First 2014 Corvette Stringray is sold. Price: $1.1 million
罢丑别听聽with VIN ending in #0001 has sold at auction for an incredible $1.1 million, more than 20 times the expected cost of the latest 鈥榁ette.
Of course, getting to own the very first example to be sold to the public has its premium, and all proceeds from the sale will be going to benefit the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Nevertheless, the amount paid is still staggering.
The final bidder at the聽聽held yesterday in Scottsdale, Arizona, was NASCAR team owner and avid Corvette collector Richard Hendrick.
The weekend鈥檚 auction has been a busy one for Hendrick, who also聽聽on a rare 1958 Chevrolet Corvette owned by GM CEO Dan Akerson, and close to a million dollars on the 1968 Owens/Corning L88 Corvette race聽.
Corvettes have done surprisingly well at auction in the past, so the latest figures aren't all that surprising. The very first C6 Corvette ZR1 went for a million dollars back in 2008 and more recently the first C6 Corvette 427 Convertible聽. By comparison, the first 2013 SRT Viper only garnered聽, making it a relative bargain compared to these 'Vettes.
Hendrick will now have to wait until Corvette production officially kicks off at the car鈥檚 plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in the third quarter of the year. The red example seen here was聽聽at the opening of the聽聽last week and is destined to be used solely for testing and promotional duties.
The launch of the 2014 Corvette, or C7 as it鈥檚 called by fans,聽聽since the first Corvette made its debut at GM's Motorama exhibit in New York City back in 1953. It also marks the revival of the legendary Stingray nameplate and the setting of a new benchmark for entry-level performance.
The new Corvette Stingray is destined to be the most capable 鈥榖ase鈥� Corvette yet. Its new LT1 6.2-liter V-8 engine is promised to deliver at least 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, enough for a 0-60 mph time of just 3.9 seconds, yet it will still return better than the current model鈥檚 26-mpg gas mileage thanks to a host of聽.听
