The Chevrolet Corvette is sort of like a ’32 Ford or a ’49 Mercury in that it has become a canvas for others to customize. It is a starting point where people they feel they can improve. Some companies like Callaway and Lingenfelter have used this formula to great success. It is still a Corvette, but with a little more power and a little more style.
Others have tried to follow the same path, but have not found commercial success. One such company was Avelate, which was formed by former GM designer Don Johnson and Dean Arnold. According to the website CorvSport.com: “The Avelate borrowed some design inspiration from the previous Corvette generations and incorporated all of them into the C5 model. Initially, the plan was to make 100 cars per year, but throughout its production run, only 25 examples were only built.”
The auction description says that this 2000 Chevrolet Corvette Avelate Z06 convertible is one of 27 builds produced between 2000 and 2002. It is finished in Copper Pearl with a black convertible top. The car has a 6-speed manual transmission. It was consigned to sell at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction in January 2024.
The car has the stock windshield and side glass, though it has a custom body including door skins, hood, trunk, and front and rear bumpers. Studying the car, I see a C3-styled front end and C1-style scallops on the doors.
This car has Avelate logo floor mats and retro-style Fuel Injection and Corvette badges on the fenders. It’s got a lot of customizations that make it unique from the herd of production C5s, but do the cosmetic customizations make it any better than a regular Z06? Honestly…no, they do not.
That sentiment was reflected in the final hammer price of $29,700 which is exactly in line with the prices of a C5 Z06 on Bring A Trailer. Only super low mileage cars go for more, and this car had 31k miles at the time of auction.
The Avelate Corvette is a unique curiosity for the right buyer, and another notch in the belt of small production manufacturers who thought they could do better than the OEM.
One of the defining characteristics of a collector is that they love exclusivity. Whether it is baseball cards, stamps, coins, vinyl records or some other object, collectors love the thrill of finding and acquiring the rarest and scarcest items for their collections.
The thrill of owning a rare object also applies to automotive collectors. Supercar manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, and others know what their customers want. Each of these brands has produced special or limited edition runs of vehicles aimed at collectors. Sometimes a run may be 1,000 vehicles, other times it may be as few as 100 units or even 20 units in some cases.
The 2021 Iso Rivolta GT Zagato is a collectible car of almost unimaginable rarity. Only 19 of these cars will be produced for the whole world. This example is the first and only one to be imported and registered in the U.S. Suffice to say, I will probably never see another one of these cars around.
Iso’s History
The history of ISO goes back to 1938 when Italian engineer Renzo Rivolta began manufacturing refrigeration equipment. Following the end of World War II, the company pivoted to motorcycle production.
In the 1950s, Iso produced its first automobile, the Isetta microcar. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, ISO produced a number of different sports and grand touring cars. They were notable for combining Italian designed body styling with powerful, American-made V8 engines from Ford and Chevrolet. This is a combination that I personally love. See my previous posts on the Iso Rivolta Lele, a custom Iso Rivolta IR300, and the Iso Rivolta S4 Fidia.
In the 1960s, Rivolta worked with former Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini to develop the Iso Grifo A3/C, a racing car that used a Corvette engine. Bizzarrini and Rivolta’s relationship ended after a dispute, and he formed his own company, Bizzarrini SpA. Only 25 Iso Grifo A3/C cars were built before Bizzarrini took over production and renamed the car the 5300 GT.
A combination of factors including the oil crisis, rising costs, and a drop in sales led to Iso filing for bankruptcy, ending automobile production in December 1974.
Iso’s Revival
Things were pretty quiet until 2017, when a revival of the brand was initiated by Italian coachbuilder and design firm Zagato. The car was first introduced in the 2017 edition of Gran Turismo, and later became a full-fledged prototype in 2021.
The new model, named the GTZ, is inspired by the A3/C of the 1960s. True to its heritage, the GTZ uses the 660-hp LT4 supercharged V8 engine from the Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06.
With just 19 units scheduled for production by Zagato, each car will be incredibly special and rare. This brilliant red example is currently the only one in the United States.
The Italian Corvette Z06
A 2021 article by Howard Walker for the Robb Report magazine gives a detailed backstory of this particular car, which I will summarize briefly.
The car was purchased by Mike Odierna from Arizona, and the process was anything but easy. To comply with vehicle regulations, Mike had to buy a brand new Corvette Z06 coupe in the U.S., register it and ship it to Italy as a used car.
The chassis spent two years at Zagato’s facility in Milan, where more than 2,500 hours went into converting the car into the GTZ. The body panels were replaced with a lightweight carbon fiber body that mounts to the Z06 chassis. But this isn’t just a Corvette in an expensive Italian suit! Everything from the windows, lights, wheels, and door handles are all custom made, with no body panels carried over from the Corvette.
The interior is also bespoke to each car. Zagato stripped everything down to the seat frames, then wraps everything in hand-stitched Italian leather. The exterior is painted with three coats of Le Mans Red metallic paint. The 10-spoke alloy wheels are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires and conceal a set of carbon-ceramic brakes.
Odierna’s car was displayed at The Quail Motorsports Gathering in Monterey in August 2021, where it won an award for its class. The Robb Report feature followed in November 2021.
The Next Chapter
It’s hard to imagine ever parting ways with such a special car, especially one that you waited two years for. However, Mr. Odierna indicated that he would be relocating to his wife’s home country of Japan, which she has long yearned to return to. “I thought about shipping it to Japan, but it just doesn’t make sense. I know I wouldn’t drive it there. So I felt it best to let it go” he told the Robb Report.
In January 2022, the GTZ headed to the auction block at Mecum’s Kissimmee auction in Florida. Showing just 169 miles on the odometer, the car is in pristine condition. Bidding at Mecum reached $700,000 for the GTZ but did not meet the reserve price, and the car did not sell.
The following month, I was fortunate to see the car on display at the Concours in the Hills car show in Fountain Hills, Arizona on February 12, 2022.
The GTZ is an incredibly rare and special car, and one that would certainly be the centerpiece of any collection. I am grateful and lucky to have seen this car in person, being that it is the only one in the U.S.
The history of the automobile in America is filled with dreamers who saw an existing car or idea and thought to themselves “I can do better.” People such as Henry Kaiser, John DeLorean, Malcolm Bricklin, Henrik Fisker, and countless others held that dream for a short time, only to watch it slip through their fingers. Starting a car company is really, really hard to do – even for those who are blessed with talent, ideas, money, and a whole lot of luck.
Enter Jeff Lemke, an entrepreneur from Holly, Michigan (a small town about 50 miles outside of Detroit). Lemke has years of experience in building aftermarket parts for Dodge Vipers. In 2009, he decided he wanted to do his own car and started a company called Falcon Motorsports.
The Chevrolet Corvette is sort of like a ’32 Ford or a ’49 Mercury in that it has become a canvas for others to customize. It is a starting point where people they feel they can improve. Some companies like Callaway and Lingenfelter have used this formula to great success. It is still a Corvette, but with a little more power and a little more style.
According to the website CorvSport.com: “The Avelate borrowed some design inspiration from the previous Corvette generations and incorporated all of them into the C5 model. Initially, the plan was to make 100 cars per year, but throughout its production run, only 25 examples were only built.”
The car has the stock windshield and side glass, though it has a custom body including door skins, hood, trunk, and front and rear bumpers. Studying the car, I see a C3-styled front end and C1-style scallops on the doors.
It’s got a lot of customizations that make it unique from the herd of production C5s, but do the cosmetic customizations make it any better than a regular Z06? Honestly…no, they do not.
