Little Red Corvettes – a collection of 15 red Chevrolet Corvettes available at auction

Do you know how many times the word Corvette appears in the lyrics of Prince’s classic 1983 single Little Red Corvette? Fifteen.

Do you know what year the fourth-generation (C4) Corvette was first produced? 1983 – the same as Prince’s track.

Could this auction of 15, red, fourth-generation Corvettes be the most serendipitous alignment of automotive pop-culture references, or is it just a convenient coincidence?

Whatever the case, the cars on offer span the full range of the C4’s 12-year production run, starting with a 1984 5.7-litre L83 V8 manual, and ending with a 1996 5.7-litre LT1 V8 automatic.

While the C4 is hardly a rare car, some 358,000 were built, it speaks to a new generation of fans, interested in the car’s bonafide modern classic status.

From the long nose and flip-around headlamps to the targa top, digital dashboard and glass rear hatch, the C4 is still a great-looking car.

Power initially came from a 153kW/393Nm 5.7-litre V8, outputs increased as the engines were upgraded, to the L98 from 1985 to 1991 and the LT1 from 1992 until 1996.

Extra oomph could be yours with the ZR1 model which joined the lineup in 1990. Here the LT5 V8 offered up to 302kW and 522Nm.

There are options across the board at the auction, with a selection of ZR1sin the mix with regular red coupes.

For mine, it’s an early (pre-facelift) model with contrast targa-top, ideally a manual transmission, and the familiar aero wheels that would be competing for my dollar.