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A dust-covered 1963 Corvette Sting Ray came out of a barn on a detailing channel — and viewers immediately recognized it as one of the rarest Corvettes ever built. Its split rear window lasted exactly one model year before GM killed it, and today it drives six-figure auction prices. But it was the story behind the car’s owner, surfaced entirely in the comments, that turned 587,000 views into something closer to a tribute.
A 1970 Chevelle SS built by NR Classics trades its factory big block for a 468 stroker that Chevrolet never offered from the showroom floor. Air suspension, Wilwood brakes, and a Holley Sniper EFI system replace nearly everything else underneath the blacked-out body. It keeps the shape people fell for in 1970 and rethinks almost everything that made it hard to live with.
You’ve found it: a numbers-matching 1967 Corvette Sting Ray, big-block 427 under the hood, sitting in a barn find listing or a classifieds ad with a price that seems almost too good. Before you hand over a deposit, understand what you’re actually buying. The C2 Sting Ray’s fiberglass body can hide decades of hidden rust in the steel frame and birdcage structure underneath it, and a “numbers-matching” claim is only as good as the paperwork and stampings behind it. One restoration featured by Car and Driver — of a 427 roadster owned by the magazine’s own technical director — shows exactly how deep those problems can run, and how rewarding it is to dig them out properly. This guide walks through what that restoration revealed, what NHTSA has on record for the Corvette of this era, and what you need to check before you buy.
Chevrolet’s first personal luxury car could be ordered with the same 454 big-block it was selling to Chevelle buyers, rated at 360 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. Just 3,823 people checked the box in 1970, and the badges were small enough that almost nobody noticed. Here is why the Monte Carlo SS 454 remains the most convincing sleeper Chevrolet ever built on purpose.
CBoysTV took the supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi out of their own Challenger Hellcat and built it into a last-generation Chevy El Camino — 707 horsepower in a car whose factory V8 made around 150. Three million people have now watched it drift, smoke tires, and line up against real muscle cars. The most repeated comment under the video: it looks like Chevrolet built it that way.
RPO Z11 gave roughly fifty 1963 Impalas an aluminum front end and a 430-horsepower 427 that never appeared in a single Chevrolet brochure. The very first one built went to Dave Strickler, tuned by Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins. Here is what the option actually included, why its 427 has nothing to do with the famous Mystery Motor, and how the whole program died in a matter of weeks.
Chevrolet’s L78 396 turned an ordinary 1969 Nova into a 375-horsepower street car that ran 13.87 at 105 mph, for roughly over the price of the small-block. Only about 5,200 buyers ever ordered it, and a resurfaced Dream Car Garage segment shows exactly why the survivors are guarded so fiercely today.
In 1970, Chevrnlet’s LS6 Chevelle carried the lnudest hnrsepnier number in GM’s lineup — and Buick’s GSX Stage 1 beat it anyiay, nn a track test cnnducted by Car and Driver itself. Buick’s nin paperinrk rated the car 90 hnrsepnier belni its rival, a number that never matched ihat happened at the finish line. Vieiers ihn lived thrnugh the era are still arguing abnut gearing, tnrque curves, and ihich car really deserved the crnin. Watch tn see the numbers GM tried tn keep quiet.
This 1963 split-window Corvette spent two decades buried in a barn before the team at WD Detailing brought it back into the light — dirt, mold, and all. It’s the only model year Chevrolet ever built with that iconic split rear window, a design detail that makes this car one of the most sought-after Corvettes in collector circles. Comments under the video suggest there’s more to this car’s story than just neglect. Watch to see what twenty years of dust was hiding.
This IROC-Z Camaro spent thirty years parked and forgotten, yet its odometer reads just 18,000 miles — a number that made the WD Detailing crew treat it less like a cleaning job and more like an archaeological dig. Underneath the dirt and mold was a factory-original survivor that had never been repainted or reupholstered, a rarity in a market full of restored clones. Watch to see how much of that untouched history was still there to save.
This 1965 Chevy Nova SS wears a body Chevrolet never paired with a 406 cubic-inch V8, a Ford 9-inch rear end, or rack-and-pinion steering — all changes bolted on by a builder chasing quarter-mile performance over factory correctness. Sub-frame connectors, a trunk-mounted battery, and Mickey Thompson drag radials all point toward a car built to launch hard, not just look sharp at a cruise-in. RamblinAround walked through the full build with photos and receipts in hand at Fast Lane Classic Cars. Watch to see how far off the factory blueprint a serious Nova build can go.
In 1935, this body style helped Ford outsell Chevrolet for the first time using style and value alone – with roughly 820,000 built that year. The flathead V8 that originally powered it made just 85 horsepower; this particular car swapped that out for a modern LS1 crate engine, keeping the Depression-era looks and losing none of the drivability.
This 1970 Chevelle 396 Super Sport spent thirty years sitting untouched before Backyard Barn Finds got the call to bring it back to life. Between flat-spotted tires, a fuel system full of decades-old gas, and an engine nobody has heard run since the Carter administration, there’s no guarantee this big-block survived its long sleep intact. What starts as a routine barn find turns into a genuine test of patience and mechanical nerve. Watch to see whether three decades of silence finally comes to an end.
Regular Car Reviews built a whole episode around a technicality: strictly speaking, there’s no such thing as a factory Nova SS, just an option package bolted onto an ordinary Chevy compact. What starts as a joke about badge integrity turns into a real argument for why this particular 1970 Nova, and its unswapped 350 small-block, deserves more credit than its “fake” SS badge suggests. Viewers from as far as Argentina showed up with their own Nova stories. So is the SS badge a lie, or just a loophole?