The 10 Best Special Edition Corvettes Ever Made

The Chevrolet Corvette competed in the American Le Mans racing series beginning in 1999 and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans starting in 2000. The Corvette C5-R and its successor, the C6-R achieved an impressive record of success, including over 70 victories and eight championships for the Corvette GT1 racing program in the American Le Mans Series. To celebrate, the automaker released a special road version of the car: the GT1 Championship Edition. Corvettes now compete in the GT2 class with the likes of Ferrari.

The championship package is a trim and appearance option, with no power improvements but several performance enhancements. Starting with a fully optioned C6 Corvette 4LT, including a heads-up display, memory seats, and premium stereo, the GT1 package added the Z51 Performance Package with stabilizer bars, performance springs, shocks, and tires, as well as large cross-drilled brake rotors. Other performance enhancements included a dual-mode performance exhaust, ZR1 body-colored spoiler, and forged chrome aluminum wheels.

The Z06 Championship Special Edition 2dr Coupe produced 505 horsepower and 471 lb-ft. of torque, with acceleration to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. Chevrolet offered the GT1 Championship Edition as a Corvette coupe at $65,310, convertible at $71,815, and the Z06 at $86,385 in either black or velocity yellow. In 2009 Chevrolet had planned to produce 600 GT1s divided equally among the Coupe, Convertible, and Z06 models. However, the 2008 global recession hit the automotive industry hard. The automaker sold 125 GT1 editions: 53 coupes, 17 Convertibles, and 55 Z06s.