Corvette (C2 Sting Ray)

A New Chassis Under a Show Car Body The C2 was the first complete redesign of the Corvette since 1953, and General Motors' own heritage record frames it that way: a new chassis, an independent rear suspension, and the first coupe body the model line had ever been given. The wheelbase came down to 98.0 inches and the frame gained a welded steel 'birdcage' around the cockpit beneath bonded fibreglass panels. The independent rear end, with trailing arms locating the wheels, was the substantive change, and contemporary judgement was that traction and handling had moved on decisively from the live-axle cars. Bill Mitchell had driven the styling from his own Stingray racer; Zora Arkus-Duntov drove the engineering, and the two men did not agree about the roof.

The Window That Lasted One Year Mitchell wanted the coupe's rear screen divided by a body-colour spine running the length of the deck. Duntov objected that it blocked the view, and much of the press agreed once cars reached the road. Mitchell relented for 1964, and a single piece of glass has been fitted to every Corvette coupe since. Chevrolet went further and sold conversion glass through its dealers, so a proportion of the 10,594 split-window coupes built were quietly modernised by their first or second owners. The market has since reversed that judgement hard enough that unpicking a 1960s conversion is now routine restoration work.

Fuel Injection, Then Cubic Inches The 1963 range was four versions of the 327 small-block: 250 and 300 bhp on hydraulic lifters, a 340 bhp solid-lifter L76, and the L84 with Rochester Ramjet mechanical fuel injection at 360 bhp for $430.40. Injection was the halo option and 2,610 buyers took it. Then the Mark IV big-block arrived part-way through 1965 - 396 cubic inches, 425 bhp, and cheaper than the fuelie at $292.70 against $538.00. L84 sales fell to 1,325 in 1964 and 771 in 1965, and Chevrolet dropped injection at the end of that year; it did not return to a Corvette for twenty. The 427 replaced the 396 for 1966 in mild 390 bhp L36 and hard-edged 425 bhp L72 form, and for 1967 a 427 with three two-barrel carburettors joined the range.

Racing by Option Code General Motors had signed up to the AMA's 1957 withdrawal from motorsport, so Duntov sold competition equipment as option codes instead. RPO Z06 for 1963 bundled sintered-metallic Al-Fin brakes, a dual master cylinder, stiffer springs and a larger front bar, available only on a fuel-injected four-speed coupe with Positraction; 199 people bought it and 63 of those added the 36.5-gallon tank. The Grand Sport was the unsanctioned version of the same idea: a lightweight competition Corvette, roughly a thousand pounds under a production Sting Ray, with an intended run of 125 cars for homologation. GM stopped it at five, and those three coupes and two roadsters beat the Cobras at Nassau in December 1963.

The Last Year, and the L88 The C2 ran a fifth season before the C3 arrived, and 1967 gave the generation both its widest engine list and its smallest: 22,940 cars, four 427 codes on the order sheet, and cast aluminium wheels that had been knock-offs in 1966 now sold as bolt-ons. In February 1967 Chevrolet released the L88 - aluminium heads, 12.5:1 compression, a single 850 cfm Holley, a mandatory heavy-duty gearbox, brakes, suspension and ignition, a compulsory heater delete and no radio or air conditioning available at all. It was rated at 430 bhp, a number the factory chose rather than measured. Twenty were built, at $947.90 on a $4,240.75 convertible.

Frame and birdcage corrosion is the defining structural fault and the only one that writes a car off economically; the rear kick-ups, the number three body mount area and the base of the windscreen pillars are where it is found, and none of it is visible without a lift. Fibreglass stress cracking around the screen surround, arch lips and panel cut-outs is near-universal, and is routinely buried under fresh paint along with poor bonding-strip repairs. The four-wheel disc brakes fitted from 1965 corrode internally in lines and calipers to the point that a stainless replacement industry grew up around them. The Rochester Ramjet unit on L84 cars is the other specialist liability: a mechanical injection system that fell out of general workshop knowledge for decades, so correct rebuilding is small-specialist work. Period testers already complained that the sintered-metallic linings needed warming and would grab if used cold. The most expensive fault is documentary: an undocumented car sold on a claimed rare engine code.

The structure is steel and it is hidden. The birdcage - the welded cage around the screen and door hinges - rots from the inside at the base of the windscreen pillars, where nothing above it can rust because the panels are fibreglass. Owners on CorvetteForum name the rear frame kick-ups behind the seats, the gussets by the number three body mount and the transmission crossmember as the areas that fail structurally, and note that corrosion works outward from inside the section, so surface appearance understates it. Insist on a lift, a torch and a wire brush on anything that looks scaled. On the body, a smooth, over-finished inner surface where a fibreglass bonding strip should be is evidence of accident repair. On paperwork: verify the VIN, trim tag and stamped engine pad before believing any claim about an L84, L78, L72, L71 or L88 car, because the price difference between a genuine one and a tribute is a large multiple of the cost of fitting the correct engine. The NCRS Historic Document Service supplies a shipping data report for 1962-1975 cars at $50, giving dealer code, dealer name and address and the production date - but explicitly not the option list.

As of August 2026, classic.com records an average sale price of $131,977 across the whole C2 market with 284 cars listed for sale - a deep, liquid market by classic-car standards. The spread within it is what matters. The base 327/250 carries a market benchmark of $86,035 and the L75 327/300 $89,592, the realistic entry point; the L79 327/350 sits at $85,009 and the 427/425 L72 at $112,351. Above that the injected cars and the rare option codes separate out, with the L84 327/360 at $191,483 and the 1967 L71 427/435 at $169,579. The 1963 Z06 is its own market: a $622,770 benchmark on a rising trend against a $559,478 average, with a recorded high of $1,100,000 at Barrett-Jackson in January 2026 and a low of $235,000 in April 2023. The L88 benchmark is $1,394,859 against an average of $1,855,840, with nothing listed for sale; the most recent L88 datum classic.com records is a $2,700,000 high bid at Mecum Kissimmee on 17 January 2026 that did not meet reserve. Figures quoted here are advertised sale totals inclusive of buyer's premium.