The 2015 Barrett Jackson Auctions in Palm Beach - Automobile
Factory air-conditioning. The Story Behind the Sale It would be hard to explain the importance of the 1963 model year in Detroit without focusing on three all-new models, the 1963 Buick Rivera, the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette, and the 1963 Studebaker Avanti. Where the Buick helped define the personal luxury car for a generation, the Avanti was an attempt by a small American company to make a European-style car. But it is the second-generation Corvette that defines the American car of the 1960s. The C2 truly was all new in 1963. For the first time, the Corvette was offered as a coupe or a convertible, and the presence of air-conditioning introduced... Complete with styling that featured hidden headlights, the 1963 Chevy Corvette made a statement about a new spirit of American sophistication, which encompassed both style and technology. This 1963 Corvette convertible is equipped with the low-horsepower V-8, no soft top, and the odd choice of a three-speed manual transmission, all of which are signs that someone wanted to buy a budget ’Vette. But once you add air-conditioning, this car becomes an interesting collector piece. Not many 1963 Corvettes had air, and this was a time when air-conditioning in a convertible was considered by many to be folly. The charming 600 had a water-cooled engine, something of an upgrade since the 500 had an air-cooled one. Fiat made a million examples of the Fiat 600 in the. Source: www.automobilemag.com
