1963 Corvette Sting Ray Fuelie Boasts Super-Expensive Feature Attached to the Original V8

Out of all the cars badged ‘Corvette’ in the debut year of the second generation, almost half came with a solid roof - 10,594 coupes (49.24%), and the rest of 10,919 kept the familiar convertibles tenure (50.76%). The coupes also offered a one-year-only feature that wasn’t much of a design success at the time, but it is in high demand nowadays: the split rear window.

The feature obstructed the rearview and for the following year – and the rest of its uninterrupted production since – the Corvette didn’t adopt the two-glass-sheet solution for the back window. Another special option that broke ground in ’63 was the Special Performance Equipment optional package – the famous Z06. Only 199 units were ordered in the RPO’s (Regular Production Option) first stage appearance.

The design was a very far cry from the original styling of the two-seater sportscar – Bill Mitchell, the Chevy (and later GM’s) beauty guru, took inspiration from a Sting Ray race car from 1959. The looks were so irresistibly sexy, and teenage boys would suddenly become aware of certain bodily functions unknown until then.

In fact, one 16-year-young was so keen to get his hands over a brand-new 1963 ‘Vette that he had his mother put her name on the registration title of a superb Solid Red convertible. The car – shown in the video below, shot at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals last November by Lou Costabile – also had another particular appealing option.

A 327-cubic-inch eight-cylinder powerplant with zero carburetors and a 360-horse rear-wheel punch. That’s correct; this drop-top ‘Vette is a Fuelie, with a 4.11 rear-end gearing. Not to point fingers, but Roger E. Miller – the teen who owned the car – was probably a very busy young man and didn’t want to spend too much time in traffic.

He kept the car until 1990 – and had it transferred to his name in 1967, when he turned 21 – then sold it (with 37,234 miles / 59,909 km on the clock) to a man who kept it until 1991. Without adding a single mile to the odometer. The third owner of this stunning Corvette wasn’t much of a driver’s car enthusiast, either. He kept the car for three decades and sold it to Joe Verillo (a veteran Corvette dealer in the business since the 80s) in 2021.

At the time, the second-generation Sting Ray Corvette was undergoing a restoration (finished to perfection by Joe), and now it proudly boasts 37,246 miles (59,912 kilometers). According to the owner, it also features a unique air cleaner system worth about $35,000. No word about how much the whole car is valued, as he doesn’t plan to sell it.