1967 Corvette makes history as the most expensive ever sold at auction.
Everyone knows they do things big in Texas. And this weekend, the third annual Mecum auction in Dallas did things up really big for the seller and the oh-so-lucky buyer of a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette L88 Convertible. With the final hammer price of $3.2 million a sleek red racer became the most expensive Corvette ever sold at an auction.
Of the auction’s 1,400 cars up for bid, collector Buddy Herrin’s ’67 ‘Vette was the 4-day show’s undisputable star. It was one of just 20 built that year with a 430-hp L88 427 V-8 mated to a four-speed manual. First owned by Jim Elmer, It won the 1967 NHRA A/Sports Nationals at Indianapolis and campaigned throughout the Pacific Northwest running 11.12 seconds at 127.45 MPH with only 7 inch slicks and headers. Later, it was sold to driver Rob Robinson who raced the car for the rest of its career, consistently placing among the Top 4 or 5 in the national points standings.
After being retired from racing, the car underwent a faithful restoration by its next two owners, including Herrin. That restoration included an appeal to DuPont to recreate the car’s original Marlboro Maroon hue, which is now used as a guideline by the National Corvette Restorers Society. The car retains its original body panels, seat covers and factory side exhaust and it’s documented with the tank sticker, vintage photos and time slips including its maiden run at Puyallup Dragway in Washington.
E3 Spark Plugs congratulates the lucky new owner of a beautiful classic racer!
