C4 Corvette SPECIAL EDITIONS - Guide To ALL 13!

If a base Corvette is like a delicious cheeseburger , then a special edition is that special sauce that makes it even tastier .

But there are so many special editions of the Sea for Corvette on the menu 13 by my count and as delicious as they are figuring them all out is enough to cause you indigestion .

Oh boy , it doesn't .

Well , you're in luck because in this video , I'll show you how to spot each of these special editions .

What made them so unique ?

How many were made and how much extra they're worth today ?

Hi there .

My name is Brad and I am a sucker for special edition cars .

In fact , I'm so big of a sucker that I own .

One .

This 1996 collector edition , which we'll get to later today , we'll be focusing on the 13 unique C four packages that were available through Chevy dealerships and were street legal .

So let's get started in the order of their release .

Malcolm Connor was the owner and operator of a dealership that sold more Corvettes than any other .

When Connor passed away in the eighties General Motors honored him with this 1986 .

Malcolm Connor edition , the only time in history that an official G M product was named after a dealer .

This special edition had a slick two tone silver beige and black exterior with a graphite colored interior .

They also got a brass plaque on the Center Council and special badges .

Only 50 Malcolm Connor edition Corvettes were made all as coops knew this package was a screaming deal costing only $500 extra .

Nowadays , this edition's rarity is easily worth an extra 2 to 4 grand over a comparable base car .

And if you're wondering where I'm getting these modern day values , you'll see in this video , they're coming from an amalgamation of different sources that I've researched , that includes the Corvette magazine's Buyers guide , Haggerty and recent sales and auction prices .

Plus just what I see out there on the open market .

I'm also quoting prices of cars in good to excellent condition as most special edition Corvettes tend to be well taken care of .

Anyways note that never driven show winning cars with stupid low miles might be worth a bit more .

So in this case , an extra 2 to 4 grand for a nice Malcolm Connor edition makes it one of the best deals on this list .

Confusion alert .

This Corvette is a special edition .

That kind of isn't , let me explain .

In 1986 legendary pilot and Corvette enthusiast Chuck Yeager paced the Indy 500 in this yellow convertible to mark the occasion all 1986 Corvette convertibles were sold as Pace car replicas .

It didn't matter what color you chose .

Every 19 86 convertible came from the factory with official Pace car decals that you could either choose to put on or leave off .

It also included this little emblem near the climate controls .

A total of 7315 convertible pace car replicas were made that year , but only 732 of those were the same yellow color as the original back in 86 .

The convertible option you back an extra 5000 bucks over a coup .

Nowadays , a non yellow convertible is only worth 1 to 3 grand more than a comparable coup .

However , the rarer yellow convertibles command more of a premium or like 4 to 6 K extra .

So if you ever imagine yourself pacing the Indy 500 which is probably everyone who's watching this video .

This is one Corvette worth checking out .

Now , I'm not covering aftermarket tuner cars on this list , but this Callaway is a unique case .

You see , even though Calloway was and is an aftermarket manufacturer , you could order these callaway's directly through a Chevy dealership .

Checking off option code B two K meant your Corvette would be finished off by Calloway cars who completely rebuilt the engine and topped it off with twin turbos that nearly doubled the power and you thought it had some turbo boost .

Thankfully , these Corvettes had numerous suspension upgrades to help keep all that power in check though early cars were difficult to spot visually from stock .

But that changed in 1988 when the one off Calloway Sledge Hammer was developed armed with 880 horsepower .

The Sledgehammer that's got to be one of the coolest car names of all time .

Topped out at a scalding 254 MPH .

A street legal top speed record that it held for the next decade helping the sledgehammer slice through the air .

Was this beautiful arrow body kit which Calloway later made available separately .

And that brings us to another confusion alert note that this arrow body kit can be installed on any sea for in fact , you can still order this body kit from Calloway today .

So just because you see a Corvette with this body kit doesn't mean it's a true Calloway machine .

In any case , when Chevy changed out the Corvette's base engine in 1992 it singled the end as a Calloway twin turbo .

And although Calloway car still made plenty of modified Corvettes afterwards , they all had to be ordered directly through Calloway and could no longer be ordered through a Chevy dealership overall .

Around 500 Calloway twin turbos were made .

When knew that little B two K option code would set you back an extra 20 to 30 grand over a stock corvette .

Nowadays that premium has only shrunk a little figure , an extra 15 to 25 grand , big money for big turbo speed .

The name says it all .

The 35th anniversary edition was made to honor 35 years of Corvette production .

These are easy to spot the body wheels and trim were finished in white , which was then offset with a black roof section inside the black and white theme continued .

Check out the special badges on these cars though in the middle , you had the contemporary C four logo on the left .

You had the logo from the very first Corvette .

Gotta be my favorite Corvette badge .

And you can find this design on the front fenders and on the plaque behind the shift knob that also includes the build number , Chevy made a little over 2000 of these and they were only offered as coops in 1988 .

These carried a hefty premium of 4795 bucks over a base car and that's about the premium they still hold today .

It just doesn't get much rat than these in the eighties .

Corvette absolutely dominated S E C A showroom stock racing .

In fact , they beat runner up Porsche 29 to zip .

The Corvettes were so effective at butt kicking that they were actually banned from competition , but the Corvette team still wanted to race .

So they just created their own spec series .

The Corvette Challenge which ran in 1988 and 89 .

By 1990 the competition finally closed the gap enough for Corvettes to rejoin the S E C A in their new World Challenge series , which the corvette team , you know , still won .

Now , all of these Corvettes were street legal but race prepared to buy one first .

He had to order a $3000 option code from the factory which basically bundled certain options together like claw seats , mail , gearbox and rear axle ratio plus some snazzy badges because , hey , what's a special edition vette without them to be converted into an actual race car ?

An extra 15 grand worth of fabrication .

Got you things like a roll cage onboard , fire extinguishing system , racing seats and special wheels .

The stock engines were also sealed from the factory with blue paint to make sure no one cheated by opening them up covertly to sneak in some extra power in all .

Only 129 of these factory prep Corvettes were made , but 54 weren't converted for racing .

And unless you look closely , you might not realize how special an unconverted challenge car is and it's definitely worth checking because these challenge cars can go for big money figure around 12 to 30 grand extra compared to a base corvette with the race winning car sitting at the top of that spread .

It's a challenge to find one of these , but you can't beat the amazing history behind in 1990 .

Chevrolet was once again involved in the Indy 500 but this time they chose their Beretta model to be the pace car .

This was a prototype convertible but quality control issues meant an open air baretta was a dead end that put Chevy in a bit of a jam because they had already agreed to provide many more convertible support vehicles for the other Indy 500 festivities .

So a fleet of tried and true convertible Corvettes were used for transporting VIP S to different events on and off the track .

All told Chevy provided Indie with 80 Corvettes in these stock colors , 30 were yellow and 50 were turquoise .

They were all optioned with black leather seats , automatic transmissions and luggage carriers on the deck lid .

Most notably , they sported this rad Indy 500 graphic on the door .

I cannot recall a finer example of early 90 graphic design .

I love it .

After the Indy 500 these festival cars ended up in dealerships and sold to the public and over time many owners ended up removing the dated pink door graphic and here's where you can score a potential deal with that door graphic removed .

There wasn't any real visual difference to tell if a Corvette was just another common similarly option 1990 standard convertible or if it was one of these rarer Indy 500 festival cars to verify , you got to open the Center council and check out these R P O codes .

The Festival Corvettes had this Y E eight code which indicates the car was an engineering department test vehicle that little code in the history behind it means you have a more valuable car .

These Indy 500 Corvettes are worth 2 to 6 grand more than an otherwise identical convertible .

So worth checking all year .

The Z R one , now we're talking while there were numerous tweaks that made a ZR one special .

The star of this king of the Hill Corvette was a state of the art engine christened the L T five even though it displaced 5.7 liters just like the standard engine .

The L T five had four cams , 32 valves and held a astonishing 12 quarts of oil .

The upshot was huge power for the day 375 horsepower which rose to 405 in 1993 and this engine wasn't some high strung exotic either .

It was tough as nail armed with the L T five .

The Z R one broke records when it ran for 24 hours straight at an average speed of 175 MPH .

But all that world class engineering had a big cost .

When knew a Z R one option would set you back an extra 30 grand over a base coop , almost doubling the price .

And for all that dough most years didn't look that different from a base coop either you have to have sharp eyes to notice the wider rear bodywork that covered the fatter tires in the 01 .

And while later years added 01 badges to help car spotters .

They were as bit as the 01 sales figures sales dwindled in later model years until 1995 when the 01 was ultimately canceled .

The King is dead long live .

Well , the Grants spark but look into later , all told 6939 C 40 ones were made all coops with manual transmissions with the vast majority being sold in the early years .

That's why nowadays early zero ones could be had for only around 10 to 12,000 more than a base car while the later years go for more figure 14 to 24 grand extra big money .

But that's what you pay to be king of the hill .

This is the 40 th anniversary edition 1993 Corvette super big confusion alert on this one because this is the most confused special edition .

There is .

All right , let me clear this up to celebrate 40 years of Corvette production , Chevy embroidered the leather headrest of all 1993 Corvettes with this 40th anniversary logo .

But just because a Corvette has this badge does not mean it's an actual 40th anniversary package to get that .

You had to order the Z 25 option code , which meant the exterior and interior would finish in this snazzy Ruby red color with a slew of special badges throughout .

So Ruby red and badges all over equals 40th anniversary package , not just the head risk badging which even base cars had , in any case , the 40th package could be ordered as a coup convertible or even as a Z R one 6749 .

40th anniversary packages were sold nearly a third of all Corvettes sold in 1993 .

It was pretty popular because it was pretty affordable only costing $1445 extra as such .

They command just a minor premium these days figure an extra 2 to 3 grand more .

If you dig the color , the 40th anniversary package was and is a great bargain .

Sunday , Sunday , Sunday , NASCAR Winston Cup comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time in 1994 for the inaugural Brick Yard 400 .

Chevy provided 25 Corvette convertibles for the occasion .

Some are red on red .

Some were black on black .

This is a similar situation to the 1990 Indy 500 festival cars that I went over earlier because these Corvettes weren't pace cars used during the race .

That honor went to the just released Chevy Money Carlo seen here in white .

Instead , these Corvettes were parade cars used before the race .

These vets circled the track during driver introductions with each convertible carrying two of the star drivers .

Oh , in Brook two , I guess the only visual differences from stock with these cars were special .

The cows in the side and the two drivers names that were stuck on the hood .

Mechanically , it's rumored that these cars received some hot rod tuning from the factory , but I couldn't find any solid verification of this .

So the truth is out there , what's truly crazy is that after the race , most of the 25 cars were returned to dealers , stripped of their decals and sold just like any other corvette .

So if you have a red or black 1994 convertible , who knows , it might just be one of these very rare parade cars .

And if so you are sitting on a gold mine compared to a standard 94 convertible .

A brickyard Corvette is worth double easily fetching an extra 15 grand .

This isn't a special edition per se , but it's a super rare and valuable curiosity that's worth a quick mention for 94 .

Chevy introduced this rad new color called copper metallic , but they quickly realized getting this funky hue to match panel to panel was rot with quality control issues .

So after just three days of manufacturing , Chevy pulled the plug on this color .

Only 116 Corvettes ended up getting painted copper metallic in both coop and convertible form when bought new , these cost nothing extra .

But nowadays , the rarity of the color definitely adds value somewhere around 3 to 7 grand extra .

So now you know , if you spot ac four in this color , you found one very rare Corvette , the official pace car itself .

The Corvette beautiful machine in 1995 .

A Corvette once again paced the Indy 500 this time Chevy went all out on the looks which are , let's say striking .

It was draped in a purple on white paint scheme topped with splashy decals .

The inside had an equally gnarly purple and black color scheme with the Indy 500 logo stitched into the headrests .

Only 527 of these replicas were made all convertibles , all automatics .

When new , the replica package cost $2816 extra .

That was a damn good investment because today the pace car replica is worth 6 to 10-K over a base convertible .

Almost all of these ended up in collectors hands and are rarely driven .

So if you dig this flash and you have the cash , it's easy to find one today .

It still looks brand new after the Z R one retired in 1995 .

Chevy wanted a special high performance Corvette to take its place .

So they took inspiration from the grand sport race cars of the sixties to make the 1996 grand sport .

The red white and blue paint scheme is easy to spot , but the real news for 96 was under the hood with the new one year only L T four engine .

This was a hot rod and higher revving version of the face L T one engine , which meant the L T four made 30 more horsepower for 330 total .

Visually , the L T four is easy to spot as it has a spiffy red paint scheme topped off with a grand sport badge confusion alert that I should definitely clear up .

Although all C four grand sports have the L T four engine , the L T four wasn't exclusive to the grand sport .

That's because from 1996 the L T four was the engine paired with the manual transmission of Corvette .

If you ordered an automatic in 1996 you got the good old L T one instead .

So as an example , even though my 1996 Corvette isn't a grand sport .

Open the hood and check it out .

It has the L T four grand sport engine because it has a manual transmission .

Ok , back to the grand sport , which could be had as either a coup or a convertible .

Most ground sports will order with a black interior but are rare and these days more valuable color option was this crazy bright red .

You might notice that the coops have these little fender flares in the rear .

There's not some aftermarket piece slapped on from pep boys that's original needed to cover the grand sport coop's unique whiter rear tires .

The convertible grand sports had normal size rear tires and therefore required no fender lip injection .

Only 1000 Grand sports were produced each with their own unique vin numbering of those only 190 for convertibles .

The grand sport option was an extra 3000 bucks when new and that's turned out to be an amazing investment .

The grand sport coops now carry a price premium of around 7 to 10 grand over a base coop and the ultra rare convertibles go for 10 to 15 grand over a base convertible .

Some people think that's a lot of coin for some racing stripes and a couple of fender players , but the distinct look and small production run means their prices are only going up .

Last car on our list is the car that I own .

The 1996 collector edition 96 was the end of the line for the fourth generation Corvette and the collector edition was created to commemorate the occasion .

Collector editions were all colored searing silver .

A hue taken from the 1959 Corvette Stingray race car .

Even the five spoke wheels of the collector edition were painted silver to match pretty cool .

You could choose between three interior color options .

There was gray like my car .

Hey , I wanted my entire vehicle to match inside and out , but you could also get a black interior .

And once again that rare retina searing and super collectible red .

Of course , there were also nifty collector edition badges all over the car .

I'm lucky enough to have my car's original window sticker and you can see here that the collector edition package only cost 1250 bucks .

A temping upgrade that got a lot of takers .

A total of 5412 collector editions were made about a quarter of all Corvettes produced in 1996 .

So ironically not all that collectible and pretty affordable nowadays , nice collector editions with automatic go for two or three grand more than a comparable base core bet .

But when combo with that desirable and rare L T four engine with the manual , expect to pay a 5 to $6000 premium over at base automatic .

That's still a good 10 grand or so less than what a grand sport goes for nowadays and mechanically nearly identical .

So if you're like me and just want a fun special car , that's still a great value , then you can drive every day .

The collector edition is worth a look there .

You have it all 13 special editions of the C four Corvette .

But now let's hear from you any special edition C fours that I forgot to mention .

Do you own any of these editions ?

And if so , how have you liked it ?

What's your favorite special edition car ?

Let me know in the comments below .

I love hearing your thoughts and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell notification icon .

So you don't miss more retro cars forever coming to you each month .

Thanks for watching .

We'll see you next time .

Yeah .