Mistery of 1963's at European car shows

[Sander B.]

just found this dutch article from 63 of this 1963 corvette at the paris motor show, notice the 2 bar spinners and the SILVER interior.
the article story tells it had much more attention than the Ferarri next to it

the corvette had a price of 28k dutch guilders vs 80k for the Ferarri

now seeing this article i wonder what happened to the 3 cars which went to Turin, Paris and London?

anyboddy knows

[Duke W.]

Re: Mistery of 1963's at European car shows

The summer/fall 1962 auto show display cars were selected from the 25-job 1963 model pilot line run that was done IIRC in the June time frame. Pictures of them at the shows have been around ever since they were displayed, and they had a lot of pre-production parts.

Some of the 25 pilot line cars got into the public domain as did some two-bar knockoffs (in boxes, not installed on production cars), but I don't know the fate of these particular cars.

The car's introduction was an "event" all over the world due to its radical new styling. They made Ferraris look almost plain. Though Europe went nuts over the styling as did America, the European press was less enthusiast when they got production cars to test. They loved the 360 HP fuel injection engine - its acceleration and tractability, but they were critical of the brakes and bias ply tires and felt that the fit and finish was not up to the standards of other similarly priced (in Europe) sports cars.

Keep in mind that Europe had very high import duties on US cars in that era, so they were relatively more expensive compared to a Porshce, Jag, or Ferrari than in the USA. Also, they had relatively high fuel consumption and European fuel octane of that era was not as high as in the US, so there may have been a problem finding fuel of sufficient octane to keep the engines out of detonation. Back then "high compression" in Europe was usually somewhat less than 10:1.

Duke

[Michael W.]

Re: Mistery of 1963's at European car shows

Sander,

Looking to the pic and remembering some other old magazines in The Netherlands, this is the car at the Paris motorshow.

I hear stories about 3 cars being shipped for Turin, Paris and Londen. Would be interesting indeed to know where these cars are? Anybody?

Cannot imagine GM would take the effort to ship back....

[Jack H.]

Sander, you know!

The car that was originally shipped for the London Motor Show is alive and well outside London, England... We had the honor of judging it at the NCRS joint chapter meet in LeMans in 2006!

It was NOT a pilot line car... It was a GM, Tech Center, original mock up for the StingRay built under a shop order (SO 10271) with trim/VIN tags pulled from the pilot line run (VIN 23) in order to give the car manufacturer 'legitimacy' to clear customs.

There are MANY aspects of this car that bare absolutely NO SEMBLENCE to bona fide factory production cars (hand laid fiberglass panels, experimental engine, experimental radiator, experimental frame, plus a host of 'one-of' interior and exterior dress items). The current owner has the GM drawing package pertaining to SO 10271 and it's amazing!

There are items in the package that document the purchase of a set of experimental exterior badges that 'look like' FI side emblems but lack the 'fuel injection' emboss. Plus, drawings supporting the 'one of' release for SS door and door sill dress plates to cover the rough factory painted fiberglass surfaces and 'spiff up' the cosmetics associated with entry/exit of the vehicle.

The owner is currently pondering bringing the car Stateside for the NCRS American Heritage Award, but there's a Catch-22. Unique cars of this nature have to be presented at an NCRS Regional/National meet as a prerequisite for the award.

There ARE NO REGIONAL/NATIONAL meets held outside North America in Europe! Who's going to pack such a rare car into a container and ship it Stateside just to 'see' if it qualifies for award recognition????

There's another, similar car in England that might be induced to share the container ride to the US if that pre-requisite hurdle could be overcome.... That's the XP-987.

You saw it on the rear cover of a recent Restorer Magazine... It's a METAL bodied, mid-engine, experimental prototype that featured Chevy's short term fascination with ****le engine technology. It was hand built in the UK and spent its life after the mid-engine project was dropped atop the roof of Vauxhaul.

Both of these rather rare 'one of' Corvettes are in England and will probably stay in England until NCRS decides the prerequisite rules for the American Heritage Award discriminate against bona fide Corvettes that reside outside of North America....

[Michael W.]

Re: Mistery of 1963's at European car shows

Jack,

Thanks for the input, the car you refer too has indeed VIN 23 and indeed she is a styling mule which was shipped to Europe just before the London motorshow. Like you we know that this car was not used for the show, so in total 4 cars came to Europe in 1962. We had the opportunity to judge her in 2006 together with you!

However coming back to the original question - I can tell you that our persistance lets us find some nice C1s and C2s in Europe, but we are eager to learn more about the other 3 shipped to Europe in 1962. The Paris one is the one on the picture poseted by sander - like Duke confirms, we know this for sure. But this car is for sure not the mule with VIN 23. NCRS is a big think tank, so I am convinced that there are clues out there!

We have some movie footage and pics on the pilot line cars and pre-pilot line and try to match them with the 4 which came to our continent. So who can help us make the puzzle complete?

Mike

[Art A.]

Re: Mistery of 1963's at European car shows

Jack,

Thanks for the input, the car you refer too has indeed VIN 23 and indeed she is a styling mule which was shipped to Europe just before the London motorshow. Like you we know that this car was not used for the show, so in total 4 cars came to Europe in 1962. We had the opportunity to judge her in 2006 together with you!

However coming back to the original question - I can tell you that our persistance lets us find some nice C1s and C2s in Europe, but we are eager to learn more about the other 3 shipped to Europe in 1962. The Paris one is the one on the picture poseted by sander - like Duke confirms, we know this for sure. But this car is for sure not the mule with VIN 23. NCRS is a big think tank, so I am convinced that there are clues out there!

We have some movie footage and pics on the pilot line cars and pre-pilot line and try to match them with the 4 which came to our continent. So who can help us make the puzzle complete?

Mike

Michael, I've been in contact with Chris about his S.O. car and have done some research here with some success. I do know of some GM documents that were donated to the NCM that would probably give us some more information BUT the NCM will NOT let anyone come there and do research in their files...............so much for donating your stuff to the NCM for it's members to do research!