First Corvette Convertible sells for $1m

Paraphrasing the esteemed vernacular of Eric Cartman from South Park, Rick Hendrick is a man who can turn left better ‘n you can, because he owns his own NASCAR team. And now, he also can also smoke his rear tyres better ‘n you can, because he owns a brand new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible.

Well, will own a Stingray convertible. Not just any Stingray convertible though, the very first production model of the recently unveiled seventh generation. The rights to purchase this car were auctioned off last Friday at Barrett Jackson's Palm Beach sale, and Mr Hendrick paid a rather handsome sum for the privilege. A cool $1,000,000 (cue Dr Evil music).

It was all for a good cause, mind. General Motors has long sponsored the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer institute (donating more than $6,000,000 over 15 years), and as such, all the proceeds from the sale of this first ever Stingray production convertible will directly benefit the charity. So for that, Mr Hendrick, TG salutes you.

And he's getting quite a bit of kit, too. It's the seventh generation Corvette drop-top, with a 450bhp 6.2-litre V8 mounted up front featuring many torques (450lb ft), rear wheel drive, a 0-62mph time of under four seconds, and an identical power-to-weight ratio as the coupe.

The full-automatic fabric roof will also close and open at speeds of up to 30mph too; all the better to inhale the liquefied remains of those poor rear tyres.

Bit of a Corvette nut, is Rick. He was the winning bidder on the first production Chevrolet Corvette Stringray coupe a few months back at Barrett Jackson's Scottsdale auction in January, paying $1.1m for the privilege. He also spent a considerable amount on a pair of '58 and '68 Corvettes too. You might remember this auction, because the actual Batmobile from the 60s TV show was sold for £2.6m...

Photo courtesy of Barrett Jackson