
The Detroit Bureau
GM CEO Dan Akerson will auction off his 1958 Corvette to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.
Want to buy a Corvette? No, not the new C7 Chevrolet Corvette that made its splashy debut at the North American International Auto Show this past week.
The one going on the auction block at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Friday has a bit more miles on the odometer, though it appears the relatively rare ’58 ‘Vette is in excellent condition. It also happens to be the personal car of Dan Akerson, CEO of Chevy’s parent, General Motors.
The sale will be used to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, according to the maker, the proceeds specifically earmarked for the restoration of the Morningside Commons neighborhood not far from GM’s headquarters along the Detroit River. Akerson has reportedly already given Habitat about $1 million of his own money during the past year.
If you’re really desperate to get one of the new 2014 Corvettes, however, you can bid on the first of the seventh-generation models, the so-called C7, a day later, also at the Barrett-Jackson Auction. And like Akerson’s first-generation two-seater, proceeds will also be donated, in this case to Detroit’s College for Creative Studies.
“I love the car,” Akerson, a Naval Academy graduate who joined GM, initially as a board member, following its 2009 bankruptcy. But he says it could be “better purposed” auctioning it off for charity.
Akerson’s Corvette is a first-generation model that, GM notes, “featured a 245-horsepower V-8 and included new body and instrument panels and new upholstery. External highlights included dual headlamps – a Corvette first – and twin chrome trunk spears. Chevrolet built 9,168 Corvettes for the 1958 model year, but only 510, or just over 5 percent, were painted Regal Turquoise. Akerson’s Corvette is a hardtop convertible and is considered scarce among remaining 1958 models.”
Based on a study of 173 auctions of 1958 Chevy Corvettes by website ConceptCarz.com, the average sale price was $92,796, but the figure has soared as high as $346,500. Being in great shape and one of the rarer versions of the ’58 ‘Vettes, Akerson’s might normally be expected to push into the upper part of that range – at the very least – once the gavel goes down.
The Barrett-Jackson Auction is known for building up a frenzy of bidding on charity projects, especially for unique, one-off and first-off-the-line models like the 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible that went for a cool $600,000 last year. (It raised money for AARP’s Drive to End Hunger program.)
In mid-2012, another Barrett event got $300,000 for the first of Chrysler’s new SRT Viper sports cars.
The auction of the 1958 Corvette is scheduled to begin around 7:30 p.m. Friday.
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http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f8f_1312756977
If you ever wondered why the USA is fighting the sand ni99ers take a look at this.
Dude chill with the racism...seriously...
What a waste, nothing helps Detroit. Look what is living there - YUK!
Wow man, this site is for everyone. Not telling you what to say, but it could be said with some class.
cory.. et al this site is NOT for everyone. I have been booted a few times for saying certain racist terms. In this case I felt it necessary to push the envelope a bit to make my voice heard. If I have offended you it was nothing personal.
And if I'm not mistaken I could have sworn I saw multiple white muslims in your clip provided. Those people are not crazy because of their race, they are crazy because they are crazy.
There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of prejudice, but racism?..........C'mon, there's bad in EVERY race.
Rocklin...
prejudice means i don't like you
Racism means I don't like your family
Muslim means you are crazy
Warren - You referred to them as "sand ni99ers". I have heard that term before being associated with a race. What your video showed was extremists. I have yet to hear of any religion that doesn't have some group of crazies who uses the name of their god to act out in their crazy ways.
Racism- a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural orindividual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
vs.
Prejudice- an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
If I see some thug walking down the street, no matter their race, right or wrong, I typically have an unfavorable opinion of them......it's my own prejudice, no matter if their white, black, yellow, brown, green or purple.
@Warren
No, you are crazy and a bigot too.
Just some athletes:
Muhammad Ali is crazy?
Kareem Abdul Jabbar is crazy?
Ahmad Rashad is crazy?
Shaquille O'Neal is crazy?
Hakeem Olajuwon is crazy?
A comedian?
David Chappelle is crazy? Well maybe, but he is a comedian and is supposed to be.
How about science?
Lotfi Zadeh is crazy? He gave us the theory of Fuzzy Set and the idea of Fuzzy Logic which seems to fit your brain.
Ahmed Zewail is crazy? Must be why he won the Nobel prize in chemistry.
Ayub Ommaya is crazy? He invented the Ommaya reservoir, which is used to treat brain tumors.
How about Patriots?
Last, and far from least, Kareem Rashad Sutan Khan. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart he was promoted to the rank of Corporal after he died in Iraq.
Maybe you remember General Powell mentioning him - if not you can hear it here on YOU TUBE.
Lets face it, the unions and outsourcing destroyed Detroit and nothing else! Now Detroit is one dead city that has slowly, over time, been transformed into a crime-ridden ghetto sh!t hole. And Dearborn, that's just a wonderful place to live, "NOT!" Here is some interesting facts about Michigan:
Yes, isn't cultural diversity just wonderful in what is left of the United States? The 1965 Immigration Reform Act, the one that Ted Kennedy and Johnson rammed down our throats was to permit most Third World immigration to the U.S. to make us more diversified. Prior to the new law, immigration was limited to mostly Western Europe and parts of Asia. The purpose of the old rules was to prevent mass immigration to the U.S. that would upset the ethnic and social balance that was kept in check. That was mainly Western European values. Michigan, basically, killed itself over the years. No one sane would want to live in Michigan's largest cities. Just ask the local Detroit Police Officers Association:
Isn't cultural diversity wonderful?
That is a real car unlike what Government Motors builds today.
Blue... do you have any Idea how many universal joints that car has ??
Yes but much cheaper to replace than all the CV joints of today.
usmc21 .. touche'
i'd write a check and keep the car, but good for him.
Me too, if I had his cash I'd just donate another million or so and keep that awesome car
Wow! Just what I always wanted. Wish I could afford to bid on it. Good cause too.
Well it's good that he's attempting to do something good for Detroit, but money spent to investigate political corruption would help the city more than a Habitat for Humanity home. There is plenty of decaying property which is beyond getting fixed up and returned to the property tax roles. Maybe if Habitat for Humanity just spent the money on fuel for bulldozers, the desired effect of helping Detroit would be realized. Until they get modern housing in groupings, that property taxes make fiscal sense, Detroit will remain at best stagnant if not decaying. The "60's" is not an appropriate mindset, ( cars and money ) needed to bail Detroit out of urban decay. What is needed in this age is a political solution, and that requires a Detroit free of political corruption.
The people who occupy that home will disagree with you.
People helping people is a better solution than government helping people. Regardless of the "mindset."
denver bill 2... So with over 400 homicides last year, ( Chicago had over 500 ), people helping people isn't working too well now is it? The best help they could give each other is to curb the homicide rate. Even the Detroit Police Chief said last month, " Don't visit Detroit ". Your statement of " People helping people is a better solution than government helping people." disregards the reality that our government is " Of, By, and For the people.", thereby allowing all the government welfare checks into Detroit, and other government assistance.
What is a Habitat for Humanity house actually going to accomplish for Detroit? Are all of the neighbors who live in decaying housing going to live in it and abandon their own slum living quarters? Is one family going to have social status in an otherwise bleak area. Is it going to provide property taxes so there are school improvements and public employee benefits and salaries? One house, maybe two, isn't like say, 500 to 1000 modern homes which are needed to revitalize a neighborhood area. You are still going to have to revitalize the Detroit area with the residents being politically active at the local level and clean up pockets of political corruption where the city is loosing its tax dollars to. Habitat for Humanity works where there is a low incidence of homicide.
The current "incidence of homicide" is a lot lot lower then it was when I was growing up in Detroit (late 70's-early 80's) and has been on a downward trajectory for a couple of decades now, not sure what your on about steve
That's because over half the population has left since then.
I take it you don't understand what the word rate means
ckneeley... ironically Catzen is still right... (OK, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then) the working, law-abiding half of Detroit left..... leaving all of those daddy-less value-less jobless homeless Liberals with no evil rich people or corporations to "prey on them" (ie support their deadbeat a$$e$)... now we're still waiting for all those "consumers" to magically create wealth... c'mon Krugman, show us how "demand" creates prosperity... NOT!
Dearborn and Detroit are the two biggest sh!t holes in the country. One is run by Muslims and the other by gangs! Pick your poison, you die either way. I saw on television how large portions of Detroit were empty like some war zone or chemical attack hit the city. And Dearborn, wow, how about a call to prayer over the mosque's loudspeaker five times a day. All because the Muslim population which accounts for One-third of the population, has complete control of the city council who won't represent the Two-thirds majority of Christians, Jews, etc..? So Non-Muslims get sh!t on by the minority group that live in the area.
Alright! A couple of dollars to throw at a bankrupt city falling apart. That will help soooooo much.
Right, let's not try anything, lets just stand on the side lines and criticize. Brilliant!
Mike,Wonderful comments.It's good to know that you have that can do attitude.People with all of this negativity are unhappy with themselves so they can't find the good in anything.
Some sultan in Dubai will buy it.......were gonna miss you corvette!
So true... the deadbeats in Detroit won't be the ones buying it... it will have to be some OTHER "evil rich guy" who knows how to create wealth that will buy it... maybe George Soror will dump some of his money into the cesspool... NOT
PS.....His salary will be 1.7 million annually and 7.2 million in stock.............thats like giving away my old schwin in the garage to 1000 people to split up. OK....feel good story......that 1% really care, lets give him a hand folks!
Would you feel better about it if the government was forcing him to do it? At least that would allow you to continue living peacefully in your world of sweeping generalizations
Thanks...thats a great idea, never thought of that...you must have a corvette to give away too!
yeah, he should just donate his entire fortune to you directly to compensate you for your bitterness and jealousy...
I rest my case.
Rehab that neighborhood and it'll be a ghetto again in 5 years.
I wonder how many of you have spent any time in Detroit. If you have not spent any time...whatsoever...in Detroit, you should never ever insult or otherwise speak negatively about Detroit. This city is is just like any other metro area...it has its nice areas and its bad areas. If you have ever been there, you would know this. I have spent a considerable amount of time in all areas of Detroit so I know what I am talking about. Shame on those of you for giving into the negative stereotypes that still befall Detroit.
Side note: This does not apply to those that speak of the local government corruption BUT only if you have been following it from day one....many years ago. I have!
I was born and raised just outside of Detroit. The great sadness of the city is the mass exodus that has taken place since the 1940s--I should know, as that's basically my family's history. Relatives moved from other parts of Michigan into the city and led good lives there. Then the suburban phenomenon kicked in and everyone moved to the suburbs in the 1950s. Then inner-city lifestyle began to break down with the removal of the cable car system, to be replaced by inferior buses with inferior bus schedules (ask anyone in a wheelchair that has ever tried to get around the city how impossible the bus system, with a lack of wheelchair lifts, has made it). And what happens when you take the foot traffic away from businesses? They go bankrupt, they move to the suburbs, they leave. Throw in a riot, an insufficient diversity of major businesses and dwindling jobs and you have the city that we see today.
Detroit has slowly but surely sunk down due to a chain reaction of these and other events that, in all the other cities in America, didn't hit its citizens so hard when they went through similar incidents. But other cities were not directly reliant upon one main industry (automobiles), which began crumbling in the 1970s with more outsourcing and more foreign competition.
Try living in a southern town when the cotton mill closes.
Nicole King,Thank you for those comments.Detroit can be cleaned up and made great once again.Reading some of these posts by naysayers is why this country is at a standstill.The ones who criticize the most usually are the ones who do the least and are unhappy with themselves to boot.
Detroit is the Liberal end state... the Utopia that Democrats seek. Democrats have had complete control of Detroit for decades. There's not been a single conservative to obstruct their policy in any way.... just progressives executing progressive policy. As is the Liberal way, they grew govt payrolls, spent money like water, and raised taxes. Anyone that objected to their policy of course was demonized and penalized, particularly the successful taxpayers, and businesses. Until at some point, when there was no reward for working hard sans higher taxes and bad PR, the makers began to leave. Once Detroit was the fifth largest city in the nation... now it's not in the top ten, and is still losing residents. For the last couple of decades, the top industry in Detroit has been Moving Companies. And a look around the city shows the stark reality of Liberal rule. Decay, drugs, crime, huge deficits, abysmal schools, and impending bankruptcy. Detroit took the Keynesian "borrow, squander, and tax your way to prosperity" and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it fails miserably. Every idiot Liberal that thinks Oblunder is on the right track needs to go live in Detroit... for a reality perspective on where your policies lead.
This is called Social Corporate Responsibility (SCR) Instead of advertising in the media channels,and to be added to the marketing budget,but in the meantime deducted from their tax bill under "donation"!
i'm sure you'd rather have this "evil CEO" do nothing...
427 cubes !!!!! i tryed taking on a vet simular with a 440 cube immperial - i stayed with him on the flat .. till the cops were rubber necken going the opposite way .... it was so funny my tank 4- door to his vet convertable - well he stomped me when going up hill later ... yep i didnt have a chance in heck on that one ... he was way gone
I'll bet your car weighed twice as much as the vet. Of course a 440 does wonders, even in a heavy car
Good for you Mr.CEO. We need more of that humanitarianism.. We are all in this together, and we will all sink or swim together. No matter what the haters try to say.
btw, beautiful car, wish I was rich.
Me too!!!! I would love to even drive that car. It's beautiful!
Nice but why? I have live my hole live in Michigan in a small town over 70 miles from Detroit or as I like it.to say the arm pit of Michigan. We as tax payer have proped up this sad city my as long as I can remember. It is time to stop dumpimg money in to this dump and raze it.
Right on Purdy Piece - nice much simpler than today just about as effective as many of the
POS's created of today, Really like the blue
It's nice to see a fat cat do something decent for once, well played Mr. CEO!
I wonder how many taxpayer funded bonuses he's received.
None until the gubment took GM over, stealing from the secured bondholders and giving it to the unions.... and one of the biggest secured bondholders? The Indiana public employees pension fund... that's who Obama stole from to pay off the UAW campaign contributions...
Talk about wasting a very nice car on a lost cause. Detroit, the trash can of the mid-west. Let it go....
whenwillitend,I disagree with you.blighted areas need to be cleaned up in this country.We are not a third world country and should not look like one.
We're doing the same idiotic progressive policies now at the national level that put Detroit in the crapper at the municipal level... borrowing, taxing, squandering... so we will be a third world country in no time.... you'll know we're there when the Fourth Amendment disappears... (ie the Libtard wet dream of "wealth confiscation") and the govt "borrows" (steals) our 401Ks...
Nice gesture, but about as effective at stopping the urban rot as dumping a pail of sand on the beach to stop the storm surge.
Catzenjammer,Somebody has to start somewhere.Maybe others will follow his lead.It's for Habitat For Humanity,one of the most decent charitable organizations in the U.S.
This executive is what is right with America.A gesture as beautiful as the car and the giver.It's a great day in America after all.And the two tone paint job is gorgeous.
Whats-the-matter....couldn't sell any of those TAX-PAYER FUNDED "Volts", instead?
Nah! Not after the Tesla Coupe won the "Automobile of the YEAR" Award, from Automobile Magazine, eh?
Like I've been saying, we've been living in a Dream World, here in Americam for too long.....a Dream World where it's "The 1950's 4-EVER"; case in point, the fact that Chevy can only make MONEY selling one of their 1950's Classics - or, er, well; if you can call the DOG that the Corvette really is a "Classic" (I mean, in the 1960's & 70's, the 'Stingrays' generated LESS Aerodynamic Drag when going BACKWARDS than FORWARDS).
Sheez....Harley Earl must be SPINNING IN HIS GRAVE!!!! I mean, was that a "Cam On Side", 16 valve, V-8 in BOTH that 1958 Corvette, and the 2013 one? A "Cam On Side", 16 valve, V-8 - when the Ford Mustang GT comes with a DOHC, 36 valve, V-8?
Say.....hows the RANGE-per-Charge, Charge Time, etc. stack up between the Chevy Volt and Tesla 'S Coupe'?!?
Dual Headlights on this sweetie ? or single ?
the 58 had dual
Thanks, JOregon for the info. Was this the first year they started dual headlights?
Yep, '58 introduced the dual headlights.
I'm not a huge car buff but being 60 those were the cars I grew up admiring. Sometimes we used to be able to tell what car was following us, even at night, just by the headlights.
I can't agree with you more. We are also the same age. Appreciate the information.
Regal Turquoise. Regal Turquoise. I think my daughter has nail polish that color. Has that color been used again lately, on more recent cars or home and apparel fashions?