AUBURN Speedsters.com

National Corvette Museum

Bowling Green, Kentucky

The Heart of Corvette Country

On February 12th at 5:44 am CST the National Corvette Museum received a call from their security company that motion detectors had been activated inside the Museum's Sky Dome. Thankfully no one was in the Museum at the time. Upon arrival it was discovered that a Sink Hole had Opened and Swallowed 8 Prized Corvettes. Original estimates determined the sink hole to be 40-50 feet in diameter and 35-45 feet deep. Two of the 8 cars belonged to General Motors with the other 6 belonging to the Museum. None of the cars were on loan from individuals. The cars belonging to GM were Styling - Engineering Cars; the 1993 "ZR-1 Spyder" and the 2009 ZR-1 "Blue Devil". The 6 cars owned by the Museum included; a 1962 Black Corvette, the 1984 PPG Pace Car, the 1 Millionth 1992 Corvette, a 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary, the 2001 "Mallet Hammer" Z0-6 and the 2009 1.5 Millionth Corvette

The damage to each car varied. Early estimates place the value of the 8 Corvettes to be north of a Million Dollars. Repairs to the Museum could be as much as $3-5,000,000. On the positive side, since the incident, Museum attendance has been up as much as 50 -60 percent. As of now no decision has been made as to the future of the 8 Corvettes. General Motors has offered to restore the cars that can be restored. The Museum is considering keeping part of the Sink Hole and maybe a car or two in the hole as part of a permanent display. For now the Hole and the 8 Cars are to remain as they are, at least through the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Museum's Grand Opening which takes place August 27-30th. Part of that celebration will be the opening of the Corvette Motorsports Park.

Actual Security Video of the Sink Hole Opening Up can be viewed on Youtube. More Youtube video shows the Corvettes being removed from the Sink hole. The Corvette Museum will later be offering their own video that will tell the "Hole Story"  (Sorry, could not resist)

We thought our tour of the Museum was just about over when a couple of Guys working within the Salvage and Rescue Team noticed that my buddy was wearing an Auburn, Indiana "Home of the Classics" T-Shirt. We were immediately ask to help identify a 9th Sports Car that was uncovered while rescuing the 8 Corvettes. The Infamous Corvette Sink Hole was found to be much more Cavernous than originally thought. As we worked our way through the fiberglass and metallic carnage we could not believe what we were shown. Unbelievable! How... and How Long has it been there... Then it got even Freakier - "Look!!!  COR-ZILLA"!!!