Split-Window Sensation: 1963 C2 Coupe

There are high-performance Corvettes, grand touring Corvettes, and Vettes built to grab show-goers’ eyes and not let go.

Joe Bongiorno’s split-window coupe is all of those, and more.

Bongiorno is no stranger to customized Corvettes. “I’ve bought [completed] cars that other people had completely redone, with their ideas and all,” he says of the ones that graced his garage in the past. But this time, he wanted a modified Corvette that was his from the start. “I wanted to make one that was driveable, and have all the modern, up-to-date equipment on it.”

Bongiorno and fabricator Anthony Luca (of Anthony’s Rod and Custom of Middle Island, New York), teamed up to build the ultimate Sting Ray—the car that Zora Arkus-Duntov said many years ago he would be proud to drive in Europe.

Like many Vette projects, this one began with a car that had seen better days.” It was just a basic car that had been pretty well beat up and redone several times,” says Bongiorno of the non-fuelie, non-Z06 donor. “It had a different engine and different parts put into it.”

But, like many a project that grows beyond its original concept, so did this Vette build. “It’s like rebuilding an old house: You have a budget, but before you know it, you keep on going and going and going,” says Bongiorno. “Once you start putting the better things in there, you want the best of everything, and there’s no turning back.”

Those “better things” included a tubular SRIII Motorsports frame holding a C4/C5-based suspension system. The unorthodox setup uses RideTech’s air springs and hardware instead of steel coils or composite leaves.

For power, Bongiorno and Luca contacted Street & Performance for a “better thing” in a crate: a modern-tech LS9 engine, complete with supercharger, intercooler, modified dry-sump oiling system, and custom exhaust. Backing it are a fully polished, Hurst-shifted T56 gearbox and a 3.73-geared Dana 44 rearend—all of which Luca and SRIII set up to work together.

Inside, after Tom Gallina’s rewiring job was complete, Luca (and John Prentice at Miller Place Upholstery in Miller Place, New York) treated the cabin to C5 sport seats covered in bison leather, a Budnik steering wheel, carbon-fiber AutoMeter gauges, and a Pioneer/JL Audio sound system.

Outside, Luca crafted a ZR1-style hood, smoothed the engine bay, and got the ’63’s body ready for the custom-mixed two-stage PPG Blue paint.

Needless to say, the car’s performance is even better than its looks. “It drives beautifully,” says Bongiorno. “It’s unbelievable!”

Bongiorno gives plenty of credit for this sensational split-window to fabricator Luca. “He did some job, the way he put it together,” he says of the final result, which looks almost like a factory build.

Or maybe a special Chevy Engineering/Chevy Styling project of the early ’60s!