- Posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Special-Edition Corvettes Grace Chicago Auto Show
By Harlan Charles
Chevrolet Corvette Production Manager
Earlier this month at the Chicago Auto Show, GM quietly unveiled two eye-catching special-edition Corvettes that have fueled the passion of the Corvette enthusiast community: the Ron Fellows Championship Z06 and the Indy Pace Car Replica Convertible.
The Z06 celebrates Corvette racing legend Ron Fellows and features Arctic White paint with a red racing-style fender stripe and Fellows’ autograph. This is the first time the Z06 has been available in Arctic White. There is also a subtle maple leaf logo motif incorporated into the car’s fender stripe graphics, which pays homage to Fellows’ Canadian heritage helmet logo, and the car’s red and white color scheme also represent Canada’s colors. The fender stripe also references Ron’s contributions to Corvette Racing’s six consecutive ALMS GT1 manufacturers’ championships.
At the show, there was a very cool ceremony in which Maryland-based guitar company Paul Reed Smith (PRS) presented Fellows, an amateur guitarist himself, with a special-edition guitar that matches his special-edition Corvette. PRS has been associated with Corvette racing for many years because, as PRS president Jack Higginbotham explained, they have a passion for engineering, and love the association with race cars, which arise from a similar passion. You can read more about the Ron Fellows Champion Corvette Z06 and the special Ron Fellows matching guitar here at CorvetteBlogger.
The other limited edition Corvette – the Indy 500 Pace Car Replica – was selected to be the Official Pace Car of the 91st running of the Indy 500 on May 27, 2007. Five-hundred production replicas of these Atomic Orange beauties will be made available to the public – all convertibles, available this spring. This year marks the ninth year that Corvette has served as the Official Pace Car of the Indy 500, but this is the first year since 1998 that Corvette has offered a regular-production replica pace car.
Take a look at this video to see Ron Fellows accept his new guitar.
To see more photos of the cars, take a look at our Flickr set.
2 Comments
Rick Lupori
Does the Ron Fellows edition Z06 have a red interior?
The Corvette should have high quality hand stitched interiors at least as an option, they are bargain priced as is (for the performance) and another couple hundred dollars (even a thousand) won’t keep buyers away.
Wish Chevrolet would bring back the White with Red interiors, they look great and would be a refreshing change from tan and gray.
Norman E. Gaines, Jr.
While I think the idea of celebrating “special editions” of the Corvette is an interesting phenomenon, I think that unless they add something to the Corvette Legend they’re a futile exercise. Much as I like Ron Fellows (and I have met him) I would ask why Chevrolet didn’t take the oportunity to produce a Cunningham/LeMans/John Fitch Limited Edition in 2005 (45th Anniversary) or plan one for 2010 (50th). With due respect, Fellows is a nice guy but Fitch and Cunningham are Americans. Especially in an era when Corvette owners are being forced to accept items in “packages” that they may not want to get one item they want (to get heated seats I have to pay for a power top?), “limited editions” for speculators leave me cold.
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