I received an email regarding C2 design crediting the split window to a '38 German design. Several years ago I saw a magazine displaying a photo of a Bugatti coupe with a split window but it also had the "rib" that ran down the center of the car from the windshield all the way to the end of the body. It's my understanding that Bill Mitchell wanted that rib and that it HAD to run uninterrupted. By the next year, the vision issue overtook the design. The double whammy of the Corvette split window was that not only the view through the rear window was compromised but the side view mirror provided little other than a magnificent view of the top of the rear fender.

 

I did not like the split window, when it came out.
I still ,dont care for it now. For once, I was with
the majority and the 63 Corvette was a one year, split
window. Looks good from the outside ,not so
much,from the inside.

 

I was a big fan of the split window until the 64 came out. To me the 64 is a cleaned up version of the 63 and remains my second favorite C2. The reason I drive a 67 is because it is the final cleaned up no frills version of the C2. Don't get me wrong, any C2 is better than whatever is second. Starting in 1967 to the present time I have owned a 64, 65, and three 67s, but love them all. Wish I saw more on the road, mine is driven almost every day, rain or shine.

Water doesn't seem to hurt it.

 

I love my split window coupe

 

No big deal--even Volkswagen made them. Still, I'm keeping mine.

 

Regarding the outside mirror giving a magnificent view of the top of the rear fender...if that's the driver's view in the C2 driver side mirror, the driver is using and positioning his mirrors incorrectly. I'd estimate that 80% of drivers in the USA can see their own car in their side mirrors all the time. And they are doing it wrong. Your rear quarter isn't going to sneak off

 

Completely agree. If you adjust the mirror correctly (on just about any car), it's quite useful and can eliminate blind spots. I think your estimate is low, actually....

 

I had one of those too, when I was poor. It
was the worst car, I ever owned. I did not
own it long.

 

Every time I get in my wife's car the mirror has to be repositioned, for some reason many people need to see their own car in the mirror leaving a blind spot at your 8 to 9 o'clock position. If a mirror is positioned correctly a car passing on the left side should be in your peripheral vision before losing it in the side mirror. (A pet peeve of mine)

 

 

Good story on the topic here from motortrend...

https://www.motortrend.com/features/...-split-window/

 

Split Window Coupe better?
First a bit of nostalgia. Bought my first Corvette from a German man, about to return to Germany. For $2200., it was a 1964 Riverside Red convertible. It was stock, a 375 HP Fuelie, with close ratio 4 speed and 4.56 rear gears and sintered metal drum brakes. This Vette was faster than any others in town all through the '70s. (and there were many muscle cars).

Back to the Split Window Coupe question. I forget where I heard or read it, but the split window was made, because the glass company could not create the large bends in one piece of glass. It still makes sense to me, since most of the older split window antique cars seemed to have two pieces of flat glass. Consider the glass on homes from ages ago. The windows were made of many panes of about 6" x 8" glass, since it was too expensive to make larger panes. In homes today, we still retain (fake) glass panes (grids), even though we don't need them. With the arrival of the 1964 Corvette Coupe, the glass company (was it Corning?) became able to make the rear window in one piece. It was a great improvement and promoted as such. Yes, it took a while, but the uniqueness of the split window became desirable and later, extremely desirable!

 

Nice theory, but the Corvette had been using two large bends in one piece of windshield glass since 1953…

 

 

Vettrocious:
You're right. That certainly disproves what I heard many years ago.
Richard