The 1963 Corvette was a dramatic, exciting breakthrough in American automobile design, engineering and specifications. Its four-wheel independent suspension was as good as any European exotic, and it should have ruled the road courses of the time—and would have, except for Carroll Shelby’s Cobra.

But the Cobra was gone in five years, while the Corvette that GM styling chief Bill Mitchell and engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov unleashed was still around mechanically in 1983.

The ’63 Corvette evolved from a racing car called the Mitchell Sting Ray. Bill Mitchell had replaced Harley Earl as head of GM styling in 1958. Like Duntov, he thought it important to race the ’Vette, so he persuaded Chevy’s general manager Ed Cole to sell him the chassis of the ’57 Corvette SS “mule” for $1. Mitchell then had designer Larry Shinoda create a body for the Sting Ray race car inspired by the sea-creature itself.

Mitchell loved the 1963 “Split-Window” coupe, but Duntov hated the vision-blocking rear and the style was offered only one year.