"This was probably the most aspirational car you could get in America," remarked Jay Leno while driving a restored 1967 Corvette with the legendary Tri-Power 427ci V8 under its hood. "If you had a plumbing business and you were fairly successful, Ferraris were still out of your reach, but the Corvette was the car that nobody begrudged you." Leno got together with Donald Osborne of the Audrain Museum Network to reminisce about how the big block C2 Corvette changed the American automotive landscape.

It's often said that the greatest innovations happen despite significant adversity, and this is certainly true of one of General Motors' crowning achievements, the Corvette Z06. This three-letter Regular Production Option (RPO) code is still immediately recognizable to car enthusiasts worldwide, even today, more than 60 years after it was created. The Z06 was offered as an obscure checkbox on the order form for a specially-optioned 1963 Corvette, and it carried a steep price tag, so only 199 of these legendary cars were ever produced.

If there’s one car that stirs up late-night garage debates, it’s the early Corvette. The C1 (1953–1962) and C2 “Sting Ray” (1963–1967) weren’t just fiberglass novelties; they defined what it meant for America to have a sports car of its own. The C1 was born out of postwar optimism, initially more boulevard cruiser than true sports machine, but by the time the C2 hit, with its split-window coupe and big-block firepower, the Corvette had arrived.

Now, more than half a century later, the choice for owners and enthusiasts is clear but not simple: do you restore these icons to bone-stock perfection, or do you restomod them into something sharper, faster, and easier to live with?

Let’s grease up our hands and dig in.

The 1967 Corvette Sting Ray holds a special place in automotive history as the final model year of the celebrated second-generation C2 Corvette. Originally intended to debut an all-new design, the C3 generation was delayed due to aerodynamic inconsistencies uncovered during testing. This postponement gave Chevrolet the opportunity to refine the existing 1963-67 platform one last time—resulting in what many enthusiasts consider the most perfected C2 Corvette ever built. Read on as we take a look back at the history, specifications, and factory options of the legendary 1967 Corvette.