, Zora Arkas-Duntov. But after a tug of war with the head of GM, they agreed to make the split window for just one year.

In 1964, the split was gone.

The base price in 1963 for this car was just over $4,200. Rest assured a split window Corvette is worth a lot more than that today, not that this one will ever be for sale.

Apparently, some people who bought the split window in 1963 didn’t like it, so GM offered kits to take the split out, which today, would make the car a lot less valuable.

If you have an idea for a car story, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at jeff.cunningham@kfvs12.com.

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