Hasta La Ideas

In the early 1960s, GM auto designer Bill Mitchell made a controversial choice. For his redesign of the 1963 Corvette, he created a split rear window. The “spine” that ran between the two glass panels was reportedly inspired by Mitchell’s fascination with marine life forms; indeed, this iteration of the Corvette was dubbed the Sting Ray.

The “spine” ruined rear visibility, and customers hated it. GM listened, and for the 1964 model year, the split window was gone.

Today, however, the rare split-window is considered extremely desirable by collectors.

Sixty-one years later, the feature is unexpectedly returning. The 2025 Corvette ZR1, which is no study in design restraint, has this crazy thing dividing the rear glass:

The designers insist it actually has a function: “While serving as a statement piece, this carbon fiber ‘spine’ between the two rear windows…provides increased heat extraction from the engine compartment.”

At any rate, rearview cameras have taken the place of line-of-sight.

You may or may not see one of these on the road, depending on who your neighbors are: The car, which produces over 1,000 horsepower, runs $200,000.