Rick Hendrick buys first Corvette E-Ray for $1.1M

Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray No. 1 will be Corvette No. 122 for dealer Rick Hendrick.

Hendrick paid $1.1 million to buy the first-ever electrified Corvette at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, Fla., this month.

It’s only the latest in a string of seven-figure Corvette VIN 001 acquisitions for the 73-year-old collector. In 2022, Hendrick bought the first 2023 Z06 for $3.6 million and the first 2023 Z06 convertible for $1 million.

His full payment for the E-Ray will go to DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that helps school classrooms in need.

“From electrified all-wheel drive to being the fastest Corvette ever made, the E-Ray is a true first-of-its-kind supercar,” Hendrick, the CEO of Charlotte, N.C.-based Hendrick Automotive and owner of Hendrick Motorsports, told the Detroit Free Press afterward. “Before I even had a driver’s license, I fell in love with the Corvette and daydreamed of owning one. For people like me who have watched its evolution across seven decades and eight generations, this represents a new chapter. As a Corvette enthusiast, it’s a piece of history.”

Hendrick said he’ll never drive his E-Ray to keep it in perfect condition. The car will have a retail price of $104,295 including shipping when Chevy dealerships begin selling them this year.

The Palm Beach auction logged total sales of $44.4 million, including a 2020 Ford GT Heritage Edition that sold for nearly $1.5 million and Lee Iacocca’s 2009 Ford Mustang Iacocca 45th Anniversary Edition, which went for $150,000.