I talked with an interesting person at the Dairy Queen Cruise In.
Curt Meyer brought his fascinating street-legal sprint car. I asked him about it and learned that he was a former Corvette owner, club member, and an NCRS (National Corvette Restorers Society) judge.
Curt owned a ’63 Corvette and wanted to display it at Bloomington Gold with knock off wheels. Paraphrasing Curt: ‘Which, in NCRS judging, scored a big fat zero for the wheels category on a ’63.’ He said he had an original ’63 brochure that said knock off wheels were a factory option in ’63, but that no ‘63s were originally fitted with them.
I couldn’t resist teasing him a little, “I wonder what Noland Adams would say about it.” Curt really didn’t take the bait, but frankly, Mr. Adams couldn’t say much as he passed away in early 2017 — but not before publishing two great reference books:
Corvette Technical Restoration Guide Volume 1 (for C1s) and Volume 2 (for C2s).
I think the books are superb reference guides and detail the base cars plus all the options, year-by-year — though a few say there are some errors in the books. I had the pleasure of attending one of Mr. Adams’ seminars at a Bloomington Gold meet some years ago – a quiet and humble man.
What I learned in revisiting Noland Adams’ book is that Curt is correct. Apparently no 1963 Corvettes were delivered to dealers or customers with knock-off wheels. Why? Because the castings were porous and would not hold air. Twelve or thirteen 1963 Corvettes were factory-fitted with knock-off wheels in the ’63 model year, but the tires went flat in the storage yard before the cars could be loaded onto car-carriers (!!) and the early knock-off wheels were then removed and replaced with steel wheels before shipment to dealers. The wheels and hub adapters went through several part number changes and some sets were sold ‘over-the counter’ in ’63, but apparently no ’63 Corvette was delivered to a customer with factory-installed knock-offs. Like Curt said.
Related, did you know that the ’63 knock offs would have come with two-eared knock off ‘nuts’, rather than the three-eared nuts supplied in later years?