Vehicle Description
1966 Chevrolet Corvette for Sale. 327 cubic inch V8 engine,
aluminum intake, road exhaust, 4 speed manual transmission, power
steering, 4 wheel disc brakes, factory A/C car, 15" knockoff wheels
with BF Goodrich Silvertown gold stripe tires, Milano Maroon
exterior, black convertible top, Saddle bucket seat interior,
factory style shifter, AM radio. The Mid-Year Corvettes are
undeniably the most exciting Corvette ever built, and this
beautiful example is ready for fun! Mid Year Corvette History: The
1963 Sting Ray production car's lineage can be traced to two
separate GM projects: the Q-Corvette, and perhaps more directly,
Mitchell's racing Sting Ray. The Q-Corvette, initiated in 1957,
envisioned a smaller, more advanced Corvette as a coupe-only model,
boasting a rear transaxle, independent rear suspension, and
four-wheel disc brakes, with the rear brakes mounted inboard.
Exterior styling was purposeful, with peaked fenders, a long nose,
and a short, bobbed tail. Meanwhile, Zora Arkus-Duntov and other GM
engineers had become fascinated with mid and rear-engine designs.
It was during the Corvair's development that Duntov took the
mid/rear-engine layout to its limits in the CERV I concept. The
Chevrolet Experimental Research Vehicle was a lightweight,
open-wheel single-seat racer. A rear-engined Corvette was briefly
considered during 1958-60, progressing as far as a full-scale
mock-up designed around the Corvair's entire rear-mounted power
package, including its complicated air-cooled flat-six as an
alternative to the Corvette's usual water-cooled V-8. By the fall
of 1959, elements of the Q-Corvette and the Sting Ray Special racer
would be incorporated into experimental project XP-720, which was
the design program that led directly to the production 1963
Corvette Sting Ray. The XP-720 sought to deliver improved passenger
accommodation, more luggage space, and superior ride and handling
over previous Corvettes. While Duntov was developing an innovative
new chassis for the 1963 Corvette, designers were adapting and
refining the basic look of the racing Sting Ray for the production
model. A fully functional space buck (a wooden mock-up created to
work out interior dimensions) was completed by early 1960,
production coupe styling was locked up for the most part by April,
and the interior, instrument panel included was in place by
November. Only in the fall of 1960 did the designers turn their
creative attention to a new version of the traditional Corvette
convertible and, still later, its detachable hardtop. For the first
time in the Corvette's history, wind tunnel testing helped refine
the final shape, as did practical matters like interior space,
windshield curvatures, and tooling limitations. Both body styles
were extensively evaluated as production-ready 3/8-scale models at
the Caltech wind tunnel.