I didn’t believe it either when I saw it. 39,000 original miles on a Z06 Corvette that is unrestored, even down to the paint and trim, and with its entire history documented from day one? Bloomington Benchmark, Gold & Survivor awards? And the fact that it is likely the very last 1963 Z06 produced? Whoooo, boy, what a car! No, I suppose it technically isn’t a barn find, but you folks love survivor cars, and they don’t come much nicer than this! It’s going to be auctioned off here by Mecum in Kissimmee, Florida, and I suspect the hammer price will be darned high!
This car is absolutely stunning from every angle. There’s a great story along with it as well; it seems this is the second 1963 Z06 that the original purchaser, Tom Atchison bought; he totaled the first one and was disappointed to find that Chevrolet had discontinued the model after less than 200 were made. After a letter explaining his situation to Chevrolet fell on the right desk, one more Z06 was manufactured, six months after the last one, especially for Mr. Atchison. He proceded to record and document everything that happened to the car during his 43 years of ownership. You should note at this point that the Z06 was a regular production option that essentially was an SCCA-ready racer!
It doesn’t hurt that the photography is gorgeous as well. Wow! There are many detail shots in the auction listing; I highly recommend a scan through them, although you may want to wear a bib to catch the drool. Note that this is coming from a Ford Mustang lover!
Needless to say given the accolades, the interior is just as nice as the exterior. Could this be your ultimate Corvette? At least your ultimate C2?
Not only was this car featured in Chevrolet’s 2001 Z06 promo materials, it was also displayed at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, through 2000 and 2001. The car is well-known, so I suspect you won’t be able to sneak a bid in and pick it up for a song in Florida. That being said, if any Barn Finds reader ends up with this car, please let us know!
Really don’t want this, and for the obvious reason: a ’63 Fuelie — and a ZO6 to boot! — deserves to be driven. Heck, it cries out to be run hard and often! Its current 39K on the odo would be a minimum yearly total for me.
My guess would be that it will change hands, for ever-increasing prices, over the next few years. Or it will end up in a museum somewhere. After all the notice it has received, I can’t see it going to an idiot like me (well, like me, but far richer) who would be using it to run to the supermarket, explore every winding road I could find, and take extensive road trips. They’d tear up the Bloomington Gold certificate!
The Thumbs-Down Brigade will have a field day, but for me this car has no more value than a similar car in decent condition with 500,000 miles on the clock. Less, in fact, as I could at least put miles on the well-used example.
This is nothing more than a curiosity. A beautiful curiosity, for sure, but something for me to say “I’m glad it exists” and keep looking for cars to drive.
I would drive it period. I’m not a guy to put up a trophy case, I’d clock the miles on it all the while taking care of it like I do all of my cars.
Thumbs up for your honesty!
Meh!!
Seems kinda dirty. I’m out!
🤘
If one has 500-600K for this car, paying for cleaning should not be the breaking point – but I do actually get the “sour grapes” joke! and what’s up with a vanity plate on the front?!!! Add some bumper stickers, curb feelers, and one of those antenna balls too!
Carpets are faded too!
that just shows that they are original …
Geez…all these so called hot rodders are building cars painting them, then rubbing out the paint etc to ad..”Patina” to the cars as patina is so cool…trying to make them look driven…Well… original patina is cool. I love this Vette as is….Would I like to have it at a normal Vette price as if it wasn’t a ZO6? SURE! Would I like to win the lottery..? SURE! Whatever happens for the seller happens.
I drove my 58 Imp. over 38 yrs..all year round…I had the driver’s side window/door molding ledge worn down to bare metal in the center from my arm.. Some guys at shows went nuts because the car looked nice…and I left the ledge as is.worn….because I was still going to hang my arm on the ledge! I did have body repainted once after hit by a semi truck…I replaced the interior once because I took kids swimming etc no towels on the seat etc….so when too ratty looking…yeah time to replace…Would I buy a 58 Impala in great condition and create patina….? NO….!Patina is a badge of honor for the person who made it that way by using it…and not buy letting it sit and get rundown.
This ZO6 is fine as is!
This car has Rick Hendrick collection written all over it.
No cup holders? I’m out too.
3 models and 36 years later and I don’t have functional cup holders in mine either! I’ve got one and it’s about a half inch deep. It doesn’t hold on to many cups. It’s my first-world problem. :) If you want a Vette with cup holders, you’ll need to get a C7 and I’m still not sure they are actually functional.
If I owned this…I would have numerous super models who would gladly volunteer to sit shotgun and be my human cup holder for a beautiful drive and dinner for the day!
Sheesh…just kidding guys! Lighten up!
Oh I’m not upset about my lack of cup holders in my (decidedly much less valuable) Corvette–it’s actually become sort of a running joke how many times I’ve ended up looking like Jeff Gordon in a Pepsi commercial chasing drink bottles around the passenger foot well LOL
As a Mustang owner and a GTO lover I always longed for a 63 split window and that was before they became collectible but I wouldn’t mind this car one bit, except for the price tag and as stated I would have to drive the wheels off.
I’m a Ford man, but if someone offered to park it in my garage I certainly wouldn’t say “no thanks”!
my garage is full of motorcycles so it would have to sit outside in one of the five foot snow drifts that we are currently enjoying
I really don’t think the word “Survivor” applies here. I think a car needs to be used as a daily driver at some point to be considered to have survived something. This car has been driven just under 700 miles a year. Those are minimal maintenance miles. This has been a collector piece from new and isn’t a survivor IMO.
Survivor equals original, unaltered condition.
Bloomington Gold and Survivor certification. Pretty sure these people know what makes up a survivor Corvette.
I’d give my left nut for it. Stunning!
I’d give both nuts, I’m done with em anyways.
I too ….would give both of yours as well for this Vette!
lmao! 😂
While I like the 2nd gen Corvettes I can’t get excited about them cause I know I’m never going to be able to own another one. Way Way Way above my pay scale, even for a turd. Last time I had one was 1973. I got it cheap cause the engine was blown. I had wrecked my 67 Chevelle so I had a 327 looking for a home. I wasn’t overly impressed with the vette, compared to the Chevelle it rode like a truck and there sure wasn’t much room in it. Traded it for a 69 Chevelle and had to pay extra for the Chevelle. At that time it was just another used car. We’ve come a long way baby!
I wonder if GM would still do what they did for Mr. Atchison, highly unlikely. I wrecked my car, can you build me another, even though you stopped making them 6 months ago? I guess those really were the good old days!
Parked on a boat launch ramp. I hope the emergency brakes are working.
LOL !!! LMAO!!! Would that suck or what!!! Good Eye. Now that’s funny right there! Now that I actually gave your boat launch ramp an serious thought….I have broken into a sweat!! Queezy stomach. QUICK GET THAT CAR OUTTA THERE !!!!!!
That was my immediate thought! Get that thing away from the water!
ac needs a recharge. i’m out.
No corvette in ’63 came with pin stripes when was that painted on. Original Paint I doubt it.
The listing references “dealer-painted white racing stripes.” It’s got documentation back to new and a stack of Bloomington and NCRS certifications, so I’d say it’s everything it’s purported to be.
Where are the pin stripes, Miked?
Original paint?
Quite possible…
Those stripes?
Very doubtful…
If I owned it I would take a serious long distance road trip, perhaps do a smokey tire roasting burnout or three and then park it except for the occasional car show and nice day drive.
I Love it.
Ok we all talk a good game about how we would drive this HALF A MILLION DOLLAR CAR EVERY DAY.REALLY? Are you going to take this to Walmart and leave it in the parking lot? Or to anywhere that you have to park it next to any one!Let me answer that for you No…No your not.Unless you just won the lottery you don’t have that kind of money by making bad decisions,like going to Walmart with a 63 split window Z06.Look I’m not that guy who would park this in a climate controlled Barn and just look at it. I’d drive it just not every day.Hey if ya have that kinda money to buy this car.Then you could go out and get yourself a nice 63 with a 327 4spd for around 75K to take to Wally World every day. Then you would have 2 63 vettes .Who would be Kooler than you?
Well to clarify my statement of driving the wheels off it, I would not drive it everyday but would every chance I could and if I could afford it I wouldn’t be shopping at Walmart and even if I did I would drive the Corvette until ready to shop then take it home to it’s garage space then take my new 2016 Ford quad cab F-150 4×4 to Walmart and watch it’s 50K body get shopping cart dings. Either way I’m losing money for other people’s disrespect of my vehicles.
The very first 63 ZO6 bought was taken to Riverside and raced immediately….That guy used it as intended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RN6wqaZFTY
I believe your half a million estimate is going to fall far short of the final bid
Not my estimate its Mecums .Take it up with them if ya want.
No kidding I took this photo in a Walmart parking lot. And no, I couldn’t believe he drove this to Walmart either. It’s not a 500K Vette, but still….
Here’s our Mach1 in our local Walmart.
To be fair, I did take this photo out the window of my Corvette, which I also drove to Walmart. That’s why the perspective is so low. All other cars look tall from the seat of that one. We were both parked in Timbuktu.
Yeah…
But if you noticed, it’s parked in “another zip-code”, secluded in that parking lot… 😉
Thirty years ago I went to quite a few car shows with my split window. One year at Corvettes @ Carlisle there was a one owner 1963 red roadster. His display included a sign board that listed all of the options that the car was delivered with, except one. However, the last line on the board proudly boasted ” Original Owner…Second Wife”!
After driving the SWC for a few years, I began to realize what I had. I found a one owner 64 coupe that was just about option-less. I was able to use it from early spring until late fall for years. One Sunday when church was over my 84 year old mother was getting in on the passenger side. As I closed the door, a fellow parishioner looked at the car, looked at my mother, then looked at me and asked “Is she the original owner?”
Lots of great comments, this one really got everybody’s attention!
ok, just a story for all of you. back in the day I had a white split like this one
blk interior, teak wheel, FI. fitted with Mick Tom wheels with fake knock offs,
and big indy race tires [this was prior to wide ovals] also had added a third
tail light. had no idea there was a Z06 option? the FI was a pain and if I remember there was some rubber gasket that would fail, anyway put a 4 B
on it. wish I never sold the car as it was very nice with next to zero stress
cracks. are you ready for this part. I bought this vette for $1450.00 and
sold it for $2350.00………………….I can still smell the fiberglass.
the guy that bought it , crash = total about 2 weeks after purchase.l
Great story Tim, except for the part when you sold and the other Dude crashed. You are blessed that you owned one. Rode in my buddy’s many times, looking down that hood was the best. Keep smelling that glass brother. Take care.
Were all ’63 Z06 cars made “tankers” with the 36 gallon gas tank or was that an option you could get with the Z06?
Pretty sure a tanker could be had in other then a Z06, probably except for a roadster.
The SCM Guide says the median recent auction sale price for the Z06 has been $520K and the highest auction sale price was $1.1 million.
Mecum estimates this car to sell for $500K -$600K, but if everything they say about the car is true and documented I agree with Teri gibson that it will sell for more.
OTOH maybe they are estimating low to draw lots of interested bidders to fight it out for a higher bid than $600K.
I’m disappointed. I thought sure someone would weigh in with a comment that the mileage can’t possibly be original because of some obscure imagined defect.
Howard? You feelin’ OK?
My ’68 Chevelle had “dealer applied pin stripes”, typed, with a typewriter, on the listing of things, along with “undercoat” and some other “mandatory dealer option” like floor mats. Pinstripes lasted longer than the floors.
WOW! I’m on board with offering both nuts. I have 2 kids don’t need any more. This truly is an amazing piece of history and what a great back story. GM is Extremely generous to their customers. I was involved in a wreck 6 years ago which I’m still recovering from. I was stopped and rear ended by a loaded down tandem tractor trailer doing 70. Luckily someone and my seatbelt were looking after me. I was driving a Chevy uplander, work vehicle not mine. I wrote GM an email with photos thanking them for making such a well built van otherwise I would be dead. They responded to me with an employee ID number as well as contact info and told me whenever I’m ready to purchase any vehicle they would sell it to me for their cost nothing more. That part really doesn’t surprise me. Those folks are really top notch.
Thank God the parking brakes and tranny held this jewel from entering the drink in the first photo! Did that thought occur to anyone else?
Very cool car, from a Ford owner. Can’t say anything, since everything has been said.
Same here with me I drive my car all over and were I stop
people cant stop looking and ask what motor what year
and its nice to talk about the cars and all the interesting
makes and models.Love Barn finds from rusty old cars
to collectors Corvette’s AND PONTIAC’S
FIRST EVER ZO6 63 CORVETTE….bought then immediately raced at Riverside…..What a man…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RN6wqaZFTY