The 1963 Split Window Corvette was a turning point and the start of a new generation of sports cars, according to an August 2021 article in Motor Trend. The two names most mentioned when discussing its design influences are Bill Mitchell and Zora Duntov. While Mitchell and Duntov were integral to the car's design, several others contributed.
Car enthusiasts have commented on its marine themes, specifically the swooping fenders similar to a stingray's fins. The front fenders and B-pillars (roof's structural support) are like a stingray's tail. Finally, the spine in the rear window also borrows from the spine of a fish. Because of this thematic influence, the car is called the Corvette Stingray Racer.
The short story is that the Split Window Corvette was the culmination of the butting heads of Duntov and Mitchell, one who had a passion for the function of sports cars and the other who focused on the car's aesthetics. In 1953, Duntov saw General Motors introduce the Corvette at the Motorama show and convinced the car manufacturer to hire him. Most sources state that Duntov, an engineer, was obsessed with finding ways to improve the car's performance. Alternatively, Mitchell, the styling chief at the time, was fascinated with marine life.
These two were integral to getting the car manufactured. Still, when looking at Corvette's evolution in the years preceding the unveiling of the split window edition, others influenced the car's overall design. In the beginning, the Corvette's reception could have been better, with many not considering it a muscle (performance) car because it had defects (poor quality control) and a fiberglass body that appeared thrown together.
Duntov remained with GM on the ground floor, introducing the vehicle's first generation. He reported to Ed Cole, chief engineer, who wanted to create a lineup of front-engine, rear-transaxle cars, requiring Mitchell to develop a Corvette design with independent rear suspension. In 1958, the Corvette program produced Q-Corvette.
An internal design competition brought a young GM engineer, Peter Brock, into the picture. Brock received the responsibility of creating a Corvette Coupe named the XP-84. His design began the creation of the form for the Split Window Corvette. Unfortunately, a GM boardroom shake-up culminated in replacing the chairman, halting the Q-Chevrolet program, the XP-84, and XP-96 (convertible version).
The car's convertible (XP-96) form fell into Larry Shinoda's hands, and he took it with another design, the Corvette SS, to develop the car further. Incidentally, the Corvette SS was Duntov's project he intended to race at Le Mans, but it was short-lived. Using the XP-96 as his design foundation, Shinoda's version of the car was a redesign of the Corvette SS chassis (steel frame, wheels, engine, and mechanical parts of car), a vehicle he called the Stingray.
The car received exposure to the public through the Dr. Dick Thompson's racing efforts. Thompson won both private races and a Sports Club of America National Championship. However, GM stopped Mitchell from financing the car as a race car, so he converted it into a vehicle for personal use.
Finally, the car's split window design was GM Executive David Holls' contribution to the overall car's style. Holls discovered a rare 1937 Trumpf Rennlimousine with a split window at the 1959 Michigan State Fair. He had the car brought to the GM Tech Center to be photographed. After seeing the vehicle, Mitchell latched onto the car's rear greenhouse split glass, and the rest is history.
The car was popular with the public, even though the split window became problematic for owners because the piece separating the two rear windows blocked the driver's vision. I affectionally refer to my 63 split as “Blind Spot”. Either the owner replaced the split window with one that had a single pane themselves, or the dealership replaced the split window with a single pane. For this reason, GM shelved the 1963 Split Window Corvette. Even so, this version began a new generation of the vehicle.
