What should’ve been a normal Wednesday morning on February 12th, 2014 for the National Corvette Museum was, in fact, anything but normal. At 5:44 AM, security cameras filmed the world-famous sinkhole incident that swallowed eight Corvettes. More than a year since the unfortunate event, the second of eight cars is being carefully restored.
It was March 3rd, 2014 when the 2009 Blue Devil ZR1 was the first Corvette to be recovered from the muddy grave. The Mallet Corvette and 1.5 millionth Corvette were the last cars pulled from the sinkhole on April 3rd and 9th, respectively. Other than those above, the 45-by-60 feet wide and 30-foot deep sinkhole took a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder, 1962 Corvette, 1984 PPG Pace Car, 1992 1 millionth Corvette and a 40th Anniversary model.
Out of the eight-strong tally, the Blue Devil ZR1 Corvette was the first to be returned to its pre-sinkhole condition. Before restoration begins on the 1962 model, the peeps from the National Corvette Museum will bring back to life the heavily-damaged 1992 Corvette No. 1,000,000. The adjacent photo gallery speaks more than words about the precarious state the two-seater sports car is in at the present moment.
Craftspeople and technicians at the General Motors Design Center are currently restoring the historic 1 millionth Chevrolet Corvette damaged nearly 16 months ago. These guys typically spend time building prototypes and concepts, the reason this resto job won’t be a hard task for them.
Speaking of hard tasks, the white-painted 1992 Corvette is a challenge for the National Corvette Museum and GM Design Center people because it’s hard to preserve the original appearance of a production vehicle damaged as much as this one. Compared to the Blue Devil ZR1, the 1 millionth Corvette and the 1962 old-timer, the other five cars “will remain in their as-recovered state to preserve the historical significance of the cars. They will become part of a future sinkhole-themed display at the museum.”
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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