First production 2020 Corvette Stingray sells for $3 million

19 January 2020

We’ve seen the 2020 Stingray in the flesh on several occasions, in traditional targa and hardtop convertible guise, but now we know who will get the honor of owning VIN 001.

At Barrett-Jackson’s 2020 Scottsdale sale today, the first production 2020 Corvette Stingray came up on the auction block, where it commanded a whopping $3M. Rick Hendrick, NASCAR team owner and prolific Chevrolet muscle car and Corvette collector, stepped up with the big purchase, the proceeds of which will all go to charity. Hendrick had previously bought the first-production 2019 Corvette ZR1 for $925,000. The C7 ZR1 is still the most powerful Corvette ever to leave the factory, at least until the upper performance variants of the C8 are, inevitably, revealed.

A Z51-spec model in Torch Red with a black interior, red seatbelts, and magnetic ride control, it’s equipped with the Stingray’s 6.2-liter, dry-sump, 495-horsepower LT2 V-8. Given that production of the Stingray hasn’t officially begun, this is a stand-in, the actual first Stingray will be nearly identical, albeit with black paint.

After starting at $100,000, bidding quickly shot up to $1M, bringing cheers from the standing-room-only crowd in Arizona. A quick, but intense back-and-forth bidding war ensued before the hammer fell on the final $3M price. All proceeds of this sale will benefit the Detroit Children’s Fund, which supports Detroit-area public schools.

After toying with the idea for decades on research vehicles dating back to the ‘60s, Chevrolet has finally delivered on Zora Arkus-Duntov’s dream of a production mid-engine Corvette. In comparison, the final production front-engine Corvette, a 2019 Z06 with a seven-speed manual, sold for $2.7 million last summer at Barrett-Jackson’s Northeast Auction in Connecticut. It too was for charity, and until today, was the highest price ever paid for a new Corvette.

If you’d like to see how this sale stacks up against non-charity auction, then you’re gonna want to read this. Hendrick’s new set of wheels isn’t quite the most expensive Corvette ever sold outright—but it’s certainly close.