When you write about classic cars for a living and you specialize in the auction end of the hobby, the No. 1 question has to be: what is the next great collectible car? There are plenty of answers, but if you are on any kind of a budget, I have a simple one for you and that would be the Pick of the Day, a 2004 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Commemorative Edition.
Now, special editions are nothing new for Corvette. There have been scores of them with everything from various anniversary models and pace cars to the Grand Sport editions. Many of these are nothing more than sticker packages and some different wheels. The Commemorative Edition Z06 is something else again.
This car starts out special, being a Z06 model. That means 405 horsepower, 0-60 times under 4 seconds and quarter-mile times in the high 11s. This combined with a skid-pad number of .98 g adds up to staggering levels of performance.
The Commemorative Edition part adds special wheels, a special finish mimicking the Le Mans paint scheme, a carbon-fiber hood, special badges of course, and a suspension retuned for even higher levels of performance.
According to the seller, a San Ramon, California, dealer advertising the Corvette on ClassicCars.com, this Z06 has just over 42,000 original miles on the odometer, and it is in excellent original condition.
Like all of the Commemorative Edition Z06 cars, this one is loaded with options, including factory titanium exhaust, active suspension, memory-seat package, dual-zone climate control, leather seats, AM/FM/CD Bose audio, tilt steering column, power mirrors, digital head-up display, the factory carbon fiber hood and factory Commemorative Edition stripes and graphics, and polished aluminum factory Z06 wheels.
Chevrolet built a total of 2,025 of these cars and being their celebration model marking their Le Mans dominance with the racing version makes this a sure-fire future collectible.
One of the best things about this car is the price. You get the exclusivity of low production mixed with supercar performance and typical Corvette ease of maintenance, all for only $24,995.
I challenge you to find a sports car that offers this much performance for this kind of money. I’m tempted to run out and buy one now before the rest of the world wakes up and starts collecting them and raising their prices.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day
