Someone Just Paid A Record $755,000 For James Garner’s 1968 Chevrolet Corvette L88
Brad Pitt may play a racing driver in the movies, but fellow on-screen Formula One driver James Garner was the real deal.
Garner starred in the 1966 film “Grand Prix,” which was a predecessor to Pitt’s new “F1: The Movie.” He enjoyed making it so much that he got into racing himself in the years that followed.
He he started the American International Racing sports car team, which went on to compete in the big endurance races at Daytona and Sebring. Among the cars it fielded were the 1968 Chevrolet Corvette L88 convertible. It ordered three through the Central Office Production Order (COPO) process, which was how Chevy sold thinly-disguised race cars at the time.
The Corvette L88 featured a racing suspension and brakes, Positronic rear end, a heavy duty “rock crusher” four-speed transmission and a 427 cubic-inch V8 that was officially rated at 430 hp, but known to produce much more than that and could easily be tuned to crank out more than 600 hp.
The package was only offered from 1967 through 1969 and just 80 cars were ordered with it in 1968. Garner’s were all Le Mans blue with black interiors.
Two were fully outfitted as competition cars and the third used as a promotional vehicle.
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One of the race cars, which has since been updated with 454-cubic-inch V8 and a few other enhancements, was put up for auction on the Bring A Trailer website this week and ended up selling for a record amount. The high bid was $755,000, which is the most ever paid for a 1968 Corvette L88, breaking the previous record of $600,000 set last year.
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The all-time record for a Corvette L88 stands at the $3.85 million paid in 2014 for one of the 20 that were built for the 1967 model year. That car has been back on the auction block several times over the past two years, but the bids have topped out at $2.7 million.