1963 Hot Wheel #1136 1963 Ertl #1617 1963 Yat Ming #1078 1963 Kidco - #115-2 1963 Welly - #8365 1963 Road Champs 1963 Racing Champions - #3 1963 Street Wheels 1963 Valvoline 1963 Johnny Lightning - #732 1963 Johnny Lightning GS - #736 |
Since 1953, when the first Corvette was manufactured , it has been determined by the collector community that there have been 5 major body style changes to date. The Sting Ray series was manufactured from 1963 until 1967 and is now referred to as the C2. The first production car in 1963 featured an almost entirely new radically styled sports car. The only styling feature left over from the C1 was the ducktail styled rear fender design which first appeared on the 1961 car. The side fender coved scallops on the 1962 car were eliminated along with the oval grille. The headlight housings were hidden in addition to many other styling innovations. This section will provide a guide to the yearly styling changes. Thus, collectors of these miniatures should be able to better identify the year of manufacture each model represents. The 1963 coupe is the easiest Sting Ray to identify. This was the only
year this car was produced with a large fastback split rear window. The
split separation was eliminated the following year. The '63 coupe and roadster
also had fake engine hood louvers which were eliminated tin 1965. In addition, Aurora issued model #6101 in their Cigar Box series. WT , another lesser known company also is said to have issued model #203. Road Champs issued a coupe model over 20 years ago. Racing Champions introduced one of the best coupe replicas available in 1996 in their Mint Editions set. The detail and realism are excellent. Racing Champions also offered a smaller casting in their Street Wheels series, usually featuring wild colors and ugly wheels. Valvoline, a fuel oil producer, issued a model in their 10 car promotional set in 1993. However, there is some distortion in the casting. Johnny Lightning (JL) has produced 2 1963 models. Their regular coupe is model #732 which was first issued in the Corvette Collectible series in 1999. Their second model #736 replicates the famous GS racing coupe. Only 5 of the full size cars were ever produced by GM. These cars did not have the split rear window. Matchbox also produced this model #2-K in 1990. 1964 1965 1966 Other manufacturers over the years may have produced models of the C2 . This is only an attempt to summarize the models that are known to me. I wish to cite the following references as primary research sources for this article. |
1963 Matchbox GS - #2-K 1963 Matchbox Premier Edition GS 1964 Impy Flyer - #76 1965 Johnny Lightning 1965 Hot Wheels 1965 Siku #V282 1965 Valvoline 1965/66 Johnny Lightning - #733 1967 Johnny Lightning - #168 1967 Mini Lindy - #3 1967 Hot Wheels Showcase #2 |