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So you’re in the market for a Corvette but you’ve arrived at an impasse: nothing beats the styling of the original, but you want something that can make today’s crop of supercars nervous. Which do you choose? If you can’t decide, this C1-inspired C5 Z06 currently for sale on Bring a Trailer might be the best of both worlds. Or not.
The car up for grabs is a 2004 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 that has been converted to a 1953-2003 Commemorative Edition by Advanced Automotive Technologies (AAT). Not to be confused with the much more subtly-styled factory 2004 Z06 Commemorative Edition Chevy itself put out, this kit fuses the original Corvette’s looks with the underpinnings of a top-of-the-line C5. AAT built approximately 200 Commemorative Editions, helping to celebrate 50 years of American supercar dominance.
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The package’s most obvious changes are its new fiberglass panels that give the car the C1’s signature brace-faced front end, quintessentially-1950s rear, and retro chrome bumpers that snake all the way around the exterior. In addition, the engine has had many of its components painted red and features C1-style valve covers.
As a primarily aesthetic kit, the 53-03’s modifications leave much of what makes the Z06 a Z06 alone. Thus the car retains its 5.7-liter LS6 V8 and six-speed manual transmission, although it has been fitted with an aftermarket ProCharger supercharger. That’s quite the step up from the 3.9-liter I-6 and 3-speed automatic transmission found in the 1953 ‘Vette it honors. The car has remained in Michigan for most of its life and currently shows 24,000 miles on the clock.
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What do you think? Is this conversion a worthy commemoration of the Corvette’s heritage or another poorly-executed kit car?