The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY, received some unexpected news last night, as motion-sensing security alarms went off in museum’s Skydome section just after 5:00 am. When authorities responded, they discovered that a massive sinkhole had opened up in the floor, sending eight of the Corvettes on display tumbling like toys into a thirty-foot deep cavern.
No one was in the museum at the time and there were no injuries. Sinkholes are reportedly not uncommon in the area, and are often caused by underground caves collapsing. The hole in the Corvette Museum’s Skydome is over 40 feet long, and the Skydome is currently closed, though the rest of the museum is open. There’s no word yet on the estimated cost of damage, or if the lost cars can be recovered.
Corvette fans, stop reading now if you’re prone to heart palpitations. The cars that plunged into the earth are a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil,” both on loan from General Motors. The other six affected cars are owned by the National Corvette Museum: a black 1962 Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace car, a white 1992 Corvette which was the one-millionth Corvette built, a Ruby Red 1993 40th Anniversary Corvette, a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 and a 2009 Corvette that was the 1.5-millionth ‘Vette built. An outpouring of support from the Corvette enthusiast community was immediate, and if the cars can be recovered, we hope that they’ll be repaired and restored.
Mallett Hammer Z06
Corvette ZR-1 “Blue Devil”
