We all love Corvettes, for the most part, or we probably wouldn’t spend so much time reading about them and caring for the ones that fill our garages and car ports. For some folks, owning a Corvette will only account for a small portion of their lives, and while that may make them a fan, it certainly does not define them. Then there are those who, shall we say, have a bit more of a passion or love for America’s sports car.
One such gentleman is Rick Hendrick, who amongst other titles is the owner of the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. Those who follow automobile auctions or Corvettes with reasonable detail probably know that Hendrick has developed a recent pattern of purchasing the first production car of each of the C7 models as they come available. He purchased the first Stingray, followed by the matching Stingray convertible. He later purchased the first Z06, and most recently purchased #001 Z06 convertible for $800,000.
Corvette Online was recently invited by Chevrolet to the Spring Mountain Motor Resort to drive the 2015 Corvette Z06, where we were also able to speak with many of the bright minds responsible for developing the new Z06. While many of our questions about future plans were met with smiles and, “I don’t know!” they did manage to tell us that the first production Z06 convertible was going to be built with the same options as the previous three #001 cars, with black paint and red interiors.
Chevrolet built this Z06 accordingly in anticipation that Hendrick would want to purchase this car to match his other three, all of which are the black on red combination. Hendrick has now spent nearly $4 million collecting the four C7s and also purchased a silver Z06 for his own personal use, not a bad daily driver!