1964 Chevrolet Corvette C2 Fastback Coupe

Throughout the years, the Corvette has gone beyond the standard production line to become various one-off studio creations and show cars. For the 1964 year, General Motors had at least five unique Corvettes built for executives and family members. Retired styling chief Harley Earl got a Sting Ray Convertible; his wife, Sue, had a custom Coral Pink Coupe; and Semon 'Bunkie' Knudsen, general manager of Chevrolet since 1961, had this particular example. This Sting Ray GM Styling Coupe 'GPV-57' is chassis number 40837S101311. It is an early-production 1964 model that was ordered in the fall of 1963. It was recorded as GPV-57, a number borne on a Chevrolet Engineering dashboard tag, indicating that it was a car that was company-owned and specially built by either the Styling or Engineering Departments.

This Corvette was given a hand-built front end, with a reconfigured hood that prototyped that of the 1965 Corvette, with deeper vents and unique bumpers relocated higher, leaving room for an oversized egg-crate grille. Under the hood was an L76 327 V8 delivering 365 horsepower from its high compression and four-barrel carburetor. The engine is mostly stock, with the addition of custom chrome trim. The engine was mated to an M20 four-speed transmission. The completed car was painted Du Pont FireFrost Blue, a 1964 Cadillac color. The FireFrost Blue color continued to the inside, being used for the interior paint and trim. This color was accented by custom high-back white leather bucket seats, a leather console, and dark blue cut pile carpeting (also sourced from Cadillac) with polished 'toeboards.' The dashboard is finished in blue-grained fiberglass with white coves, and unique door panels of white leather and stainless steel with four window switches were fitted. The steering wheel is a 1965-style unit, hand-built with a unique hub and teak trim.

The car has large side pipes in a similar fashion to the 1969 Corvette's optional exhaust. The pipes were given blue-painted shields. The car rides on painted two-bar 'knock-off' wheels, equipped with Goodyear Blue Streak HP tires with a FireFrost Blue stripe outside the tires' narrow white stripe.

With so much work and man-hours in the car, there is speculation that it may have been intended as a Motorama show car, but no proof of this has emerged. Bunkie drove the car daily from his home in the suburbs to the Chevrolet offices for several months. It was eventually sold by the Engineering Department to an employee, Mr. Gailey, who sold it on in 1965. Over the next 22 years, two subsequent owners used it as everyday transportation.

In 1988, it was acquired by Dr. W. Vance Shappley from Germantown, Tennessee. He was able to recreate the badly damaged cast grille and side exhausts when restoring the car to its original condition. The car was then included in a special Bloomington Gold Motorama Gold Collection in 1993, and it remained in Dr. Shappley's personal collection until its sale in 2006.

By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2015