One of the world’s most extensive collections of historic Chevrolet Corvettes is also one of its most interesting…and most accessible, because it’s being raffled off.
The VH1 collection, also known sometimes as the Peter Max collection, is a series of 36 Chevrolet Corvettes spanning the first 36 years of ‘Vette production, with one for each year. It was the product of a 1989 sweepstakes run by the music-focused television channel VH1, which awarded the three dozen cars then worth $610,000 to a Long Island, New York-based carpenter by the name of Dennis Amodeo. He later sold the whole shebang to pop artist Peter Max, who split the collection among multiple New York parking garages, and then rarely (if ever) touched the cars for decades.
According to Hagerty, Max sold his collection in 2014 to a family called the Hellers, who had it appraised by a Corvette expert, their plan being to sell the cars together. What they found was that aside from a few cars painted in rare colors, and some early models that have since become valuable, none of the Corvettes included are particularly noteworthy. Twenty-five have automatic transmissions, 14 are convertibles, and all are coated in years’ worth of dust at best. Some have bodywork damaged by careless movers, and others are at least partially encrusted in pigeon droppings.
The Hellers decided that the best way to get rid of 36 Corvettes in various states of neglect was the same method used by VH1 three decades ago: a raffle. The Hellers formed Corvette Heroes to oversee the raffling process, which will benefit multiple veteran-focused charities in addition to the National Guard Educational Foundation, a preservation society.
Entry to the raffle is currently open and will remain so until April 30, 2020, though you don’t need to shell out even a buck to get a ticket. The raffle’s rules state that if you’re willing, one free entry can be had by sending snail mail to the NGEF’s headquarters, though it’s simply more convenient to spend the $3 if one entry’s all you want. Up to 36 winners will be picked on May 15, 2020. Good luck winning anything, though, because entries will flood in after a TV special on the collection, The Lost Corvettes, airs Sept. 21 on the History channel.
