What distinctive rear-window design appeared on the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray coupe?

The 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray coupe had a distinctive split rear window.

A vertical body section divided the rear glass into two separate panes. The feature was part of the all-new second-generation Corvette, known as the C2, whose styling drew heavily from the 1959 Stingray racing prototype and Bill Mitchell’s design team.

The split window appeared only during the 1963 model year. Chevrolet removed it for 1964 after criticism that the central divider obstructed rearward visibility. As a result, original 1963 coupes are especially sought after by collectors.

The design is sometimes described as a split-window Corvette, although the car was officially marketed as the Corvette Sting Ray, with the name written as two words during this generation. The 1963 model also introduced independent rear suspension, a major engineering change that improved handling compared with earlier Corvettes.