Gooding & Co. Offers Top Corvette at Amelia Island

It takes a very special Corvette to break $500k at auction, and an even more special one to have an estimate range above $700k. Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island sale, coming up later this week, has just such a car.

Lot 71 is a 1963 Corvette Split-Window Coupe — but it’s not just any Split-Window Coupe. It’s a one-of-199 Z06, and it’s said to have just 5,400 miles from new. It’s also the only Z06 built in 1963 in Sebring Silver with Saddle leather, and comes with documentation that includes the original dealer invoice. The car is Bloomington Gold Certified, was part of the Bloomington Gold Special Collection and is a Great Hall Inductee. When it comes to Corvettes, it doesn’t get much better than that.

The Z06 package was set up to take the Corvette racing. The idea here was to include all the things required off the option sheet in one RPO package so that buyers could simplify the process. The package included the 360-hp fuel-injected 327 V8, the 4-speed manual transmission as well as heavy-duty brakes and suspension. The brakes were seriously upgraded over other production Corvettes, with integrated cooling fins, vented backing plates and metallic shoe linings for much improved bite and resistance to fade in high-demand situations.

In addition to its low miles, this Corvette has had just three owners from new, and its most recent owner has had the car for over 45 years.

“In accordance with multiple 1963 Corvette authorities as well as having conducted many hours of inspection and authentication of this specific vehicle, I would consider this the most perfectly intact and preserved exemplar of the entire 1963 – 1967 production run,” said David Burroughs, founder of Bloomington Gold. “I have been exposed to thousands of C2 Corvettes and have been fortunate enough to inspect almost all of the top twenty unrestored, preserved C1 and C2 Corvettes over the past 50 years. Although there are several that come close, I know of none more perfectly preserved than this exemplar. This is not to mention the iconic 1963 design, extremely rare color combination, rare Z06 heavy duty brake option, iconic fuel injected engine and nearly 60 years of meticulous custodial care.”