The amazing effort to “save” all eight Chevrolet Corvettes that fell into the now famous sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky is officially over with the removal of the eighth and final car. The most buried and potentially most damaged car was a 2001 Mallett Hammer Corvette, a cranked up tuner version of the Vette which had been donated by a couple to the museum for historical preservation and for future use as a track car at the road course that is being developed on the property. Workers carefully unearthed the car (or what remains of it) and hauled the whole works to the surface just the other day.
To be frank, the condition of the thing is shocking. Granted, we were spoiled as some of the other cars were not as bad as we expected them to look so hopes were running high that maybe this one would also have gotten miraculously well treated by the rocks and dirt on top of it, but that was not the case. This is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most destroyed car we have ever seen. It looks like during the course of the sinkhole plunge, Satan himself attacked the thing with a carbide saw, a rock pulverizer, and a Caterpillar D8. Other than the right rear wheel, we’re pretty sure there isn’t anything left intact on this car. To think that this was a 2001 Corvette, minding its own business one moment and then this just mere seconds later is unfathomable.
Probably the most under-appreciated aspect of this whole operation has been the diligent work of the rigging crew that oversaw the careful and difficult extraction of these cars. We’re not too sure we’d be standing there with our hands raised when asked is we wanted to volunteer to got down into the hole and shovel these cars out! They get all the credit in the world and now the ball is in the hands of GM who will have to decide to either honor their initial pledge to restore the cars or switch direction and leave them be in the state they were in when extracted. Our take? We’re pretty much fine with it either way. How about you?
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THESE INCREDIBLE PHOTOS OF THE REMAINS OF A 2001 MALLET HAMMER CORVETTE –
Restore? I think the better course would be to cut it into little pieces, mount them on chains and sell them at the museum gift shop. A conversation piece for Corvette junkies.
… or cut it into little pieces and put them in plastic blisters and sell them (kind of like my little piece of the Berlin Wall). BTW, where is the rest of it?
The Mallett? It’s dead. Too far gone. Get another one. The others should be fixed in my opinion.
The last Corvette I saw in this shape hit a bridge pillar out on I75 at about 120 mph. At least this one didn’t have a driver.
Still looks better than the 2014 Mustang!!
Looks more like what happens after a 2014 Mustang has eaten it.
Tears are being shed at senior centers everywhere after seeing this….
Really not much to salvage for a restoration on that? Maybe the rear wheels?
When you drive or park vehicles on concrete it MUST be reinforced with rebar or fiber. Maybe this will prevent more people from donating their cars to this museum that obviously cut corners on that floor.
Are you serious? The F’ing Earth disappeared from underneath the building! No one builds a standing building like its a suspended parking garage…go troll somewhere else!
No it mus not if you lnew anything about concreat fiber only helps 8n the drying process amd anythng under 6 inches rebar will weaken 95% of all driveways in america are 4 inches only thing that needs to be thicker are were big trucks drive. The floor gave way not because it was not poured or reinforced properly but because it was not designed to suspend over an open hole. It was designed to be on flat ground
Is there a “Before” picture of this car?
ohh just “Googled it” yeah it was a nice car… Keychains get my vote.
looks like the victim of a large mallet
Uh save what?
I don’t know why there wouldn’t be a display setup to show the incident and the pictures of retrieval. This should be part of that exhibit.
I would love to see that on my next trip through
Vote for a ‘special’ display to pay tribute to the workers and remember the event. A new ‘clone’ next to it would be a nice touch. Pieces & chains would end-up in drawers anyway.
Not to worry, E Bay always has 1,000 more vettes the owners would love to push into a sink hole.
Did they find the vin or data tag from the final vette pulled from the pit?