Dateline: 12.28.11

It’s time to do your patriotic Corvette duty and CAST YOUR VOTE!

Your local Corvette polling place is at the bottom of this post

The other day we were talking about the Ron Fellows Spring Mountain Special Edition 2012 Z06 Corvette. After posting the story I was doing some followup reading and found one post that called the car “boring.” Really? What part? Are we becoming a wee bit jaded with Special Edition Corvettes because they aren’t something other than a coordinated package of performance parts? Me thinks so.

This is an aside, but I’ve been reading similar blather on the net about Corvettes in general. I call it “goofy sniping crap.” You know what I’m talking about, the endless complaining that the Corvette isn’t a Nissan or a Porsche, or a world car, or whatever. The car is either too big (it’s about the same size as a 911 Porsche), it’s too heavy (the Nissan GTR is almost 600 pounds MORE than a Z06), it’s too expensive for younger buyers (and the Porsche and Nissan is cheaper?), materials are low grade (they want cheap, expensive materials?), and on and on.

But the fact remains that; 1. We’re in a deep economic recession, and 2. Even the base model (costing sometimes less than $50,000 if you shop around) delivers more performance per dollar than any other “sports car” you can buy. PERIOD! Is the base Corvette the baddest boy on the block? No. But if that’s what you need to feel good, be prepared to pony up three times as much as a Corvette for a top level Porsche. No, modern Vettes are tight, well-engineered performance cars that can give an owner years of dependable automotive performance pleasure for as little as $50K. Sorry for the digression.

So what’s up with all the special edition Corvettes? They’re just that, “special.” perhaps the disconnect for some is how one defines “special.” Former Corvette engineer and race car driver gave a little bit of insight into what it takes for a major manufacturer like Chevrolet to build special editions. John was largely credited with coming up with the concept for the ‘96 Grand Sport. “Monday morning quarterbacking” is for many, a sport un-to-itself. “Well, it’s just this and that, and why didn’t they do this and such, and wouldn’t you think that they could have…” Heinricy revealed that clearing out the assembly line time and pulling all the parts needed to build 1,000 Grand Sports was a major pain in the butt. For a tuner shop, 1,000 of anything would be a big deal. But for a big manufacturer, small numbers of specialty cars is a big headache.

Perhaps a more honest way of looking at special edition Corvettes is that they’re just “extra nice” Corvettes. They are officially sanctioned, blessed by Chevrolet with official documentation. They are produced in either specifically limited numbers, or are open order cars with varying production runs depending on package price – some were relatively inexpensive and some were expensive, depending on what the package included. There’s no free lunch here and you do pay for what you get.

Since 1978 Chevrolet has offered 14 Special Edition Corvettes and 11 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette. For this article I’m including the Pace Car Corvettes because they too are “special edition” cars. Here’s the roster in chronological order.

1. 1978 25th Anniversary Special
2. 1978 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
3. 1982 Collector Edition Corvette
4. 1986 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
5. 1988 35th Anniversary Corvette
6. 1993 40th Anniversary Package
7. 1995 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
8. 1996 Collector Edition Corvette
9. 1996 Grand Sport Corvette Package
10. 1998 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
11. 2003 50th Anniversary Edition Corvette
12. 2004 Commemorative Edition Corvette
13. 2007 Ron Fellows Z06 Special Edition Corvette
14. 2007 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
15. 2008 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
16. 2008 427 Limited Edition Z06 Corvette
17. 2008 ZHZ Hertz Corvette
18. 2009 GT-1 Championship Special Edition Corvette
19. 2009 Competition Sport Edition Corvette
20. 2011 Carbon Edition Z06 Corvette
21. 2012 Centennial Edition Corvette
22. 2013 60th Anniversary Corvette – To Be Announced

What’s your favorite C3 Special Edition or Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette?

So, since we’re talking about special edition Corvettes in general, I thought it would be fun to find out from you, our readers, what’s your favorite special edition Corvette, as presented above, Pace Car Corvettes included. Since 21 cars is an awfully large spread (like an Italian presidential election), I broke down the polling into C3, C4, C5, and C6 special editions. Pictures of each candidate are below in each sectioned out poll.

Have fun reviewing some Corvette history and cast your vote. We invite you to share this with your Vette pals and stop back after a time and click the “View Results” link just under each “Vote” button. Have fun and if you have an opinion besides your vote, the “leave a Reply” box is at the bottom of this post. I review all comments and often comment back, so join in on the conversation! – Scott