It’s not often that a powerboat will take center stage at a world-class collector car event that features thousands of pristine condition classics, exotics and rare muscle cars, but this boat was very different. The one-of-a-kind Corvette Z044 MTI, themed and named after a Corvette Z06, features genuine Corvette parts and styling from bow to stern, including seating, full instrumentation in the cockpit, and even has headlights and tailights that match the actual car! And while the two marinized Chevrolet blocks had been transformed to Mercury Racing’s King of the food chain, the dual fuel 1025/1200SCi’s, they are dressed to appear just as the Covette 7.0L LS7 engines. Now, if that’s not convincing enough, for the sake of comparison, a matching 2008 Corvette Z06 sat on display alongside the Z044 MTI….the “actual” car that the two million dollar machine was themed after. The real bonus? When the bidders stepped up to the famed Barrett Jackson Auction block ….right there in Scottsdale where it all began forty years ago….the handful of would-be owners knew they were getting the whole package. Call it a bundle, for lack of a better term. It included, the one-off MTI capable of speeds at 160mph+; The fancy custom tilt trailer that displays the wide-beamed catamaran in spectacular form, at rest and at 75 mph rolling down the interstate, and the icing on the Land & Seapackage…the 2008 Corvette Z06 that started it all.
Strangly, the matching maroon metallic Z06 sat there, almost in cognito, in the shadow of that mammoth gleaming fiberglass creation. Considering the chain of events that dated back almost three years, it was ironic that the little red Corvette was getting very little attention from the thousands of wide-eyed, open mouthed visitors who had never seen a speedboat like this before. It was all about the boat. But what about the car? The carthat got his whole thing started. The car that somehow stood out in the owner’s eighty car collection that featured mint condition classics and Nascar legends, and said “Hey Boss..can you build be a big brother that looks just like me inside and out, and floats, and goes just as fast as me…and can we name him Z-O-somethin?” And to that, the proud owner may have responded, “Sure, little Z… I’m up for the challenge, and I know just the guy to call!!” And the rest is history. Turning the page forward, to very exciting Saturday evening in January at the 40th anniversary Barratt Jackson Auction. As the Speed TV cameras buzzed back and forth the along the lean lines of the Z044, zooming in on the engines and the detailed Corvette features of the cockpit, the live video feed projected onto the big screens at the Barrett Jackson auction gallery and millions of viewers watching live on Speed. Thousands gasped in the live gallery which offered standing room only, as the bids when to five-hundred thousand, then higher, and higher again. Bidders got cold feet and as the price zoomed close to seven hundred thousand, it was down to two. And finally, those famed three words that have made Barrett Jackson one of the hottest tickets to watch on Speed for any motorsports enthusiast, came ringing out…SOLD SOLD SOLD!!
Florida Powerboat Club was pleased to take part in this exciting 40th Anniversary, Barrett Jackson Auction, from Scottsdale Arizona. Special thanks to Derek Wachob, Scott Downey, and all the crew from Team Z044 for allowing us to take part in the exciting special event.For those visitors who may be reading this and wondering..what is the connection between the Z044 MTI and Florida Powerboat Club? Let it be said, that the Z044 in all it’s gleaming showboat stature…is also a poker run boat. Over a two year period, this 44 MTI attended more than a dozen major poker run events all over the nation, from the Florida Keys to the Florida Panhandle, and across the nation to Lake Havasu in Arizona. While its good to be “Show”, the real fun is in the “Go”!
Stu Jones