By MURRAY HUBBARD

When you look at this 1964 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray it's not hard to imagine why it's up there as an American classic. In looks alone it's as tough as it gets out of Uncle Sam.

It came with three engine options: the smallest being an engine familiar in Australia, the 327 V8 that hit our streets in the 1968 Monaro GTS ... commonly known as the Bathurst model. It won Great Race that year with Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland at the helm.

If there was not enough grunt in your Sting Ray you could order a 396 cubic inch V8 or even a 427 cubic inch during its model-life. The moral of the story is the 1963-1967 Corvette Sting Rays went as hard and as tough as they looked. These models are referred to as the C2, or second generation Corvette Sting Ray. These cars should not be confused with the later model Stingrays, which have a different spelling as well as entirely different styling.

The C2 styling came through GM's styling chief, Bill Mitchell.

Mitchell was more than just a stylist, he loved great styling.

His own car at the time he pencilled the Sting Ray: an E-Type Jaguar. He also liked fishing and used the profile of a mako shark as inspiration for the car's aggressive front end.

Our featured car is a facelifted version of the 1963 model that featured a split rear windscreen.

The change came after it was realised it restricted the rear view, even though aesthically it looked the goods.

Having said that, there's not too much to complain about with the appearance of the face lifted model.

As with all Corvettes to this stage the C2 had an all fibreglass body affixed to a steel, ladder-style chassis.

Styling cues that makes the C2 special are the distinctive boat-tail rear end and the pop-up dual head lamps that follow the natural curvature of the car's bonnet and mudguards.

The C2 also had significant features over the C1.

There was an optional side-mounted exhaust from 1965, no boot lid, as there was rear access to the back of the car, and a bonnet scoop that grew larger as the engine size went up to the big blocks.

It also had the first independent rear suspension for a Corvette and four wheel disc brakes came in 1965.

In 1967 the massive 427 cubic inch V8 was introduced and today these are the most sought-after cars within the C2 time line.

To put some relevance into that engine it produced around 321 kW of power. That was the official line from Chevrolet.

Unofficially, it is said the engine's actual output was closer to 410 kW.By today's standards that is still huge.Still, these were a rarity even then and now bring telephone numbers for prices when one goes on the market.

We discovered this beautiful example at the Cleveland Auto Spectacular near Brisbane.