LOOKING FOR GOLD ... CORVETTES

LOOKING FOR GOLD

A conversation with Michael Manderino

as told to Keith E. Jacobson

 

 I was very fortunate to spend some time speaking with Michael Manderino. He is a past president of the Chicago Corvette Club, serving in that position for 12 years. I stumbled on his web site rarevettes.com which features cars from his collection. His first was a 1987 red Vette and so the story began. He and his wife saw a purple Vette at an event and decided that really liking that color they would look for one. Turns out that it was a a special rare color but eventually one was found and purchased. While looking for this car someone mentioned maybe you should look for a gold only 15 had been made.

THE LAST 6 CARS PRODUCED IN 1998 WERE ALL  SPECIAL ORDER CARS

MEDIUM PURPLE PEARL METALLIC

THIS CAR WAS THE FIRST OF THIS GROUP

NOTE IN THE WINDOW STICKER UNDER

SALES CODE IS A “S” CODE "S" STANDS FOR SPECIAL ORDER

GM OFFERED THIS COLOR ONLY 1 YEAR

MEDIUM PURPLE PEARL METALLIC

PAINT CODE 95  “AMETHYST”

TOTAL PRODUCTION IN THIS COLOR WAS 396 140 COUPES

256 CONVERTIBLES THIS COUPE WITH BLACK INTERIOR IS

1 OF 58 WITH THE EQUIPMENT OPTIONS ON THIS CAR THAT MAKES THIS CORVETTE 1 OF 10

 

The hunt was on for a gold. and car #10 was found and purchased from Texas. Not long after that Mike's son happened to see car #5 for sale and that one was also purchased. Mike had been been invited to bring his two gold cars to an event at Mid America Motor works where he met the owner of car #1. In attendance at the event were Wil Cooksey, Corvette Plant Manager 1993-2008 and Dave McLellan, Corvette chief engineer 1975-1992 who filled him in with stories about the gold cars. Mike's recollection was that McLellan said something to the effect that they should have kept on trying to make the gold work for the 50th anniversary car and that they dropped it too soon. Also, at one point employees of Revell the model company spotted a gold Corvette and inquiring about it were told they were experimenting with it for a millennium Corvette edition. When the truth came out, the models were pulled from the shelves.

Years later the owner of the #1 Aztec Gold contacted Mike saying that it was time to sell and that it should go to a good home and it was offered to him. SCORE !!! Now three of 15 produced lived at his home. Along the way #6 was available and joined the collection. Four of the 15 produced now resided in Chicago. Eventually one was sold off and now three are in the collection.

 He also has a huge die cast collection.

A big thanks for sharing your time and your stories

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 !!!