General Motors donated the first-off-the-line 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to an auction benefiting the Detroit Children’s Fund that netted $3 million.
GM’s auction of the red sports car took place Saturday at the 49th annual Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction in Arizona. Rick Hendrick, founder of Charlotte, N.C.-based Hendrick Automotive Group and self-avowed Corvette junkie, was the winning bidder.
The black-on-black 3LT Corvette, powered by the Z51 performance package, was auctioned off weeks before the 2020 Corvette starts shipping to Chevrolet dealers, according to a news release from General Motors.
Last week the eighth-generation Corvette won the 2020 North American Car of the Year award in Detroit.
“Reaction to the midengine Corvette has been extraordinary,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in the release. “It’s both humbling and exciting to harness that success and provide the proceeds to the Detroit Children’s Fund.”
The Detroit-based nonprofit said it will use the proceeds to fund “comprehensive school interventions that result in academic success for kids.” They will also be used to pay for recruiting and retaining quality teachers and education leaders.
Automotive News Group Publisher KC Crain is chairman of the Detroit Children’s Fund board. GM President Mark Reuss is on the board of the Skillman Foundation, where the Detroit Children’s Fund is housed with an independent board.