Throwback (Mar. 2020): 1963 Sebring Silver Roadster

This first-year C2 was bid up to $42,200 when the original auction ended on 3/2/20 without reaching the reserve for what was claimed to be a “1963 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible All original Survivor”. This was the seller’s description:

“1963 Chevrolet Corvette convertible 327 c.i/340 h.p engine along with a 4 speed manual transmission, original Sebring Silver Poly with a Red interior. The originality of the paint on this car will be hard to match. You will not find too many old corvettes with still the original paint when it left the factory. The car runs and drives very well, The car just had a tuneup recently performed.If you are looking for a great original Corvette don’t miss out on this one. The Undercarriage and frame are in nice shape on this original Corvette.”

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Here are just a few of the things that I noticed about this “original survivor” car that bothered me:

• “Original Sebring Silver paint” – This particular color was the worst paint for holding up over a long period of time. Not only does it seem unlikely that it would still have looked this good after 57 years, the panels looked like different shades of silver in the pictures.
• “327/340” engine – I believe this would have been the fuel-injected engine. Where were the FI badges on the fenders? And why was the redline on the tach 5500? The solid-lifter 340 hp FI engine had a 6500 redline.
• Besides obvious differences like headers and Hurst shifter which were obviously not original, there were many discrepancies under the hood such as incorrect parts (fan, valve covers, oil fill) and wrong accessory locations.
• Various trim parts on the exterior were incorrect for model year 1963 (antenna, gas flap emblem). Even the hardtop wasn’t correct for a ‘63 car.

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But even if it wasn’t an actual original survivor, it could haven been a fun driver for the right price if it was in good running condition.

The high bid in the second auction was $37,100, a figure that reflects the misleading claims and descriptions I noted above. I have no idea what the reserve was on this car, but given the way it was being characterized, I suspect that it was probably near $50k, if not more. The seller left $42,200 on the table in the first auction.

In the current automobile environment, given some of the questions and concerns about this Corvette, I wonder what the market value would be for this first-year C2. What do you think?