C2 Corvette Z06/N03: Barn Find of the Year?
Slideshow: Barn finds are a dime a dozen these days, but when was the last time somebody uncovered something as special as this ultra-rare C2 Corvette?
Flawless Find
Barn finds are all the rage these days, especially in the Corvette world. Mainly because, well, they're seemingly everywhere. Cars that folks stored away, forgot about, or just didn't have time to maintain. Every so often, we see a truly special or rare car emerge from storage, but few have the flawless pedigree of this 1963 Z06/N03 we spotted at Mecum.
Rare Bird
This particular Corvette emerged from 51 years of storage after living with the same owner from 1965 to 2016. That would be a cool story no matter what option packages it sports, but this C2 is extra special. It is one of only 199 '63 Corvettes to carry the RPO Z06 Special Performance Equipment package and just one of 63 with the RPO N03 36-gallon fuel tank.
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Worth It
Of course, this rare 'Vette didn't just emerge from storage looking this good. The person that rescued it from a life of darkness also treated it to a full body-off restoration in 2017. Needless to say, a car this special warrants such a big investment.
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Well Documented
As you might imagine, this C2 wears its original Ermine white exterior and red interior spec, and it's numbers-matching in every department. It's also well-documented with goodies including a dealer invoice, deposit check receipt, a binder of pictures, and maintenance records.
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Show Stopper
Still, this Corvette was remarkable enough in its discovered condition to land an appearance at both Bloomington Gold's Legends Row display and at Corvettes at Carlisle in 2016. After the restoration was complete, it garnered a spot at Carlisle in 2017. And we're betting that it'll be welcome at any Corvette show the new owner wants to attend, too.
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Meat of the Build
The real meat of this incredible Corvette lies underneath the surface, of course. The drivetrain consists of an L84 327/360 HP Rochester fuel-injected small-block, close-ratio 4-speed manual transmission, and Positraction rear with 3.70 gears.
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Beefy Upgrades
Performance upgrades didn't stop there, of course. This particular car also sports heavy duty springs, beefy shocks, and a fat front sway bar. And of course those legendary Z06 brakes that feature a vacuum-assisted dual-circuit master cylinder, sintered-metallic brake shoes, finned cast-iron drums, and “elephant ear” scoops to draw in cold air.
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Racer for the Street
But that's exactly what you'd expect from a car that really only existed to further Chevy's racing efforts at the time. The Z06 proved to be a formidable foe on race tracks all over the globe, so Chevy didn't have to bother building too many of them for the street.
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Cushy Bits
As hardcore as the Z06 was in its day, you can't really blame folks for opting for cushier options. But this car does have a few convenience bits, including a Wonderbar radio and power brakes.
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Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday
Still, exactly zero people confused this bad boy for what it really was - a race car for the streets. And today, we celebrate them and remember those good old days when the factory-backed motorsports efforts meant that we could buy some pretty cool machines straight off the showroom floor!
>>Join the conversation about this rare vintage C2 right here in the LS1 Tech Forum!
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