As January 18, 2017 came and went, there was no fanfare or somber remembrance ceremonies. It just went like any other day. But to some diehard Chevrolet enthusiasts, January 18, 2009 is – to quote a great leader – “A date that will live in infamy.” Surely, this date in January pales in significance to the quote directly related to that great leader Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he rallied Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. But nonetheless, it is still occasionally talked about in automotive circles.

GM wanted to see how a Corvette would perform if given more power and less weight. The end product resulted in a ZR1 that it was given the name “Snake Skinnner”, for it’s ability to out-perform the Viper and Cobra. This was one of the cars auctioned.

It was on January 18, 2009, when General Motors made what many consider to be a very big mistake by selling a portion of their history by offering for sale, several of their cars from the Heritage Collection. According to GM it was normal housekeeping, but some saw it as a bad thing. As many enthusiasts cringed, GM sold roughly 200 vehicles at the Scottsdale, Arizona, auction. Just to name a few, crossing the auction block was a 1996 Buick Blackhawk concept car that gathered $522,500, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 COPO Camaro that convinced someone to pay $319,000 to go home with him, and a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette convertible that reached a final bid of $220,000. A few of the vehicles sold were preproduction models, development, concept, or prototype cars.

Another one of the cars sold was the 510 Impala. The production version of the Impala SS had just 260 hp, but the 510 Impala SS boasted 546 hp at 5,500 rpm and 610 lb/ft. of torque at 4,000 rpm.

Rumors were rampant that GM was in such dire financial need of help, that the company would be selling off its entire fleet of historic vehicles. Fortunately, as history shows us, a wholesale clearing house of the Heritage Center did not occur. When the January auction was completed, The New York Times reported, “Much has been made of the timing of the sale coinciding with G.M.’s current situation, but G.M. is simply doing the same thing that many large-scale collectors and museums regularly do in culling certain pieces from their collections. This was hardly a wholesale dumping of G.M.’s heritage.”

The Buick Blackhawk concept.

Most were sold with either a bill of sale or a “scrap title”, and those with a bill of sale could never legally be registered for road use. That means the cars are hopefully living their lives as museum exhibits. Although the company filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in June of that year, that situation is just another footnote in history, and GM claims that there was no financial reason for the sale.