By definition, pro-touring cars are virtually irresistible. Moreover, it’s because they combine everything great about modern performance with everything loved in vintage style. Enjoy reading about the 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Restomod.
Who doesn’t enjoy cruising a classic that mixes the best attributes of old-school Detroit muscle with the killer performance of modern American icons? However, as a professionally built custom that delivers on every level, this sweet Sting Ray is the kind of car you simply CAN’T ignore.
It’s a classy restoration with a modified chassis, modern transmission, and 6.2-liter Chevrolet Performance V8. In addition, it emanates the style and class that made second-generation Corvettes legendary. Obviously, this Chevy’s a great road and shows classic.
WHEN NCRS MEETS RESTO-MOD
This Corvette left the assembly plant in June of 1967. Moreover, it looked much different than it does today. For starters, the car’s covered in conservative Goodwood Green single-stage. However, a run-of-the-mill small block lives between its factory-prepped wheel wells. In addition, the tame Saddle vinyl wraps the interior. Yes, to make a long story short, it was an inoffensive curve carver that lacked the aesthetic individuality to drop jaws and turn heads.
This Sting Ray received an 11-month, nut-and-bolt restoration in mid-2014. However, that professional build, commissioned by an NCRS judge and completed by Factory Hot Rods of Cincinnati, Ohio, began with a full soda blast of the car’s solid body. Afterward, C2 stress points became reinforced. Mercedes Palladium Silver 2-stage topped it off. This beautiful drop-top’s detailed to like-new standards.
With such a sculpted body, ornamentation could have easily ruined the C2’s presence. Thankfully, Chevrolet did a great job of placing form over function and keeping brightwork to a minimum. At the front of this Vette, quality Detroit Speed headlights shade polished bumpers, which cage a stainless-trimmed grille between small parking lamps. Behind those lights, a requisite cross-flag emblem draws the eye to a stylish Stinger Hood. Additionally, the hood places a vivid red stripe in front of perfectly polished wipers, frames, and flawless glass covered in tight fabric.
Louvered hood sides have polished handles, bowtie mirrors, black rocker guards, and loud side pipes. These mirrors reflect two polished bumpers that frame factory taillights, a Sting Ray insignia, and a color-keyed fuel filler.
1967 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Restomod – CHEVROLET PERFORMANCE POWER
This Chevy’s body-matched engine bay houses a 6.2-liter small block. However, the Chevrolet Performance LS376/480 crate engine costs $8,433 and produces 495 hp and 473 lb./ft. In addition, a polished air tube funnels into a GM throttle body, which feeds a GM intake.
That air meets spark in rectangular-port L92-style heads, which ride under painted and stainless-trimmed fuel rail covers. Moreover, a nodular crank, powdered connecting rods, and hypereutectic pistons compress that volatile union. Furthermore, a racing-inspired LS Hot Cam maximizes intake efficiency through better breathing. For example, speaking of breathing, the smooth mill funnels spent gases through coated block hugger headers.
There’s a polished DeWitts radiator that’s slid in front of spry SPAL puller fans. Polished serpentine components spin a polished alternator opposite a polished AC compressor. Braided lines and AC Delco plug wires complement polished reservoirs, a Wilwood master cylinder, and a billet clutch reservoir.
NOT STOCK AT ALL
Park this Sting Ray on a lift and you’ll find a one-off Factory Hot Rods chassis that, bathed in satin pigment, sports a spry sixth-generation Corvette Z06 suspension that’s finished with Viking coil-over-shocks. However, the stout LS3 twists a stout Tremec 5-speed jolted by a tough hydraulic clutch.
That transmission spins a billet-capped quick-change differential, which rides under modified floors that are tailored to the car’s custom bones. Turns come courtesy of power rack-and-pinion steering. Smooth and solid stops are provided by sixth-generation Corvette Z06 brakes, which squeeze 4 and 6-piston calipers around a quartet of drilled rotors.
And power meets the pavement through chromed Corvette ZR1 blades, which spin 275/35ZR18 Michelin Pilot Super Sports in front of 345/30ZR19 Michelin Pilot Super Sports.
TAMING THE BEAST
This roadster’s French-stitched cockpit has leather buckets from a late-model Corvette. Moreover, it’s a dual-cowl dash with silver-face telemetry, AC, and a Delco AM/FM radio with an auxiliary connection.
At the base of that dash, a custom console frames a lengthened shifter. However, below that console, color-keyed floor mats split the difference between billet foot pedals, clean carpet, and quality sound-deadening insulation. In addition, at the edges of that carpet, are custom door panels and front factory power windows.
A tilting column spins a half-wrapped rim around a billet wheel. And behind the passengers, a fifth-generation Corvette waterfall fronts a small storage compartment.
Related Questions:
- What is a 1967 Corvette worth?
Photos courtesy Mecum Auctions. According to NADA, the high retail value of a 1967Chevrolet Corvette coupe with the 427-cu.in., 435-hp V-8, a four-speed manual transmission, power windows, and a telescopic steering wheel is just under $170,000.
- How many 1967 Corvettes exist today?
1967 Corvette were produced from September 1966 through July 1967 with a total production of 22,940 of which only 8,504 were coupes.
- What year does Corvette have a 427?
1966A legacy of 427-powered CorvettesThe first 427-powered Corvette rolled off the assembly line for the 1966 model year. Two performance levels of the 427 were initially offered – an “L30” version rated at 390 horsepower and the “L72,” which cranked out 425 horsepower. Both were rated at 460 lb-ft. of torque.
