Summary

A factory built 1963 Riverside Red fuel injected split window coupe that was raced successfully and also appeared in the Elvis Presley movie Viva Las Vegas.

Details

Harry Mann was the largest Corvette dealer in America in the 1960s, when the new 1963 Z06 made its race debut in the October 1962 Times Grand Prix at Riverside, Mann and his driver Gary Pickens were relegated to the sidelines. Chevrolet had released only six Z06 Corvettes and none would be available to Mann until December 1962. Undaunted, Mann and Pickens ordered a new 1963 Corvette split window coupe with the L84 fuel injected 327/360hp engine and built their own Z06. The new car arrived to a flurry of modifications including a roll cage, a comprehensive weight reduction program and the addition of Z06 competition suspension and brake components. A recreational gambler, Pickens completed his racer by painting 711 as dice on the doors, hood and rear deck. Pickens raced the car throughout California in 1963, his 15 minutes of big time arrived in July when filming began on the new race-themed Elvis Presley movie Viva Las Vegas. The producers needed real race cars for the movies climactic racing scene, Pickens' dice-liveried Riverside Red racer was the perfect choice. It turned out to be Gary Pickens' most lucrative payday, MGM rented the car for the duration of filming including a $500 bonus for the famous spinout scene, during which the car received the only racing damage of its career, hitting the rear clip without damaging the frame or any other fiberglass. Although hunted for years by hopeful collectors, the car remained secreted until 2011, when Corvette specialist Mike Scott and restorer Gary Nabers located and purchased it later completing a thorough, no-expense-spared restoration to qualify it for the national Corvette Restorers Society American Heritage Award. The coucours quality restoration included retaining the well-preserved interior, the 1964 engine Pickens installed and the original matching numbers BorgWarner T-10 4-speed. Rare, period-correct Z06 components were sourced and used a necessary, ensuring the car is authentically configured as it ran at Riverside in 1963. The Gary Pickens 711 Corvette Sting Ray split window coupe combines provenance as a historically significant racing Corvette with that of a genuine movie star car, a rare combination that puts it in a category all its own and affords it a singularly unique position in the collector Corvette milieu. Recipient of the NCRS American Heritage Award in July of 2013.