ART PROJECT

This Rad Rides by Troy-built '63 split-window Corvette went from restaurant prop to ripping up the street!

- STEVEN RUPP

If you work long enough in this business, you think you’ve seen it all—then you’re proved wrong. Such is the case with this pro street 1963 split-window Corvette. The fire-breathing, tire-smoking ride you see here was never meant to be driven, or even fired up.

Turns out the previous owner commissioned Rad Rides by Troy to build a wild pro street ’63 split-window Vette to decorate his restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The plan was for it to hang on the wall like a rather large three-dimensional picture. Well, the insurance company said nope to that idea, but the car did hang out quietly in the eatery’s lobby for 8 years.

Enter Rod Saboury. Saboury knew the owner of the Pro Street prop and it turned out that a black Pro Street ’63 Vette he had built was the inspiration for this one. When the owner passed away, Saboury was able to buy the faux hot rod from his family. As Saboury told us, “The Corvette was never finished, since it was never built to run. That meant there was no wiring, fuel system, brakes, side windows, and a host of other items.”