Resurrected! GM announces plans to restore three Corvette museum sinkhole cars

By Stephen Edelstein September 3, 2014

Last winter, a sinkhole opened at the National Corvette Museum, swallowing eight cars and creating a bizarre form of publicity for the museum.

Before the ‘Vettes were exhumed, General Motors volunteered to restore all eight. Now, the company is scaling back those plans, which isn’t too surprising given the condition of some of the recovered cars.

Chevrolet will oversee the restoration of the 2009 Corvette ZR1 prototype – known as the “Blue Devil” – and the 1 millionth Corvette produced, a white 1992 convertible. The ZR1 (pictured above) is on loan from GM.

In addition, GM will fund the restoration of the sinkhole-damaged 1962 Corvette, which will be supervised by the museum.

The five other Corvettes will remain in their current condition to “preserve the historical significance of the cars,” a GM statement said. It’s likely also because they were crushed beyond recognition.

Those Corvettes are: the 1984 PPG pace car, 1993 40th Anniversary Corvette (pictured, in red) and ZR-1 Spyder (on loan from GM), the 2001 “Mallet Hammer” Z06, and the 1.5-millionth Corvette produced, a 2009 model.

The last two were buried under so much debris that workers couldn’t even find them at first. The “Blue Devil” ZR1, on other hand, was started up and driven away right after it was plucked from Satan’s garage.

The unrestored Corvettes be incorporated into a new display at the museum, which is located near the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

In a true case of every cloud (or hole) having a sliver lining, the sinkhole has been a boon for the National Corvette Museum. Attendance has been up nearly 60 percent since the Skydome display area caved in back in February, and sceurity-camera footage of the collapse has been viewed nearly 8.3 million times on Youtube.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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