'64 Corvette: 2015 Edition!
The lines on this C2 Corvette are stunning. Whether you are looking at it from the front, the back, the top, or the sides this car is an incredible work of art. The one that I am currently looking at and writing about is a 1964 Corvette Sting Ray – which is now a fifty-one year old automobile. One C2 owner commented to me, a few years ago while I was admiring his car, that it rode like a pick-up truck. Not a ride like the Targa Truck provides, but it was a comment that has stayed with me. He may not have enjoyed the ride, there was no question that he loved the looks of it and I certainly concurred. When I saw the incredible suspension setup on this Sting Ray, I knew there was a story here. The C2, built from 1963 through to 1967, is a beautiful automobile that I believe is art. This one, rebuilt in 2015, is also art when you look under the skin.
Only the 1963 model came with the split window. All C2's came with the beautiful tapered lines. Stunning. C2's were manufactured from 1963 to 1967.This particular car belongs to Rob and Gail Coppens. They wanted to maintain the original appearance but enhance and refresh virtually everything else. They gave it to Manny Dasilva at Dasilva Motorsports for the build with the mandate, “Make it loud and fast!” Thus it has undergone a frame off restomod. In fact, the paint and body have not been touched. The body on this car is in amazing shape and the paint is perfect, if you do not look too closely. Many of the pictures that I have obtained are taken inside the shop while it was being worked on or, in the case of the picture above, when the car was moved outside on a sunny day early in April to allow a few natural light photographs. Once it has been detailed I can only imagine how brilliant it will be! I am pretty sure it will be fast and I guarantee it will be loud – when conditions warrant it.
Marker lights, side skirts, interior pieces including the seats, still have to be installed in the Corvette. I wanted to take it out for a drive, as the laughter died down I realized that this wasn't going to happen.You caught glimpses of this car in the earlier article Dasilva Motorsports: They Do It All! and I indicated that I hoped to do a full story. A RestoMod maintains the original lines and appearance of the classic body while updating the often outdated underpinnings of the car. As it sits in the middle of the parking lot, the only sign that this car has had any changes are the massive brake rotors and calipers peeking out from behind the wheels and replacing the original drum brakes. That is, until you see under the hood or have the car up on a hoist.
This is not the 327 cubic inch 1964 era motor that took the C2 through the quarter mile in about 15 seconds but a modern LS3. The C2 could be purchased fully loaded for under $6000 in 1964. (Specifications about the OEM setup came from Dasilva Motorsports and 1964 Corvette specifications.) And look back at the cover picture at the top of the story – does anything about that front end system look like it came from the sixties?! Quarter mile times? Only guesses right now.
Perhaps you remember this photo from the original story and thought to yourself that the rear suspension system was absolutely incredible. If so, then read on.
