- This 1963 Corvette was transformed into a twin-turbo mid-engine SEMA showstopper.
- Fiberglass body was widened, shortened and the cab pushed forward by two whole feet.
- The controversial custom just sold for a surprisingly modest $65,500 on Bring a Trailer.
As far as a lot of Corvette folks are concerned, messing with a 1963 split-window Corvette C2 is like drawing a moustache and a “V8 till I die” neck tattoo on the Mona Lisa. Chevy offered that famous divided rear glass for one year only, making ’63 coupes hugely coveted. But that didn’t stop somebody from modifying this one so hard its original owner would never recognize it.
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The build took place in the mid 2000s when designer Mark Harlan imagined a mid-engine Le Mans-style Corvette, an idea Corvette Godfather Zora Arkus-Duntov had been working on four decades earlier. Phil Sommers at American Supercar turned Harlan’s vision into fiberglass reality and the finished V7 Twin Turbo won Best GM Vehicle at the 2007 SEMA Show.
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The donor wasn’t numbers-matching, which might calm purists slightly. And it’s just as well because the cab was pushed forward 24 inches (600 mm), the body widened by 10 inches (250 mm) and shortened three (75 mm). Underneath sits a bespoke ladder chassis with independent suspension and Penske adjustable dampers, while popper-operated sliding doors add another layer of weirdness.
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Where a stock ’63 keeps its V8 ahead of the occupants, this coachbuilt one hides a stroked 395-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) LS1 behind them. Twin 77-mm turbos pile on the drama, while a paddle-shifted Mendeola five-speed sequential transaxle sends everything to the back wheels.
An Idea Decades In Development
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Arkus-Duntov spent decades pushing mid-engine concepts before his retirement from GM in 1975, and Chevrolet built several experimental Corvettes with their engines behind the occupants. But production Vettes wouldn’t go mid-engined until the C8 arrived for 2020.
Naturally, the Bring a Trailer listing comments were divided. One praised it as “a creation of engineering art,” while another admired the effort put in to it, but lamented what happened to the C2’s original proportions. It’s also fair to say that the whole 2000s tuning aesthetic, the chrome wheels and silver gauges, looks badly dated in 2026, though this car will certainly still stop traffic.
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After nine auction bids, the Corvette sold for just $65,500 despite the vast amount of custom fabrication involved. One commenter reckoned reproducing it today could cost $400,000 to $500,000, while another simply declared, “The ’63 title was worth the price.”