Re-opening the Skydome exhibit at the National Corvette Museum is the closing of a strange and sad chapter for the curators: the sinkhole that opened up in the karst formation underneath the display swallowed up eight valuable Corvettes. With all of the cars recovered and two of the three saveable Corvettes restored, the sinkhole filled and the floor replaced, it was decided that the opening act of the 21st anniversary of the opening of the museum should be dedicated to the re-opening of the Skydome. With the freshly restored 1,000,000th Corvette on-hand to be unveiled, the ribbon was cut and throughout the day, speakers were on-hand as visitors walked on the floor that months before had been a huge pit. In another part of the museum, a new display was on-hand, showcasing the details of that fateful February morning.
While the pomp and circumstance was nice, the one thing that caught us off-guard was just how damaged the unrestorable Corvettes really are. We’ve seen the photos and videos, but seeing it for yourself is something else entirely. A photograph doesn’t quite detail how the Mallet Hammer’s two seats are damn near smashed together into one wad of leather. You don’t understand how the PPG Pace Car is missing it’s entire back end because it was pretty much cut off. Seeing the 1.5 Millionth car and the ZR-1 Spyder as mangled, flattened creations that would take a miracle and a half (and at least one parts car) to replace really gives the viewer the proper understanding of what happened.
Not to worry about these wrecks!
E Bay always has a thousand available to replace these scratch & dent models.
Thanks for the tour!
I like how they’re letting some of the damaged cars remain damaged, the sinkhole story is an interesting geologic note in history unto itself.
I’m not sure it’s possible, but I’d like to see the PPG car repaired. It was the only one I care for the looks of.