PAINTHOUSE

Cypress, TX View More Vehicles

1963 Chevrolet Corvette – Raytona

Vehicle Quick Facts

Profile ID: 2158
Year: 1963
Make: Chevrolet
Model: Corvette
Markets: Art & Automobilia, Driven Daily, Muscle Car, Performance, Resto-Mod, Rod & Custom, Sports Car
Vehicle Type: American
Contact: PAINTHOUSE

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Vehicle Story

This is a 1963 Corvette Roadster. In addition to this car, owner Steve Percival also has a couple Ferrari’s and a newer Corvette. The idea behind the car is a subtle blending of traditional and modern Corvette with Vintage Ferrari, with a classic road racing undertone swirling around the edges.

Steve grew up in Daytona, FL and remembers the racing lore of the Daytona Motor Speedway very well. It was Steve and our idea to harken back to the days when it took a very brave individual to wheel these machines at warp speed around a racetrack with questionable brakes, marginal tires and almost too much horsepower (is there ever too much?). Hopefully, Raytona will remind people of a time when cars like the Corvette Z06, Ferrari, the Shelby Cobra and others all fought it out on Sunday to see who would be the King of the Hill (and street) on Monday.

The name came about as a result of our discussions of the theme of the car and as I learned more about Steve and his history, and passion, with cars. Things like Sting Ray Corvette, Daytona Ferrari, the Daytona Speedway rolled around in my cavernous head and the name "Raytona” rolled out.

The car has a stock 1963 body and PAINTHOUSE-modified bumpers to better compliment the curves of the car. The refinish system is all PPG, from the first epoxy primer to the final clear coat. The color is a custom-mixed color (Raytona Blue Pearl) mixed by PAINTHOUSE and covered in copious amounts of PPG's 8152 Clear. Oh yeah, about 3,000 man hours of blocksanding and a custom rear belly pan were involved in getting her as straight as she is. Well, maybe not that many, but you get the idea.

The engine is a 355 small-block Chevy engine with actual Weber 44’s on an Inglese cross ram. Despite my urging to do this system in a more modern fuel-injected style, Steve chose to hold true to the theme of the car and use real Webers. Thanks to Jim Inglese for my ‘over the phone’ education on how to tune the intake system - he was invaluable. The original ’63 Z06 Corvette racecar had a similar induction system when it raced round the tracks of the world and the legendary Ferrari racecars of that era also were inducted via Weber carburetors. It has a March pulley system, Vintage Air cooling and some custom parts made by us at PAINTHOUSE. Lastly, there is also a Tremec 5-speed transmission to connect the driver to the car.

The chassis is a custom unit featuring C-4 suspension components, Coil-over shocks allowing for much greater suspension and ride tuning (instead of the usual mono-leaf Vette springs), C5-style Wilwood brakes 14” rotors, 6-piston calipers) and an electric parking brake. All of the suspension parts are polished aluminum. The gear ratio is 3.50:1, with a Track Lok posi-traction unit inside the Dana 44 Super Duty Differential. I’d rather not give the chassis builder any kudos; he was a pain in our ass.

The two-tone interior is styled after the inimitable Daytona Ferrari. It was designed by Eric Brockmeyer and crafted by Paul Atkins. The leather was provided courtesy of several blue & black dead, Italian cows. Eric also designed the gauges and styled them after the newer Ferrari design, with an integrated shift light in the tachometer. The cool inside atmosphere that compliments the cool exterior styling is from Vintage Air. Classic Instruments perfectly replicated the gauges as drawn by Eric Brockmeyer. The car has its restored original hard top in addition to the expected soft top, also covered flawlessly by Paul Atkins and his crew. Custom LED illuminated step plates and “Raytona” badging was handled by Jesse Greening and his staff at Greening Auto Co. The sounds, should you choose to try and not listen to the magical tone of the sidepipes (why?), is supplied via a hidden system driven solely by either an iPhone or iPod. No radio here...

The wheels are called “Modsport”; made by Schott Wheels - 17x8” front and 18x8.5” rear. The Yokohama S-drive tires have had the sidewalls smoothed of all lettering. The tire sizes are not huge as the wheel wells were not modified in the original body, per Steve’s request.

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