General Motors prided itself on having the most spectacular displays around, and for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, they were going to pull out all the stops. Their showcase, the 230,000 square-foot Pavilion, dominated the Fair, and from the top, it literally looked down over Chrysler while the facade towered above Ford and their Magic Skyway. Inside, GM created the vast Futurama II, echoing their display at the 1939 fair.

While 26 million people visited Futurama II, their Avenue of Progress displayed a more foreseeable future, with concept cars including the GM-X Stiletto and Firebird IV. It would either have been here or in the large Chevrolet area of the Upper Product Plaza that an engine already developing a reputation was displayed together with a 1964 Corvette Sting Ray.

In such a hall of wonders, this small display, innocently labeled “Turbo-Jet 427 V-8 Engine,” could have been overlooked. If you had been drawn to the Corvette, however, you would have first recognized that nothing like this X-3 engine was available in the 1964 Corvette—and then realized what an extraordinary cutaway it is. Built with incredible attention to detail, both the engine and attached transmission rotate. Its real trick, however, is that the two halves slide apart for a look at the internal rotating components.

The consignor acquired the World’s Fair 427 from a collector in Louisiana and performed a complete and painstakingly accurate restoration of both the engine and its period display. The New York Times called the 1964 World’s Fair, “The last unselfconscious public celebration of automotive culture.” This singular 427 display engine is both a reminder of that golden era and a look to the brutal performance yet to come from Chevrolet.