This One-Owner 2008 Wil Cooksey 427 Limited Edition Z06 with 1,203 Miles is Headed to Mecum Glendale

To honor the long-time manager of the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Chevy produced 505 of the 427 Limited Edition Z06s that appropriately enough had a 505-horsepower engine under the hood.

These special 2008 Corvettes have come to be known as the Wil Cooksey Edition, honoring the man who had retired in the spring of 2008 after 15 years leading the Corvette factory and earning a reputation for his attention to increasing quality and his outgoing personality.

Because he was still manager of the plant when assembly started, Cooksey was able to sign the inside of the console lids of each car in his office. After autographing the day’s batch of lids, he personally delivered them to the station for installation.

That includes the No. 109 car that will be going across the block at the upcoming Mecum Auction set for March 6-9 in Glendale, Arizona.

This example has been driven a scant 1,203 miles by the original owner and, like the other 504 cars, includes the 3LZ preferred equipment package.

The 427 Limited Edition Wil Cooksey cars were all painted Crystal Red Metallic, a Xirallic-based color not previously available on the Z06. Reminiscent of the 1967 427 Sting Rays, the cars also had a black hood stinger graphic and 427 badges on the side of the hood bulge. Other exterior features included unique spyder-style chrome wheels exclusive to the 427 LE, a body-colored spoiler instead of the standard black one, and body-color door handles.

Inside was a Dark Titanium leather-wrapped cockpit with dark gray seat inserts surrounded by black as well as a special Crystal Red center trim plate, red 427 logos embroidered on the seats and floor mats, and Z06 door sill plates.

The 427 Limited Edition cars had an MSRP of $84,195, about $3,000 higher than a similarly equipped Z06. Of the 505 built, 427 stayed in the United States, with 78 shipped to export markets. Amid its reorganization in 2010, General Motors teamed with Barrett-Jackson to pare down its collection, with the final North American car, No. 427, auctioned to raise $200,000 for the American Red Cross relief fund for Haiti.

In the Corvette Special Editions book by our own Keith Cornett, Cooksey recounted the day the Corvette team pitched the 427 Limited Edition to him:

“They showed me the pictures in my office of a 1967 big-block and they had what they proposed, but at that time they hadn’t talked about the autograph. They were just trying to get me to build the car, and I told them how disruptive it is when you are actually trying to set up a manufacturing line and then guys like him (people from headquarters) come in and start mixing up the operators and start giving you build issues possibly. But when they showed me the whole car and told me, ‘We can do it in Crystal Red,’ which I had a lot of customers who wanted Crystal Red! So, we’re going to do Crystal Red, and the whole stinger treatment with the 427 on it … ‘Hey, that sounds pretty good.’ It was then they said they were going to do some things on the inside. And that’s when they told me, ‘Yeah, we want you to autograph all of them.’ I said (laughing), ‘Hey, I think we can work this out.'”

Cooksey wound up autographing the lids during some of his last days on the job, and if you’re wondering whether he owns one of these special editions, the answer is that he was offered any of the builds and finally decided to go with No. 1 after debating whether to take No. 427 instead.

Source:
Mecum Glendale 2024

Related:
Corvettes for Sale: Ontario Orange 1971 Corvette Offered on Corvette Forum
Corvettes for Sale: Barn Find 1963 Corvette Convertible in Daytona Blue on eBay
Corvettes for Sale: 383-Powered 1961 Corvette on Bring a Trailer

Subscribe Now: