Until now, we've extensively covered all aspects of the famous Vettes horridly mangled in the National Corvette Museum sinkhole incident from February, rescue operations included. However, recent info hints that two cars may never get fixed due to extensive damage.
The "Great 8" are currently in the same state they were when rescuers dug 'em from the dirt and rubble. The worst-damaged are the one-of-a-kind 2001 Mallett Hammer C5 Z06 reduced to "just a tire" according to one museum official, as well as the extremely rare 1993 ZR-1 Spyder of 12 ever built.
Most surprisingly, the privately funded, non-profit museum driven by its donors and 28,000 members is currently displaying the Vettes as they are for a determined period of time, until the hype around this event dies down. After the exhibit's end, a team of Chevrolet restoration experts supervised by the vice president of GM Global Design will reportedly commence repair works on the cars.
“The vehicles at the National Corvette Museum are some of the most significant in automotive history,” said Mark Reuss, executive vice president of General Motors global product development. “We want to ensure as many of the damaged cars are restored as possible so fans from around the world can enjoy them when the Museum reopens.”
Certain reports estimated that the affected vehicles will total more than $1 million in restoration costs. Two of eight Corvettes were on loan from GM, while the other six were owned by the museum. The "Great 8" consist of the following models:
1962 Tuxedo Black Corvette
1984 PPG Pace Car
1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette
1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette
1993 ZR-1 Spyder (on loan from GM)
2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette (pictured above during extraction)
2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette
2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil" (on loan from GM)
As for the massive 60-foot-deep hole in the museum's floor, officials declared that it will allow visitors close access to the sinkhole on a temporary basis, three feet from the its edge to be more precise.
Aside from destroying the floor of the Skydome building along with eight historic Chevrolet Corvette models, the sinkhole incident has a bright side as well. Last month, the attendance rate of the Kentucky-based museum soared more than 50 percent thanks to the new exhibits, while $75.000 have already been gathered from donations.
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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