What color of Split-Window would you buy? Mecum has all 7
It’s Corvette Jeopardy! Here are your answers: Riverside Red. Ermine White. Silver Blue. Tuxedo Black. Sebring Silver. Saddle Tan. Daytona Blue.
The question: What are the seven colors Chevrolet painted its 1963 Corvette Split-Window coupes?
We mention this because, at the Corvette-heavy Mecum Kissimmee auction to be held January 2–14 in Florida, one of the most coveted groups of cars among the 4000 to be sold features seven Split-Window coupes, one in each available color. Mecum is calling it the Colorama Spilt-Window Collection, but we hesitate to call it a collection because it’s basically a group of Corvettes assembled by a dealer, ProTeam Corvette Sales, to sell through Mecum as individual lots. But the cars are getting a lot of traction in the Corvette-centric media, and with good reason.
Bill Mitchell’s design team, which included talented designers such as a very young Peter Brock and Larry Shinoda, designed a fastback Corvette that looked—well, marvelous. For the rear window, they decided to use two pieces of glass, split by a few inches of body-colored fiberglass and framed by aluminum strips. That was in 1963. For 1964, the split window was replaced by a solid piece of curved glass, thus making the 1963 Split-Window an immediate collectors’ item. They dubbed it the Sting Ray (two words; it wasn’t one word until 1969).
Some 10,594 Split-Window Corvettes were built, as well as roughly the same number of convertibles. There have been plenty of collectible Corvettes built in the car’s 70-year history, and the Split-Windows are near the top of the list.
So what kind of money are we talking about here?
The most expensive of the seven Split-Windows is likely to be the Daytona Blue one. It has the coveted Z06 performance package, as well as an interesting backstory: It was exported new to Australia, where it was converted to right-hand drive. All the Colorama Corvettes have some version of the 327-cubic-inch V-8 and four-speed manual transmissions; this one has 360 horsepower. (The 327 also came in 300- and 340-horsepower versions, and all are represented in this group.) Mecum is valuing the Australian Z06 at $450,000–$500,000.
The Riverside Red Split-Window carries Mecum’s lowest estimate at $225,000–$275,000. It’s a lovely numbers-matching car, with low-mileage (47,844), and was the subject of a body-on restoration and an engine rebuild. However, it doesn’t have fuel injection (four of the seven cars do), and it doesn’t have the provenance the rest have, such as a Bloomington Gold certification.
The remainder of the cars are valued slightly higher than the Riverside Red representative, and less than the Z06. Perhaps the most interesting of that lot is the Ermine White model ($250,000–$275,000). It was a present from Jesse James (West Coast Choppers, Monster Garage) to actress Sandra Bullock, presumably during their marriage, which lasted from 2005 to 2010. Bullock subsequently donated the Corvette to charity (sigh). As for James, he is currently married to adult film star Bonnie Rotten. Bullock never remarried.
Click here for the Mecum listing of the Colorama Split-Window Collection. You can also click here to look at the spilt-window Corvettes that ProTeam Corvette Sales has in stock, starting at $149,000 for a Riverside Red model.
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Well, I went Daytona Blue instantly and then read the article. RHD? Nooooo thank you. It’s a vette, not a mail truck. Beyond that I’ll take black as long as it has red guts. No worry if it doesn’t. I’d fix that. And no, I don’t care what it does to the value. YOLO.
Color doesn’t matter to me! Drive train trumps color! Any 327 as long as it has solid lifters
Any color is OK! But I would prefer red.
Yeah, I get it – they only made it for one year… Why? because it was such an incredibly bad idea to block off a bunch of your rear view, duh… For that reason, I’ve just never gotten the fascination with that feature. My favorite C2 would have to be a roadster with side pipes and a stinger hood. Preferably with a 427/435 under that stinger, but who am I kidding – any year roadster with any engine would be a wonderful thing to have in the garage.
The split window was the head stylist at GM,” Bill Mitchell” that liked the split window. GM also split the rear windows on some body styles in 1957 on the Buick and Olds. They had three rear windows.
Oh man. Probably Red. Though the Black is nice
Ermine White with red interior! I restored my favorite year Corvette, 1958 in white exterior with red interior. My favorite color combination for any Corvette and it must be stick shift!
Which One? Yes!
All are breathtaking! It’s such a shame that prices do not allow real drivers to enjoy these vehicles. Sadly they will sit in a garage and never see the light of day until passed on to another non driver. If you’re lucky enough to have one drive it and enjoy it and maybe it will last as long as you. I wouldn’t preserve it for some other owner when I’m gone.
As John Heinrici so aptly stated, “All Corvettes are red; the rest are just mistakes.” That’s why my ’65 Fuelie vert is NOT matching numbers as I corrected a Glen Green mistake that was made 24 years before I was finally able to afford the car I wanted when I graduated from college. Incidentally, the first car my wife bought after graduation was a used Saddle Tan ’63 drop top. Kind of a yucky color (“But it matches my hair”), but at least it had the 300 horse/327 and the 4-speed (which she handled well, even wearing heels!) and she did look good in it.
Hi there is a fellow in Regina SK Canada with a original unpainted, 63 split window in RM Palomap Red irid #A1536 R That’s missing in the article in the mecum auction article
Of course, by the end of ’63, the StingRay’s inaugural year, the legendary ‘split windows’ were a sales drag, and on the street considered just a stop-gap because GM couldn’t produce a one-piece backlite! This wasn’t so of course, and that feature was already ready for the ’64 run, and thereafter. But for most of the decade, the ‘rare and valued’ split was considered a design and sales liability, something not as good as the ‘corrected’ 1964-67 versions. This, oc, eventually led to a rarity factor, which makes the ’63 unique (along with the bbq-grid hood moldings, etc.) and desired. Makeover time at Chevrolet? Just sayin’ Wick
What are the odds that the retractable antenna doesn’t work on all seven cats?
I saw bill Mitchells 63 corvette it had a single rear window. It was candy apple red with 4 tube side pipes.
These cars are all overpriced. Mecum auctions are full of suckers with more money than brains. Numbers match does not mean original. You need docs to prove originality and those do not exist. Assume these engines are not original.