Review: 2023 Chevrolet Corvette 70th Anniversary Special Edition
America's sports car never looked better
It's a big collection of little red Corvettes.
A fleet of 15 red Chevrolet Corvettes will be crossing the block at the Mecum Auction's Kansas City event in December, and they all have a connection that is more than a thick paint layer.
It comprises one car from each of the model years that the fourth-generation Corvette was on sale, from 1984 to 1996, plus a few doubles for good measure.
The Topeka-area seller, Steve Clinkinbeard, bought all the cars during a time span from 2012 to 2014, according to Mecum.
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A collection of red Corvettes from every year the fourth generation was produced is up for auction. (Mecum Auctions)
He had owned a red 1985 Corvette that he sold when he moved to Kansas in 1992, because it was not suited for the dirt roads where he lived, but he never forgot it.
The 1985 Corvette for sale is identical to the seller's first Corvette. (Mecum Auctions)
There is a 1985 car that is virtually identical to his first, but the oldest up for sale is a 1984 with 17,500 miles on the odometer. It is one of just 6,443 that were sold with a manual transmission out of the 51,547 cars built that model year, the second most in Corvette history.
The only 1983 Corvette is at the National Corvette Museum. (National Corvette Museum)
There were technically no 1983 Corvettes sold, even though production of the fourth-generation car began during that calendar year. The start of production was delayed long enough to require it to be registered as a 1984 car. However, a single 1983 "pilot assembly" car that was supposed to be destroyed after testing survived, but was never sold and is currently on display at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
The 1984 Corvette up for sale is one of the rare manual transmission models. (Mecum Auctions)
Two 1990 cars represent the full lineup available that year, when the higher performance Corvette ZR-1 was added to the lineup.
The ZR-1 famously featured a V8 engine modified by Lotus and built by Mercury Marine that swapped an overhead camshaft for the Corvette 5.7-liter V8's traditional pushrod design and increased horsepower from 245 hp to 380 hp, giving it a top speed of 175 mph.
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Mecum has not offered any pre-auction estimates valuing the cars, which are all being sold without a reserve price, but ZR-1s in top condition typically sell in the $60,000 to $70,000 range, with cars from its final year of production in 1995 worth up to $80,000.
The 1995 Corvette ZR-1 is the most valuable version of the fourth generation car. (Mecum Auctions)
A 1995 ZR-1 included in the auction with 13,472 miles is one of the 448 that were built that year.
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Drive director of content James Ward noted two bizarre coincidence between the collection and Prince's song "Little Red Corvette," which was released in 1983 and includes the title 15 times in its lyrics.