Marcus Palmer
An Interesting 1978 Corvette 25th Anniversary Edition with Mahogany Interior Hits the Block with Only 93 Miles on the Odometer
In 1978, Mark Hamill went from fighting evil in a galaxy far far away to Las Vegas in search of his customized Corvette as the Chevrolet Corvette was celebrating its 25th birthday with an Anniversary Edition.
To commemorate the 25th year of Corvette production, a special Silver Anniversary paint option was offered which included a two-tone silver and gray paint treatment separated by pin striping.
This particular example is currently up for auction on the Bring a Trailer website with only 93 miles on the odometer and all original documentation including window sticker, build sheet and owner’s manuals.
Delivered new to Lukenbaugh Chevrolet in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, the original owner purchased the Corvette and placed it in long-term storage where it remained until July of 2020. As you can see from the photos, it looks exactly the way it did the day it rolled out of the St. Louis Assembly Plant.
What makes this particular one interesting is that it was built with a Mahogany cloth and leather interior (RPO 76C).
According to our 1978 Corvette Production Numbers, 25th Anniversary Edition Corvettes were only offered with Black, Oyster or Red interior. There’s no record of them being built with a Mahogany interior.
While in years past, it wasn’t unheard of that GM executives could use their clout to have special one-off Corvettes built for them, the auction listing doesn’t provide any such details on the original owner.
In looking at the build sheet and the window sticker, there’s no indication that this color combination was a special order.
Since 15,283 1978 Corvettes were built with the 25th Anniversary silver paint package, and only 763 Corvettes were built that year with the Mahogany interior option, this made us question how rare this particular example could be.
We reached out to Brian Pearce, 73-82 Team Leader at the National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) for more information. Here’s his response:
As you can see from the listing this Corvette pretty much speaks for itself. I believe I know the owner and yes, you could order option RPO B2Z Silver Anniversary Paint. You could order RPO B2Z in most interior colors as well as BOTH cloth and leather. As you can read from most of the comments that are worth reading there IS a good deal of information out there on these Corvettes. I have yet to locate a RPO of Z78 from any of my documentation I have.
While the mahogany interior color takes a little getting used to it, it’s definitely a unique color combination. If you’re in the market for a super low-mile, unmolested Corvette from a bygone era, head on over to the Bring A Trailer website where the current bid has been sitting at $11,000 with six more days to go before the hammer falls.
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