Flashback Friday (June 2020): ‘93 Black ZR-1 Auction
Looks like a later ZR-1 with low mileage would have been a sound investment
There were 448 ZR-1 Corvettes manufactured in the 1993 model year. This example, with a black exterior and a tan leather interior, displayed about 12,000 miles on the odometer. All ZR-1s were equipped with the six-speed ZF manual transmission. A clean Carfax report and a clean Arizona title were included in the listing.
This C4 coupe had an aftermarket Borla exhaust installed on it and the tires had been replaced with Sumitomo HTRs, probably due to age more than wear.
I’m not a big fan of black cars in general, but I really liked the contrasting Light Beige leather sport seats with this exterior color. As you would expect with this low-mileage C4, the interior was immaculate and the six-way power seats showed no noticeable wear.
The digital odometer indicated about 12,000 miles. A Ride Control dial on the center console offered suspension settings for Tour, Sport, or Performance mode.
Everything looked very tidy under the hood as you would expect for a very low mileage car. Powered by the Lotus / Mercury Marine 5.7-liter DOHC engine, the big news for the ‘93 ZR-1 was a power bump to 405 horsepower from the previous year’s 375.
The more powerful ‘93 through ‘95 ZR-1s commanded higher prices then (and still do). Extremely low-mileage examples also brought premium money. I haven’t seen many black ZR-1s (and a lot of people love black cars), so it was hard to say if the color would have been a factor in selling this car.
To give you an idea of the spread in values in early 2020, a red 1995 ZR-1 with 900 miles had sold for $44,500, while a red 1994 ZR-1 with 54,000 miles had sold for only $13,500. At the time of my 2020 post, I had guessed that this black ZR-1 would probably be bid up to around $30,000.
I was pretty close: the car surpassed the reserve price and sold for $28,500. That seems like a really good investment as I write this: A red ‘95 ZR-1 with the same 12,000 miles sold in December 2024 for $42,000. It looks like the values of these cars has indeed risen since 2020.
Here is a link to the June 2020 auction: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1993-chevrolet-corvette-zr-1-5/
Images: bringatrailer.com
:)