If there was ever a grand master of the Corvette hobby, Terry Michaelis fits the bill. Along with brother Fred, they own Pro-Team Corvette out of Napoleon, Ohio and have been key players in the ‘Vette scene for decades. He’s a world wide leader in investment grade Corvettes, (he’s sold more than 10,000 plastic Chevys during his career,) and was one of the first members of The National Corvette Restorers Society. This guy knows Corvettes. We talked with him recently and he told us about 2 of his Chevy sports cars he’s offering through Mecum’s Auctions.

When a true blue Corvette guy like Terry offers up cars from his personal collection, you can bet they’re rare birds with interesting backstories and we weren’t disappointed.

First up is this silver 1963 split-window Z06 “Tanker” car with a bushel of NCRS awards including Bloomington Gold certification, NCRS Top Flight and Chevy VetteFest Gold Spinner. The Z06 option was essentially a factory race car and came with a fuel injected, 360 horse 327 V8, 4-speed manual, positraction, heavy duty suspension and finned brake drums. The optional N03 “big tank” with 36 gallon capacity kept the car on the track,not it the pits.

Discovered by NCRS member Howard Baker in 1986, this ‘Vette underwent a two-year body-off restoration and was personally inspected by Z06 historian Eric Gill, who declared the car “one of the finer-quality Z06 restorations I have seen.” An amazing transformation as Terry says the car was “Totaled by an insurance company in 1970 as the car had $1800 worth of damage but was valued at $2000 at the time.”

The car’s provenance is supported by reams of documentation that encompasses ownership history back to 1967. With the rare, 2-bar spinners on the knock off wheels, bias play tires and tall factory stance, the car oozes factory originality.

This rare split-window Corvette (Lot #S116) can be yours. Check out Mecums Auction in Houston this weekend April 14th-16th

Next up is a gorgeous GM Styling Car 1962 Corvette – Shop Order 10224. Back in the day, GM’s Styling Department would brew up special cars for a variety of reasons. An executive perk, a show car or a special milestone like this ’62, which was a rolling palette for a planned Chevrolet 50th Anniversary gold paint color. Most of theses one-off jobs had an identifying metal tag on the firewall and that’s what raised a flag with this particular car, even though it was painted maroon when Michaelis first came upon it.

With the help of GM styling car expert Werner Meier, the two embarked on a two year mission to uncover clues and concluded this was truly a long forgotten slice of the golden days of General Motors. The car was restored in 2010 and returned to its tawny gold glory. Terry has shown the car at multiple high brow car events that don’t usually include blue-collar Corvette’s. Whatever awards the car garnered, the real trophy according to Terry, “was the invitation” to these shows.

Here’s your chance to own a piece of GM history. According to Michaelis, “Throughout my 45-year career in the Corvette business, several mid-year Corvette styling cars have surfaced—however this is one of the earliest Corvette styling cars that I have ever seen. This car is one-of-a-kind, a truly unique Corvette artifact.”

The car (Lot #R461) will be at Mecum’s Action in Indianapolis May 17-21.