Vehicle Description
PJ's Auto World is pleased to offer this 1966 Chevrolet Corvette
Roadster 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.