[1]With wealth comes privilege, and people of means use their money in a variety of fashions that some of us might consider a bit silly. The obsession with big boats and yacht clubs, for example, seems to be contagious amongst the upper-class, though there is one hobby that both the common man and the better-off enjoy in equal parts; cars.
[2]Of course being wealthy affords you opportunity to more and better cars, and often much sooner than the average Joe. Big-shot car guy Rick Hendrick paid $1.1 million for the privilege to own the very first 2014 Corvette Stingray [3], reports the Detroit News [4], but he still had to wait until last Friday to finally get behind the wheel of his all-new ride. GM made the long wait worth it though.
Hendrick, who owns multiple car dealerships and is both a former NASCAR driver and current team owner, is also a big fan of collecting cars. He has stepped up to buy the first production models of various GM debut vehicles, like the Chevy Volt, though Corvettes are his biggest passion. Hendrick has over 150 Corvettes of various vintages, and he added two 2014 models to the collection on Friday.
GM surprised Hendrick by giving him a second Corvette on Friday when he showed up to pick up his first Corvette, giving him VIN #0001 (black with a red interior) and #0002 (red with a red interior). Both Corvettes come fully loaded with a sticker price of about $75,000, and the $1.1 million bid went to benefit the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.
The rest of you poor schlubs should be getting your new Corvettes soon, while the rest of us wait for depreciation to set in. That said, it doesn’t appear that either or Hendrick’s Corvettes are the Premiere Edition models, which means he is missing out on some sweet luggage, though he still has to pickup the $1 million Corvette C7 convertible [5] he also bought at auction as well.
By the time the Corvette C8 comes out, the 2014 Corvette should be about as much as a used Subaru station wagon, unless of course they’re Rick Hendrick’s Corvettes.