The Final C7 – A Z06 Coupe – Raises Big Money for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation
The final C7 Corvette – a 2019 Z06 Coupe – sold for $2.7 million dollars at the Barrett-Jackson Northeast Auction at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut Friday night. The car that crossed the auction block was not the actual car, but rather “an exact replica of what will be the very last C7 Corvette ever built.” The winning bid for the black on red Z06 officially broke the Barrett-Jackson record for an automaker-donated vehicle sold at their venue, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to charity.
Purchased by a bidder from the phone lines, the last C7 Corvette’s specs are fixed – a black Z06 with the 3LZ trim package that comes with a plethora of leather, a performance data recorder, and extra tech features such as navigation, Android Auto, and Apple CarPlay. Inside the bonnet, a 6.2-liter LT4 V8 engine lives, producing 650 horsepower (485 kilowatts) sent to the rear wheels via a seven-speed manual transmission. Exterior-wise, the final Corvette Z06 comes with a carbon fiber roof and splitter, while interior trims are dominated with red leather.
The $2.7 million sale proceeds will be donated by General Motors to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. The Foundation builds specially designed and mortgage-free homes for catastrophically injured service members. It also helps pay off mortgages of first responders killed in the line of duty. Each Smart Home is specifically designed to the unique needs of the injured service members and has features like automated doors and lighting, wider halls and doorways, special showers to accommodate wheelchairs, and automatic door openers, among others.
According to Frank Siller, chairman and CEO of the Stephen Siller Foundation, “This donation will build at least five homes for our catastrophically-injured veterans to give them their independence and a better quality of life.”
The sale of the final C7 Corvette marks the fifth year that General Motors donated a vehicle to the foundation for the purpose of being auctioned off. Last year, they donated the first production 2019 Corvette ZR1 to the Stephen Siller Foundation. That car sold at auction for $925,000 last year in Scottsdale and was purchased by auto dealer and racing mogul Rick Hendrick. According to the foundation, the donated cars have raised more than $10 million dollars, all thanks to the automaker’s generosity.
“It’s appropriate that the most iconic vehicle ever built in the US, has the honor of being the highest auctioned vehicle at Barrett-Jackson for a charity,” said Steve Hill, GM U.S. Vice President of Sales, Service and Marketing. “What makes me proud to be a GM employee is that fact that we’ve supported the military and veterans for over 100 years. This is a great evening, but tomorrow morning we get back to work to help more service members in need.”
The sale of the final C7 Corvette marks the end of a (more than) half-century long era – that of the front engine, rear wheel drive Corvette. Beginning in 2020, Chevrolet and GM will unveil a mid-engine variant of the Corvette with production believed to begin simultaneously alongside the final C7 units still being built at that time. While the mid-engine Corvette scheduled to be unveiled in late July, it will not replace the C7 until later this year. The final C7 Z06 Corvette is expected to roll off the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky in September, 2019.
