legend has it that upon seeing the styling concept of the ‘63 corvette, bunkie knudsen, head of chevrolet, immediately ordered one for himself.

and it’s not hard to empathise with mr knudsen’s knee-jerk reaction when you experience this tastefully updated sting ray in the flesh.

 

the flawless body, painted in mirror finish ‘pearl white’ is offset by menacing black powercoated18inch american racing rims.

the visual tweaks are subtle yet imposing, and you’d have to think that if the original head of styling, bill mitchell, was still around, he’d be sure to have signed off the updates.

 

as with the original ‘63 vette, it’s not just the styling that takes your breath away. the small block 327 in our vette has a mere 7400 miles or so on the clock, so it’s barely run in, and should still be good for hurling you from zero to 60mph in 5.9 seconds (factory claimed acceleration).

i’d be the first to agree that 7400 miles over 50 years does sound a little far-fetched, but when you discover that the vehicle was stored away for well over twenty years, those miniscule miles start to make sense.

 

unlike many corvettes of this era, lengthy storage has ensured that this car escaped the temptations of the over-enthusiastic, amateur spannermen, so 50 years on she’s still a matching numbers car.

 

however, don’t think that the car has remained totally untouched. amongst the long, long list of recent refurbishments are a new wiring, a rebuilt four barrel holley, all running gear is either new or refurbished, there’s a new cooling system, and the four speed manual box has been rebuilt and mated to a new clutch. and, so that nobody else can enjoy your ride, an alarm along with kill-switches have been installed.

 

only 10,919 of sting rays were built in 1963, which is low by mustang standards, and thanks to cross-ply tires, ridiculous power to weight ratio, and no speed limits, surviving matching numbers cars are getting hard to find.

 

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