1963–1967 C2 Corvette Review: Engineering, Styling, Sales, and Legacy

A stunning, radical departure for the 1963–1967 C2 Corvette in looks and hardware

The C2 Corvette took America’s sports car to a whole new, higher level. We recently did a full review of the 1953-1962 C1 Corvette. The objective was to dispel the myth that the first-generation Corvettes were just parts-bin cars. Cars built from parts bins don’t win races and championships. By the late 1950s, many of Europe’s best were looking at the Corvette’s taillights. The C1 established America’s sports car as a force to be reckoned with. 

From C1 to C2 Corvette — Why 1963 Was a True Breakpoint

The 1950s and 1960s arguably saw the fastest pace of automotive and racing development. State-of-the-art race cars from the early 1950s look like buggies compared to the McLaren and Chaparral cars from the late 1960s. The almost all-new 1963 C2 Corvette was staged to have a similar metamorphosis. Aside from the engine and transmission lineup, everything about the 1963 C2 Corvette Sting Ray was completely new.

We’ll be examining several aspects of the C2 Corvette Sting Rays in comparison to the 1962 C1 Corvette. We will start with dimensions and price, followed by sales numbers, Corvette’s place in the bigger picture of Chevrolet, the 1962-1963 economy, engineering advancements, styling and design, and legacy.

C2 Corvette Dimensions, Price, and What Changed on Paper

What Changed in 1963?

On paper, the C2 looks like a mild size change—on the road and underneath, it was a total reinvention.

First, let’s look at the overall new Corvette and how it compares to the 1962 C1 Corvette. We will begin with dimensions and price.

Specification	1962 Corvette (C1)	1963 Corvette (C2 Sting Ray)
Wheelbase	102.0 in	98.0 in
Overall Length	176.7 in	175.3 in
Overall Width	70.4 in	69.6 in
Overall Height	52.2 in	49.8 in
Front Track	57.0 in	56.3 in
Rear Track	59.0 in	57.0 in
Standard Tire Size	6.70 × 15	6.70 × 15
Standard Wheel Size	15 × 5 in	15 × 5.5 in
Curb Weight	Approx. 2,925 lb	3,048 lb (Coupe) 3,030 lb (Convertible)
Fuel Tank Capacity (std.)	16.4 gallons	20.0 gallons
Turning Radius	Approx. 38.5 ft	Approx. 41.6 ft
Base Price	$4,038 (Convertible)	$4,252 (Coupe) $4,037 (Convertible)

The new Sting Ray is a smaller car: 1.4” shorter, 0.8” narrower, and 2.4” shorter. The front track is 0.7” narrower, and the rear track is 2.0” narrower. The curb weight for the 1963 Corvette is 123 pounds heavier for the Coupe and 105 pounds heavier for the Convertible. The fuel tank for the 1963 Corvette is 3.6 gallons bigger. The turning radius is 3.1 feet bigger. Wrapping things up, the base price is $1 less for the Convertible and $214 more for the Coupe.

Pricing the New C2 Corvette Sting Ray in Context

Concerning the price of the 1963 Corvette. The base price of the slightly more expensive Coupe was $4,252. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $45,334 in 2025 dollars. That’s a big, $24,861 difference from the base price of the 2025 Corvette of, $70,195 (January 2025). To finalize, modern Corvettes come standard with everything optional in 1963, and then some.

Sales Performance and Chevrolet’s Bigger Picture

In 1962, Chevrolet produced 14,531 C2 Corvettes

By the end of 1963, Chevrolet sold 21,513 Corvettes. The less expensive Corvette Convertible sold more units, totaling 10,919, compared to 10,594. By the end of the year, Chevrolet’s planners were very happy with the 148% increase in sales.

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This was an important hard fact. In the big picture of automobile manufacturing, every car line has to carry its weight when it comes to sales. This big increase in sales also helped the Corvette’s status within GM. The Corvette was such an unusual car to make in the relatively small niche market of sports cars. Let’s put this into perspective.

Chevrolet’s Home Run Sales Hitters

During the same time period, Chevrolet’s best-selling vehicle was the full-size Impala with a massive total production of 832,600 units. The most popular Impala model was the 2-door Sport Coupe with 399,224 units produced with a base price of just $2,774 ($29,576 in 2025 dollars). That’s $1,447 less than the 1963 Sting Ray Coupe. Another takeaway is that the total sales of the 1963 Corvette were just 2.58% of the total sales of Chevrolet’s best-selling car.

The timing of the C2 1963 Corvette Sting Ray was perfect

Economic Timing — Why 1963 Was the Sweet Spot

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In automotive history, many cars have failed because of bad economic times. The 1958 Ford Edsel entered the market during the 1957-1958 recession. Large luxury Cadillacs and Lincolns did not sell well during the long recession of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Sales patterns follow the economy consistently. In 1962 and 1963, the CPI inflation rate was just 1.0% and 1.3% respectively.

The Health of the U.S. Economy, 1962–1963

Between September 1962 and July 1963, the U.S. Economy was in a steady state of expansion with low inflation. During the dark days of the Arab Oil Embargo, near doubling of gasoline at the pump and high unemployment, the CPI inflation rate was 11.0% in 1974, dropped to 5.8% in 1976, then shot up to 11.3% in 1979. In 1980, the CPI inflation rate hit a staggering 13.5%.

Conclusion: 1963 was the economic sweet spot for low-volume, specialty use, expensive cars. In the big picture of Chevrolet sales, the Corvette was the least-selling car in the entire line of vehicles. Despite the big increase in Corvette sales between 1962 and 1963, there were still many inside Chevrolet and GM with a strong dislike for the Corvette. Many wanted to and tried to kill the car. Had the economic timing been different (such as in the 1970s), that would have been the end of the Corvette, period!

Engineering Advances of the C2 Corvette

Here are the major advancements designed into the C2 frame and chassis:

An All-New Perimeter Frame for the C2 Corvette:

Maurice Olley’s perimeter frame had an X-brace tying in the left and right side frame rails. Duntov’s perimeter frame had straight transverse frame rails, a stout front engine cradle, and a birdcage upper structure that tied the A and B-pillars with the windshield cowl structure. The engine’s exhaust pipes passed through the front transverse frame rail. The elimination of the big X-frame design feature of Olley’s 1952 design allowed the seats to sit lower, allowing the overall height of the car to be lower. It was all about lowering the Sting Ray’s center of gravity.

The C2 Corvette got a New Four-Wheel Independent Suspension

The 1963 Corvette was the first mass-production American sports car to feature four-wheel independent suspension. C1 Corvettes are also called “live-axle” cars, meaning that the rear differential and axles were of the same design as standard production cars. The front suspension used stamped steel upper and lower A-arms, with coil springs, shocks, and an anti-sway bar. At the rear was a central differential pumpkin, with half-shafts with universal joints (same as a regular driveshaft connected to right and left side trailing arms connected to the upper part of the rear of the frame.

Instead of coil springs, the rear was suspended by a single steel transverse leaf spring. Shocks were specifically designed for the small-block and later big-block Corvettes. Anti-sway bars were used as part of the $7 Gymkhana performance suspension option from 1974 to 1982.

Four-Wheel Disc Brakes C2 Corvette in 1965

Corvette brakes were the bane of every C1 Corvette racer. The production drum brakes were as good as any other streetcar of the time, but inadequate for the demands of hard racing. Disc brakes with solid rotors had been around since the mid-1950s for lightweight sports race cars. However, solid rotors could not handle the pressure of a 3,000-plus pound Corvette. Four-wheel ventilated disc brakes were in development when the 1963 Sting Ray came out and were standard for 1965. The basic design of the Corvette disc brakes was the same from 1965 to 1982. With special pads and setups, the standard design served Corvette racers well through into the mid-1970s.

A Total Styling Break from the C1 Corvette — The C2 Corvette Design

This part is pure magic that still works today. Harley Earl was the Father of the Corvette. The concept was his, and the styling reflected the rounded nature of most car shapes. Just before Earl retired, he was directing the design shape of the next-generation Corvette. Fortunately, Bill Mitchell took over design direction after Earl, because the full-size clay models were not good. Influenced by the 1956 Olds Golden Rocket Motorama show car, the overall theme and look were dated in 1956. Earl’s future Corvette had fins and even a split window, but it was hopeless.

Around the same time, Chevrolet Engineering Chief Ed Cole commanded that by 1960, all GM cars would use a transaxle to put more weight on the rear tires and to free up interior space with the elimination of a transmission hump. The program was called the Q-Chevrolet Project. On paper, Duntov laid out his wish list for the Q-Corvette that, in hindsight, reads like a C5 Corvette.

From Harley Earl to Bill Mitchell: The C2 Corvette was to be Mitchell’s Corvette

Meanwhile, Mitchell charged his designers to come up with something totally radical, based on photographs of several small, European streamliners, such as the Abarth and Stanguellini cars. Hundreds of sketches were created, and Mitchell chose young, 19-year-old Peter Brock’s design.

The Q-Corvette and Peter Brock’s Influence

The Q-Chevrolet program pretty much collapsed, except for what became the Corvair. Brock’s beautiful design never went further than a full-size clay model that clearly is the basic C2 Corvette. The design was shelved for a year or so before Mitchell charged designer and stylist Larry Shinoda with converting Brock’s fastback Q-Corvette into a roadster body for his racing side project called the Stingray Racer.

The C2 Corvette Sting Ray’s Aerodynamics – Beautiful but Flawed

The shape was stunning and a crowd favorite. It looked very aerodynamic, but it wasn’t; it was gorgeous. This major design flaw would haunt C2 Corvettes for a long time. While we were all looking at the beautiful, curvaceous shape of the top of the body, we didn’t notice how much air was going under the car.

This wasn’t a problem for street Corvettes, but it made for a wild ride for racers. The faster the Sting Ray went, the more the front end lifted. Adding to the effect was the IRS’s squat position upon hard acceleration. Drivers of the lightweight Grand Sport Corvettes claimed that at speed, the front tires were off the ground. However, I could find no photos showing light under the front tires.

The Iconic Sting Ray Coupe Roof

And lastly, on the topic of styling, there was the roof option: convertible, or fixed-roof coupe. The Brock Q-Corvette’s coupe roof was a sleek fastback, but not the stylized, pointed roof of the C2 Sting Ray. That shape came directly from the 1937-1938 German streamliner, Adler-Trumpf.

Rubin Halpren Story (Short Version)

Here’s the short version of the story. While Halpren was in the Army stationed in Germany, he bought what he thought was a unique old German car from before WW-II. Upon his discharge from his military service, he had his Adler Trumpf shipped home to Michigan and used the car as his daily driver. In the summer of 1959, he took some kids to the Michigan State Fair, where GM Design and Styling executive Davis Holls saw the car and asked Halpren to bring the car to the Design Center to be photographed.

Halpren thought GM was going to buy the car, and he was going to get some cash. When Holls didn’t make an offer to buy the car, Halpren was seriously pissed and stayed that way the rest of his life. Halpren felt that Chevy stole his car’s design, and he got nothing for it. According to James McLynas, the young man who bought the car from Halpren in the early 1980s as a derelict hulk from Halpren’s sideyard, 30 years after Halpren’s Design Center experience with GM, he was still fired up about the incident.

The overall design of the Adler Trumpf was very outdated, and the roof looked out of place and time. But it was perfect for what would become Bill Mitchell’s Corvette, the new Sting Ray.

Year-by-Year Styling Evolution (1963–1967)

One of the nice things about Corvette styling for many decades was how designers made small surface design changes that made it easy to be able to recognize different years. The C2 Sting Ray body design changes are as follows.

1963:

The 1963 Corvette Coupe had a split rear window, and the front windshield trim did not wrap around the upper shape of the windshield glass. And the hood has two stylized, but non-functional grates on the right and left side of the hood’s center hump. And the front fender vents were non-functional (fake) as well.

1964:

For 1964, the split window was gone (much to the delight of Duntov), and the fake hood grills were gone. The front fender vents were still fake, but the Coupe’s B-pillar had interior air vents. The standard hubcaps were also new.

1965:

On the 1965 Corvette, the hood indentations were replaced with a smooth surface design. The front fenders had new vents that were functional, and the hubcaps were new. Late in 1965, Corvettes were available with the new 396 big-block engine that had a powerful-looking hood bulge that made the car look like it had been working out. Side-mounted exhaust pipes were a $134 option that looked great, sounded great, but offered only a small horsepower increase.

1966:

The 1966 Corvette Coupe was nearly identical, except for the elimination of the B-pillar interior air vents that didn’t work all that well. The 1966 Corvette also had new hubcaps. And lastly, the 1967 Coupe had more aggressive, forward-slanted front fender vents, a new hood bulge for the 427 engine, and a center-mounted backup light above the rear license plate.

1967:

This was the first year for the steel Rally Wheel/beauty Rim and Cap wheels and the one-year-only cast-aluminum bolt-on wheels. The Rally Wheel design grew from a 15×6-inch rim to a 15×7-inch rim in 1968, to a 15×8-inch rim as the standard wheelset until 1982.

Wheels, Trim, and Minor Variations

C2 Corvette Knock-Off Aluminum Wheels:

From 1963 to 1967, there were five hubcap designs and the Rally Wheels for 1967. But from 1963 to 1966, real knock-off wheels were optional. Availability in 1963 was very limited due to porosity issues that caused the tires to go flat. The cost of the knockoffs was $322 from 1963 to 1966. Adjusted for inflation, that’s around $3,400 in 2025 dollars. Optional for 1967 were the cast-aluminum bolt-on wheels that had the knock-off look, minus the knock-off spinner.

Corvette Sting Ray Dedicated Corvette Badging:

From 1963 to 1967, Corvettes had different badge designs, and placement varied from year to year. Corvette fans who carefully studied every little detail change can quickly spot the year of a C2 based on small details.

1963-1967 C2 Corvette Front Grille Designs:

There were two front grille designs. 1963 to 1965 Corvettes had horizontal bar grills, and 1966 and 1967 Corvettes had egg crate grill designs. And lastly, all C2 Corvettes had the same front and rear bumpers.

C2 Corvette Performance Options — Racing DNA Preserved (Z06 and L88)

Corvette Chief Engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, always made sure Corvette owners who wanted more performance or wanted to race their Corvette could get what they needed. The two exclusive performance packages for C2 owners were the 1963 Z06 and the 1967 L88. Both were for racing and had little advantage for street use.

Duntov’s 1963 327 Fuelie Sting Ray “Racer Kit”

From 1957 to 1962, for every guy who wanted to road race his Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov was his best friend. The Corvette Chief Engineer made sure that his racer customers had the best racing hardware Chevrolet could engineer. The 1963 Sting Ray’s Racer Kit was called RPO Z06.

The full complement of the basic RPO Z06 Racer Kit for the C2 Corvette included:

Engine: L84 360-hp 327 cubic inch V8 with an improved plenum chamber.

Transmission: 4-speed manual transmission

Suspension: Heavy-duty suspension components for improved handling

Brakes: Upgraded drum brakes with inner cooling scoops and fans for better stopping power

Steering: Quicker steering ratio for enhanced responsiveness

Fuel Tank: 36.5-gallon fiberglass fuel tank, known as “the Tanker” for endurance racing.

Differential: Positraction limited-slip differential, with gearing that included 3.70:1, 4.11:1, and 4.56:1.

Exhaust: RPO N11, “Off Road Exhaust” had standard diameter exhaust pipes coming off the cast iron manifolds and mufflers with fewer baffles for less restriction. The Corvette Black Book lists the production numbers as blank. The most likely explanation is that N11 was planned, but not officially put into production. Although designated as “Off Road”, meaning “racing”, serious racers ran open exhausts.

Bad timing for the C2 Corvette Z06 and the Grand Sport

Duntov’s 1963 RPO Z06 Racer Kit option was intended to enable SCCA Corvettes to continue to be a dominant force on the race track. However, two things happened around the same time. The Z06 Sting Ray’s debut race was the 1962 L.A. Grand Prix race, in October 1962. Dave MacDonald, Bob Bondurant, Jerry Grant, and Mickey Thompson had brand new, right off the St. Louis assembly line Z06 Corvettes.

The cars were prepared for battle, and then Carroll Shelby showed up with his little 289 Shelby Cobra. The little Cobra was 1,000 pounds lighter than the Sting Rays. Why they were in the same class is a mystery. Mickey Thompson’s Z06 won the race, only because Billy Krause’s Cobra broke, giving Thompson the win. A win is a win, but the handwriting was on the wall for the Sting Ray. For the next few years, Corvette racers got to see the taillight of the Cobras a lot.

The second thing that happened was that General Motors was getting close to being broken apart under the Sherman Antitrust Act against monopolies. Successful racing Corvettes could have been a boon to Corvette sales, attracting more attention from the Government. Only 199 Z06 Corvettes were built. Today, because of those low production figures, 1963 Z06 Corvettes are some of the most valuable cars in the world of Corvettes. Duntov’s lightweight Grand Sport suffered an even worse fate. The Grand Sport program never officially got off the ground, and only five were built.

Duntov’s 1967 427 L88 Sting Ray “Racer Kit”

Everything changed in the spring of 1965 when the new Mark IV big-block 396 was made available in the 1965 Corvette. Although designed to be the W-Series 348/409/427 truck engine, with the right parts, it could be a powerful, high-revving beast. Engineers discovered that it was easier and cheaper to make big horsepower with the new engine. To help offset the weight penalty of the big-block, Duntov had special, high-flow aluminum heads designed for the engine. The 1965 L78 396/425 became the L72 427/425 in 1966.

For 1967, the 427 had the 427/437 solid-lifter street beast version of the 427 and the 427 L88 “Off Road Use Only” racing engine package. Rated on the option sheet at 430 horsepower, the true power level was between 550 and 600 horsepower. The 430-horsepower figure was to discourage potential buyers from simply checking off the box with the biggest number. Like the 1963 Z06, the L88 was a package Racer Kit, most definitely not a car for the street. L88 Corvettes had one field of performance, all-out!

The 427 L88 C2 Corvettes stopped the domination of the 427 Shelby Cobras

The L88 had everything a regular big-block had, plus a racing-level drivetrain, suspension, and brakes, and no creature comforts at all. And, it was very expensive. The full package costs around $1,800 on top of the base price of the Coupe of $4,388, for a total of around $6,200, plus delivery fees and taxes. A customer was looking at around $7,000, or $69,000 in 2025 dollars. That was actually a good deal for a starter platform for a serious race car. That is, if you could get one in 1967. The L88 Racer Kit program was a work-in-progress, with only 20 built for 1967. The L88 continued for 1968 and 1969, with 80 and 116 built respectively.

L88 C2 and C3 Corvettes put an end to the Shelby Cobra era and dominated SCCA racing into the IMSA era. Today, surviving Z06 and L88 Corvettes are million-dollar collectibles. 

From 1963 to 1967, Chevrolet sold 117,964 Corvettes. Of that total, the number of 327 Fuelie 1963-1965 Corvettes, the 1965 396 Corvettes, and the 1966 427/425, 1967 427/435, and 430 L88 Corvettes was 15,895.

That is around 14.4% of all C2 Corvettes. The other 85.6% were more normal-use cars.

Many were equipped with the base 250 to 300 horsepower 327 small-blocks and 2-speed Powerglide transmissions. They were just nice little sports cars. The automatic Corvettes were often called “secretary cars.” Not a compliment.

Conclusion — Why the C2 Corvette Still Matters

For many fans, C2 1963-1967 Corvettes had a special glow. Corvettes have, since their beginning, been premium-priced automobiles. But factoring in the economics of the time, Corvettes were never more affordable to younger buyers.

Back in a time when if a young fellow was ambitious, wanted to work hard, and wanted to buy a Vette, all he had to do was ask his boss for some time-and-a-half overtime. Toss in some GMAC Financing, and he could be driving a new Corvette.

Also, by the mid-1960s, there was a buildup of older, used Corvettes. So, if you didn’t mind a “previously owned” Sting Ray, or preferred the look of a C1 Corvette, there were plenty to be had in the Classified section of any newspaper. For its time, the foundation of the C2 Corvette was cutting-edge.

C2 Corvettes eventually became dated

The C2 structure was perfectly fine for the foundation of the C3 1968-1982 Corvette. Here’s an odd twist of Fate. In the early 1970s, Detroit dropped the performance niche like the proverbial hot potato. Then, by the late 1970s, despite raging inflation, the only “performance cars” left were the Z28 Camaro, the Trans-Am Firebird, and the Corvette. And compared to just a decade before, there wasn’t very much “performance”, but they sure looked good.

The 1979 set the Corvette’s all-time sales record

If you like irony, this was rich. Even though weight was up and performance was down, 1979 set the all-time best sales year for Corvette, with 53,807 cars sold. That record still stands.

By the end of the C3 production run in 1982, 18,648 Corvettes were sold. It appeared that buyers didn’t seem to mind that the structure of their new Corvette, which just rolled off the new Bowling Green assembly line, was designed nearly 22 years before.

That’s brand power. – Scott

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