Turning 50 is a big deal, whether you’re a person or a car.
Just ask the folks at GM about the 50th birthday of the Corvette back in 2003.
To mark the occasion, the company first had GM designer Steve Pasteiner combine the look of the original 1953 Corvette and update it to fit on a C5 chassis with all the high-tech advancements of the past half-century. GM commissioned Magna Steyr to build a prototype that might end up being offered to customers as “THE” 50th Anniversary Edition Corvette. It resembled the original ’53 Corvette from the front end to the rear but offered modern performance upgrades of the past half-century.
When all was said and done, though, GM probably thought that would be too expensive and instead wound up producing 4,085 coupes and 7,547 convertibles with a $5,000 option that combined a one-year-only Anniversary Red paint job with a special Shale interior that included anniversary badges and cockpit embroidery.
Pasteiner still believed in his own celebratory concept, though, so much so that he wound up purchasing the rights and factory molds and forming a company named Advanced Automotive Technologies to produce a very limited number of cars, 200 in all. All-new body panels were installed using the same attachment locations as production panels, and a small recess cut into the rear trunk inner fiberglass to clearance the new deck lid is said to be the only modification to the production vehicle. There are no structural modifications, and all safety-related items remain intact.
We told you about such an example back in August. We’re not sure what happened back in the summer, but now what appears to be the same car is again being offered on Craigslist out of the Canyon Lake, Texas area, northeast of San Antonio, at the same price of $55,700.
Details in the current ad are scant, though from the photos, we can figure out that this is No. 140 out of the 200 cars built. The white paint looks to be immaculate, and the red and white interior is stunning. The car also has the standard 5.7-liter LS1 engine that produced 345 horsepower, connected to a four-speed automatic transmission. We aren’t offered any other details about this particular Commemorative Edition, other than it has 1,000 miles on the odometer.
When these cars first came out, we thought the proportions were all wrong. As time has marched on, however, we’ve grown to appreciate them much more and actually wouldn’t mind having one in our driveway. Would you?
Source:
craigslist.org
Related:
Corvettes for Sale: Black 454-Powered 1970 Corvette on Craigslist
Ciocca Corvette Pays Top Dollar for Your Corvette, Check Out These Pre-Owned Corvettes for Sale
Corvettes for Sale: Custom 1963 Corvette Offered on Craigslist
Subscribe Now:
-
FYI — bit of editing needed in the “Details in the current ad . . .” paragraph to clean up one aborted reference and a couple of repeated references to the car’s transmission.
And two conflicting references to the engine — 345hp or 350hp?
Had no idea this was actually supported by GM. I learn something new every day!
Thanks Doug. The article has been corrected.
I never knew either that GM considered it for the 50th Anniversary Corvette. It would have been a very unique and desirable milestone Corvette. Several years ago I saw one of these cars at a car show in Atlanta and I remember being impressed with the build quality and styling of it.
Comments are closed.