Johnny Lightning Cover Cars

The Johnny Lightning Cover Cars series included 14 releases from 1999 until 2003. The series featured cars taken from the covers of automotive magazines such as Vette Magazine, Mustang Illustrated and High Performance Mopar. The examples I have – which were long ago removed from their packages – are accurate replicas of the cars pictured on the magazine covers. Fortunately, I still have the collector cards (miniature reproductions of the magazine covers) that were included with each model.

The first two, both from 1999 and featuring covers from Super Chevy, are different stock car versions of the venerable ’63 Chevy Z11. The Z11 was a special-package Impala Sport Coupe with a 427 engine and aluminum body parts created for drag racing and NASCAR. Only about 50 Z11s were produced and as few as 7 remain today.

Johnny Lightning | 1999 | Cover Cars R4 Super Chevy | 1963 Impala Z11 | white with Old Reliable stock car trim, white wheels, opening hood

Johnny Lightning | 1999 | Cover Cars R5 Super Chevy | 1963 Impala Z11 | white with Alan Green Chevrolet stock car trim, opening hood, Cragar wheels

Also from Super Chevy, this next Cover Car is a beautiful metallic blue 1963 Chevy Nova SS from 2001 Release 8.

Johnny Lightning | 2001 | Cover Cars R8 Super Chevy | 1963 Chevy Nova SS | metallic blue, opening hood, with collector card

And from 2001 Release 9, this bright yellow 1964 Chevy Nova from the cover of Popular Hot Rodding.

Johnny Lightning | 2001 | Cover Cars R9 Popular Hot Rodding | 1964 Chevy Nova | yellow, opening hood