Since the midengined C8 Corvette broke cover and forever moved America’s Sports Car upmarket in July 2019, we’ve been campaigning for General Motors to rise to the occasion and bring a “Paint to Sample” program to the order guide. This option would greatly expand the exterior color palette available to buyers who are willing to pay a nontrivial sum in order to get something truly unique.
Porsche, the ‘Vette’s primary competition for American dollars, is renowned for its PTS option, and even Dodge sanctioned a 1 of 1 program that resulted in some magical builds for the Viper’s swan song. The logistics surrounding the Corvette’s popularity make custom paint a difficult ask. With an impressive final tally of 53,785, Chevrolet sold more Corvettes alone in 2023 than the total amount of non-SUVs that Porsche was able to move in the same time span (the 911, 718 twins, Taycan, and Panamera sold a combined 27,993 units in ‘23), and it’s estimated that the various stewards of the former Chrysler Corp. were able to piece together 31,500 Vipers… ever… as in, total… from 1992-2017 (including hiatuses totally unrelated to an onslaught of Corvette performance in 2007 and ’11-’12). So, we’re talking about vastly different operations here. Compared to its relatively niche challengers, the Corvette is a mass-produced commodity where far fewer hours can be allocated to each example if demand is to be met in a timely manner.
That being the case, we’ve conceded that a limited run of model-exclusive colors might be the next best thing to a full array of tailored exterior hues. And with Chevrolet inexplicably cutting seven(!) 2024 colors from the ’25 order guide, that very well could be on the table for the impending ZR1 Hyper-Vette. This week, though, news of a special project by GM’s high-end division renewed a glimmer of hope for the flagship Corvette’s bespoke future on a smaller scale.
Twenty years ago, tarnished by decades of shrinking wheelbases, front-wheel-drive, and ill-advised badge engineering, the one-time “Standard of the World” Cadillac brand was sitting on an aging clientele, stuffy showrooms, and diminishing returns. Right then and there, management decided that a shot of adrenaline was needed to carry its four doors in line with their trendy new Escalade in the 21st century. They were going to use the Wreath and Crest to take the fight to BMW’s mighty Motorsports division! The first salvo in this assault on Germany’s finest fast family-haulers married the sporty new CTS sedan with the fire-breathing LS6 V8 and manual transmission from the contemporary Corvette Z06 to create the now-legendary V-Series.
The monumental shift in brand ethos turned the luxury staple into a feared purveyor of tire-smoking American shock and awe on the street and a legitimate racing juggernaut off of it. With another risky and far less exciting rebrand (maybe not?) on the horizon, General Motors felt the time was right to celebrate V in 2024! The only way to commemorate what now stands as the greatest single letter in American motoring was with the vehicle that finally and fully delivered on the original V premise of out BMWing BMW (in its current AND highwater benchmark forms!). But the only way to ramp up the “special” on the most powerful and best driving Cadillac in history was to turn to the company’s old philosophy of personalized luxury. What materialized from this desire was an extremely limited run of hand-built CT5-V Blackwing sedans – which still use Z06 power, this time in the form of the C7’s supercharged 6.2L LT4 V8.
The 20th Anniversary V-Series Edition, which is technically here for the 21st year of production as ’04 counts as year 0, will be the definition of uncommon, with just 21 being carefully pieced together for discerning customers that bought out the whole run ahead of the start of production. After being tagged with the “ZLT” 20th Anniversary RPO, 21 black-sprayed bodies were pulled from the regular line and then shipped to the Cadillac Special Vehicle Center in Milford, where they undergo an intense quality check where paint is scuffed, and all panel gaps are tested then re-fitted to perfection. Next, they are shipped 41 miles across town to the GM Artisan Innovation Center in Warren, where a single team of 6-8 people lovingly oversee the rest of the assembly process.
Up to this point, the Cadillac concierge had been overnighting samples from a palette of more than 20 exclusive paints formulated in conjunction with PPG back and forth until the buyer signs off on their ideal mix. Once the color is fine-tuned, each car is painstakingly hand painted in a 200+ hour process so precise that even the engine bay benefits from three layers of clearcoat. Each build is then finished with a serialized steering wheel emblem, B-pillar plaque, a 1 of 21 sill plate, and a shifter medallion that differs from the 3D-printed piece of the production models.
Most importantly, plant manager Karsten Garbe says that “he’d like to see this type of specialized and dedicated manufacturing expand should the business case warrant,” which should fill Corvette fans with almost as much joy and curiosity as the extra $7,120 option offered to the chosen few: the ability to match their new car to a previous-generation V-Series model. Imagine if GM opened the floodgates to every historical Corvette paint! Heck, even if they stuck to the past 20 years, the possibilities would be mind-boggling (a Lime Rock E-Ray, Inferno Orange Z06, or Black Rose Stingray, anyone? How about bringing back Jetstream for the ZR1? The world’s your oyster, what would you pick?)! Here’s hoping the Corvette team is out there preparing to take Mr. Garbe up on his offer – just a handful of distinctively colored Corvettes each year would be enough to quell our curiosity and create a new level of desirability and collectability in our country’s most iconic vehicle.
Related:
The C8 Corvette Needs a ‘Paint to Sample’ Program
GM Tech That isn’t Available on the Flagship Corvette (and Whether We’d Even Want it if it Were Offered)
Colors We Would Like to See on the C8 Corvette: Purple!
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Inferno Orange Metallic, Crystal Red Metallic, Magnetic Red Metallic II, Jetstream Blue Metallic, Electron Blue Metallic, Quasar Blue Metallic, Lime Rock Green Metallic, Bright Aqua Metallic etc. would all be great throwback colors IMHO.
Or, make “no paint” an RPO code that gives you a credit on your build price and then you take your new unpainted Corvette to the shop of your choice and have it painted any color you choose and have a 1 of 1.
GM’s miss here is that they didn’t make a Cadillac version of the C8. E-Ray would have been a perfect fit for this.
I would love PTs option. There’s still a lot of creature comforts and finishing touches that the Corvette lacks compared to competitors. PTS is but one. Expanding the suede interior to all panels–is another. And there’s many others.
PTS is a good idea but I think it would be good to have a far larger collection of colors so there is no mistake about how close the factory got to the one off color. McLaren offers over 200. There are so many great ones in there and I have seen some really nice colors on those cars. I’m surprised that Corvette has hung onto Torch Red for so long. I think there are better ones including Mazda’s Soul Red Crystal that is beyond Corvette’s Red Mist. Lots of ZR1’s are going to be over $200,000. Lets not limit them to just OK colors.
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