ITCHY HANDS

Working fiberglass to transform a stock 1963 Corvette into a pro-touring work of art.

- STEVEN RUPP

Great cars start with great ideas, and before metalwork is done to any panel or any fiberglass is laid, there must be a plan. Even before that, there's a spark of an idea buried in some gearhead's gray matter. This custom 1963 Corvette is no exception, and that gray matter belongs to car builder Bob Bertelsen. As Bob told us, "After finishing Green Mamba, my 1968 Corvette, I started thinking about what to build next. Green Mamba was working great and winning races, so the next car had to be just as fast, or faster. That's when I started thinking about C2 Corvettes and how much I've always liked them."

He continued, "I contacted Gary Ragle of Ragle Designs. Ragle had done the renderings for Orange Rush, my 1969 C10, and for my 1968 Corvette, so we started bouncing ideas around. I wanted a new roof so my helmet wouldn't hit when I raced, and I wanted a lot of carbon-fiber parts. Gary suggested a carbon-fiber roof, and I wanted it to be a targa top so the center section could be removed. I wanted an aggressive look, and I liked the flares I did on Green Mamba, so we decided to give the '63 a similar treatment, but to make it have the openings like a C2 Vette would have. Gary got to work, and after several rounds of drawings, "Solar Flare" was born. At the time, I didn't have a name for the car, but my daughter came up with Solar Flare, and it stuck."

01 A run-of-the-mill 1963 Corvette was found so that Bob could sleep well after cutting it up. His wife drove it for the summer while the parts pile accumulated, but soon the car was in the shop and starting its journey from stock to Bob's highly-modified vision.