DUAL PURPOSE

This award-winning 1963 C2 Corvette may look like a trailer queen, but it can back up those aggressive looks on the track.

- STEVEN RUPP & RICH CHENET

Car builders the real ones who do it repeatedly for a living have a daunting challenge before them every time they start a new build. How do they one-up themselves after the last build? Bob Bertelsen is such a builder, and he knew topping his previous builds would take a lot of work and a fair amount of thinking outside the box. His two most notable pro-touring builds were a 1969 C10 truck called Orange Rush and a 1968 'Vette named Green Mamba, both shot in retina-scorching colors, so it's safe to assume Bob isn't afraid of vibrant hues.

For this build, Bob wanted to scratch his C2 Corvette itch. He had always loved the lines and had ideas about how to improve on them swirling in his cranium, but to bring them to reality he needed some help, so he enlisted designer Gary Ragle to solidify the plan. Some aspects were already set in stone. Bob feels hot rods should use bold colors, and he saw no reason to move away from an LS powerplant. He loved the flares on his Green Mamba Corvette, so that design feature was carried forward to the project now dubbed "Solar Flare" by his daughter. The plan was a modern take on the classic C2 Corvette that would incorporate the latest tech along with a shot of carbon fiber. The biggest change was to the roof, where a whole new piece was designed to solve a helmet-clearance issue and add in a removable targa top.

Corvette purists can relax a bit, since the starter car for the build was a clean but otherwise unremarkable non-numbers-matching '63 that was perfect for the transformation. The car was scanned into CAD and work began on the extensive fiberglass and carbon changes. We covered the glass work later in this issue, so no need to go into details, but we get itchy just reading about the amount of fiberglass that was manipulated to get the stock 1963 'Vette looking like the rendering.