When it comes to selling America’s Favorite Sports Car, our friends at Corvette Mike have certainly seen their share of great examples coming through their shop in Anaheim, California over the last 45 years. Selling high quality Corvettes is one of the reasons Corvette Mike has earned the title “Leader of the Pack.” So when Corvette Mike says this Black/Black 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe is the finest ever offered on Bring a Trailer,” we wanted to take a closer look to see what makes this 1963 Sport Coupe the “Best of the Best.”
In one of the first comments on the Bring a Trailer listing, Corvette Mike’s Jeff Romm introduces the car to the site’s dedicated followers. He says that this Tuxedo Black 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe has been a one-owner since new and that Mike has been aware of the car since first laying eyes on it in 1987. Over the years, Mike stayed in touch with the owner until 2013 when the owner’s widow called him with the sad news of her husband’s passing. Mike purchased the car, promising to carry on the car’s legacy.
The Tuxedo Black 1963 Corvette Coupe was built on March 7, 1963, and was delivered new to Selman Chevrolet in Orange, California. A quick review of the car shows that it was built with some of the most desirable equipment of its time. Power to the car comes from the L76 327/340 solid-lifter V8 engine with a single four-barrel carburetor coupled to a T10 four-speed manual transmission and an optional 3.36 Posi-traction rear end. The engine stamping on the pad reveals the correct RE suffix code for the engine and transmission while the Sting Ray’s sequence number of 110270 corresponds to the last six digits of the vehicle’s serial number.
The Tuxedo Black paint on the car looks to be in great condition from the photos, and it offers a fantastic contrast to the gleaming chrome bumpers, bright emblems, and the shiny trim that surrounds the windshield and rear windows on the car. The Split Window Coupe rides on 15-inch Kelsey Hayes wheels with black wall B.F. Goodrich Silvertown-branded tires. The turbine-style wheels feature the two-bar knock-off spinners while stopping power is accomplished by the four-wheel power-assisted drum brakes.
Inside the cabin, drivers are greeted to the sporty cockpit with a 160-mph speedometer and a tachometer with a 6,500-rpm redline. The Corvette’s trim tag confirms the car was originally offered in Black Vinyl, and amenities include a heater, AM radio, and power brakes. A total of 28K original miles are shown on the odometer with only 1,000 of them put on during Corvette Mike’s stewardship.
While the car was already in excellent condition when it was acquired in 2013, Corvette Mike and his staff spent the next two years meticulously restoring the split-window and using New Old Stock (NOS) parts wherever needed. Responding to a question about that, Jeff gives the example of how Al Knoch Interiors still has some original 1963 “Madrid Grain” vinyl which they used for recovering the original dash pads.
In 2018 the car underwent NCRS Judging and it was honored with the Duntov Mark of Excellence Award. It has also garnered NCRS Top Flight Awards, the Design Excellence Award from the 2022 Quail Motorsports Gathering, and the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 La Jolla Concourse D’Elegance. Documentation includes a California pink slip from 1963 (title), the car’s original California Black license plates, an NCRS Shipping Report, and a report from Classic Car Affirmation Services. Corvette Mike is also including the NCRS judging score sheets as well.
The 1963 Corvette Split Window is an iconic car and over the years they have done extremely well on the Bring a Trailer auction platform. Indeed, in the auction stats show Corvette Mike’s Black/Black SWC already has 1,888 watchers while the auction listing has over 11K views so far. There are just three days left with the Bring a Trailer auction running through Friday, March 21st at 1:05 PM EST.
Don’t miss out on this exceptional Tuxedo Black 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe which Corvette Mike calls the “best of the best” and “the finest split-window to ever appear on Bring a Trailer!”
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Bring a Trailer