We expect the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 to break at least one record before the coming super-coupe has been objectively timed and tested. Barrett-Jackson will auction the first retail example of what should be the most amazing Z06 the world has ever seen during the auction house’s annual Scottsdale, Arizona, event on January 29 at around 8:30 p.m. The last charity Corvette the auction house sold was the first 2020 C8 Corvette, which NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick bought for $3 million. With his winning bid, Hendrick set the benchmark hammer price for a Barrett-Jackson charity car, and eclipsed the $2.9 million paid for the last front-engined Corvette in 2019. Although not assured, it doesn’t take much imagination to conceive of bidding for the 2023 Z06 cruising right past $3 million to a new record.
Whatever the final tally is, every cent of the hammer price for lot #3009 will be donated to a charity called Operation Homefront, Barrett-Jackson forgoing its usual fees. The 20-year-old nonprofit Operation Homefront exists to help the post-9/11 wounded, military families, and veterans with financial assistance and housing support.
The car on the block will be a stand-in hardtop, not convertible, the Z06 not scheduled to enter production until September of this year. It sounds unlikely the winning car will be VIN 001, with language noting the coupe could be “subject to a state-issued VIN and/or other state requirements” depending on where the owner hails from. After winning, the buyer will be invited to configure what will be the first retail example of the production line, meaning choosing one of 12 exterior colors and seven interior and wheel treatments, then making the even bigger choice of whether to append the Z07 Performance Package that adds frills like a big rear wing, canards, and carbon fiber wheels.
And with two more powerful Corvette versions thought to be on the way — the ZR1 and the performance hybrid perhaps called Zora or E-Ray — the Z06 likely won’t hold for long the benchmark among its kind for price at the gavel.
As for the everyday buyer, it’s going to require a few trips around the sun to take delivery of a new Z06 even for those who put reservations in months ago. Buyers in one thread on the C8Z06 forum talked about making $2,000 refundable deposits with one dealer as soon as the reservations system opened, then being told they were as far back as between 4,000 and 5,000 on the waiting list. And that’s just one dealer. Might not be too soon to start thinking about putting money aside and making friends at a dealership to get a good shot at the C9.
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