The appeal of split rear windows
12/17/2023
While classic car buyers today tend to gravitate towards younger and easier-to-use classics, they occasionally seem to march in the opposite direction. A Jaguar E-Type with a flat floor, for example, is significantly more expensive than its brother with a more comfortable footwell design, which followed only a short time later. A Porsche with an articulated windshield is also worth more than one with a one-piece windshield, and in the Beetle it is the pretzel version that outstrips the later versions with ever-larger rear windows.
And in the Chevrolet Corvette C2, it is the first model year with a two-piece rear window that justifies particularly high prices. These two-piece front and rear windows actually have disadvantages, as they logically restrict visibility. After all, car manufacturers had good functional reasons to install larger glass surfaces that improved outward visibility. At that time, buyers also preferred the later (and usually better) versions. This only changed over time.
But be that as it may, "split window" Corvettes are cool. They look really good (from the outside), so there's not much you can say against them. And if they come under the hammer together in all the colors available at the time, like the group pictured at Mecum's Kissimmee auction in January, then interest is sure to be high.
Let's just enjoy it and leave the ergonomic grumbling to one side ...
P.S. And we are of course aware that the higher prices for the above-mentioned cars are also due to the fact that early examples of a model are particularly sought-after and usually somewhat more exclusive in terms of numbers than their successors ...
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