‘Corvette Heroes’ Collection Surfaces at New York Auto Show
Once abandoned, and left to rot, this collection of classic Corvettes now have an American heritage all their own.
We have heard about this collection before, but pictures and information have always bee scarce. This is the Corvette Heroes collection, and, as ABC7 reports, it’s an fascinating tale of pure Americana.
Artist Peter Max acquired 36 Corvettes, one from each model year, from 1953 to 1989, and then, seemingly, abandoned them in a Manhattan parking garage. They were all parked together, all in equal states of dust-covered forlornness.
Fortunately, a team of Corvette enthusiasts, led by Chris Mazzilli have since rescued these Corvettes, partially restoring some, and, for others, maintaining just the right amount of patina to tell their story. That story, Mazzilli says, is that Max was originally set on giving this collection a custom paint job, like an automotive art exhibit, with the end goal of auctioning them off. That never happened, and Max subsequently abandoned the ‘Vettes, altogether.
Mazzilli says that the collection is being restored by his company Dream Car Restorations. His end goal, as a Corvette enthusiast, is to see the cars brought back to their original glroy before auctioning them off, like Max was going to, except, this time, it’s for charity. The proceeds from the charity auctions will be donated to the National Guard Education Foundation, which preserves the history of the National Guard.
Mazzilli states that a mini registry of sorts will always tie the cars together, and, by this time next year, they hope to have sent the cars off to their new forever homes.