No lowball offers, serious buyers only, no tire-kickers, I know what I got! These phrases are so common in Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace ads – even/especially listings for cars that don’t warrant all of the posturing – that they’ve become a recurring joke on the automotive ‘net. But, every so often, someone steps up to the plate with an honest-to-goodness unicorn, a genuine white whale of a vehicle like the Corvette we’re featuring today. On top of being the absolute tip of the spear for front-engine American performance, wearing arguably the best color combination, and featuring all of the most desirable equipment, this almost too good to be true (can’t keep my eyes off of you), ‘Vette has just 7 miles!
Alright, so we are looking at the culmination of 66 years of original recipe Corvette development and evolution. It is the model that still holds Corvette records for horsepower (755), torque (715), top speed (212.54 MPH), downforce (950 lbs. @ 200 MPH), and base MSRP ($122,095 (coupe), $128,220 (convertible)). The C7’s stirring rendition of the King of the Hill ballad, first penned in 1990, was unique in its single-year run. This short time on sale resulted in fewer than 3,000 examples leaving the Bowling Green Plant. You are looking at number 2,182, and during its 7(!) miles of run time, it was never even PDI’d!
Adding further intrigue is the Holy Trinity of RPOs: 2,182’s build sheet had the seven-speed manual transmission, ZTK “big wing” track package, and the “ZLZ” Sebring Orange Design Package boxes checked. Those highly sought-after selections make it one of 744 coupes (and 884 total ZR1s) with a clutch pedal, one of 2,077 with the heavy-duty aero (1,812 coupes), and one of 758 with ZLZ (577 of those were coupes – and 53 additional ZR1s were painted Orange without the design pack for a total of 811). Most of you already know because of the inclusion of ZLZ, but this example also lands in the fully loaded 3ZR interior equipment club with 93.4% of its siblings, capping off one of, if not THE, most compelling possible builds.
Unfortunately for those lusting after this museum-quality ‘Vette, the seller knows exactly what he has. This ultimate C7 resides in a Rye, New Hampshire, storage facility, and for any title skippers out there, you’ll need an eye-popping $359,000 to pry it from its private owner’s hands!
Surprisingly, that colossal number still doesn’t earn it the title of most expensive 2019 Corvette on the market – that honor still goes to the best C7 ZR1 scourers on the planet at JFK Auto, who have an Arctic White, M7, ZTK Convertible with 895 miles on offer for $449,900.
Our star car’s price does put it about $60k out of reach of a nearly identical car with 74 miles on the clock. Besides the not-insignificant mileage disparity, the main difference between these two Sebring Orange stunners is their transmissions, with the 74-miler missing a left pedal but trying to make up for that with an extra forward gear. That adds up to a 17% upcharge for the manual transmission – more or less on par with the premium that a stick commands in other ultra-unique General Motors grails like the CTS-V Wagon.
So, you can bemoan these prices all you want, but this is just the market that the front-engine swan song has already built for itself, and after so many “investment ‘Vettes” like the totally underrated C4 ZR-1 more-or-less fell on their assets, we are happy to see a version America’s Sports car put in the same collectible league as American appreciation champs like the Ford GT and Viper ACR-E. If you can swing it, we suggest grabbing one now; you don’t want to be kicking yourself while virtually walking Barrett Jackson Scottsdale 2040 with your forehead-mounted POV hologram iProjector!
Source:
Autotrader.com
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This is my ultimate kind of Corvette! Unfortunately I don’t have the fat wallet it takes to buy it at the seller’s jacked up price.
NFW. Even if it’s signed by Zorus Duntov’s ghost and has solid gold wheels. For that kind of money you can buy a new Z06 and an Eray. Heck if you wait a while you can buy 2 new C8 ZR1s.
They can ask whatever they want, doesn’t mean someone will pay that price, I know even if I had it, I wouldn’t. For that kind of a price, you wouldn’t want to drive the car and for me, Corvettes are meant to be driven, I have a C6 with a little over 104,000 miles on it and a 63 convertible that I drive when the weather is nice. I plan on ordering a C8 in 2 years and it will be driven, can’t enjoy it when your 6 ft under, so make the most of it while i am still breathing.
$360K…some rich collector will make a deal and it’ll be shipped to his collection, never to see the roads again. Then, 30 years from now, it’ll go on the auction block with a $4M reserve price and some drunk clown that wants to flex his bank account will buy it while the TV cameras are on him. These low-production, never-to-be-built-again cars have become like rare artwork.
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