THE LEGEND OF AZTEC GOLD

THE LEGEND OF AZTEC GOLD

 Story and Photos by permission of

Michael Manderino/www.rarecorvettes.com

In 1998 GM experimented with a high metallic paint "Aztec Gold Metallic," code 58U, it was to be used for the 50th anniversary car in 2003. GM took five cars and did a test on them. Then Wil Cooksey, Corvette Plant Manager, and his team noticed that in certain light and angles the car panel looked like a different color from a neighboring panel. They then took five more cars and with advice from DuPont tried again. The results were similar. Cooksey then had an expert from DuPont fly out for advice and another try again on five more, same results.

The first series was painted on 10/22/1997. The second series on 11/17/1997 and the final five on
11/26/1997. The paint results on all 15 cars were the same. All the body panels were removed from the cars and inspected.Then panel-by-panel each Corvette was reassembled with the panels that most closely matched each other. It is said that no two Aztec Gold Corvettes look the same but if you were not looking for the differences you would never see it.

GM having a high standard for consistency cancelled the Aztec Gold project. Originally the cars were to be destroyed but Cooksey prevailed and all fifteen were shipped to the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. There GM held a private auction open only to GM executives and a limited number of dealers. In total three convertibles and and twelve coupes were produced in Aztec Gold.

Chevy built over 31,000 Corvettes in 1998 and almost a quarter of a million C5s in total. So seeing an Aztec Gold is a rare sight...if you see one grab a picture !!!