Hellmouth Under National Museum Swallows Eight...

[Moderator]

...Corvettes

According to the Wall Street Journal:  http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304434104579378963704311446-lMyQjAxMTA0MDEwMjExNDIyWj

The National Corvette Museum is trying to determine how to fish eight vintage Corvettes out of a sinkhole that opened under the floor of its skydome area early Wednesday morning.

Officials were alerted to the sinkhole—estimated to be 40 feet across and 25 feet to 30 feet deep—after security alarms were triggered at 5:45 a.m., according to the museum's website. The museum is located in Bowling Green, Ky. The fire department was summoned and has secured the scene. A structural engineer had been called to assess the situation.

Images of the destruction began lighting up Twitter earlier today. The most detailed photo shows a large section of the grey-carpeted floor pulled away and two Corvettes sitting vertical in the middle of the sinkhole.

The affected vehicles include a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil, both on loan from General Motors Co.  The remaining cars—owned by the museum—include the 1962 Black Corvette, 1984 PPG Pace Car, 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette, 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette, 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette and 2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette.

The skydome exhibit area is a separate structure that is connected to the main museum. Both were closed to the public Wednesday. The museum is located across the street from GM's Corvette assembly plant.

(Visit the link above for security camera footage of cars vanishing through the floor and also drone helicopter footage from inside the hellmouth.)

Upon hearing about this, I couldn't help but think the carnage might not of been so bad if Corvettes weren't so stinkin' heavy. Your thoughts?

[DiDueColpi]

Probably just another case of natural selection.
You know, mother earth purging the inferior species.

All hail the mighty "B" cam

Fred

[Moderator]

The link was sent to me by my buddy who owns two or three esoteric Corvettes. I got a kick out of the follow-up e-mail he sent this morning. Here's a quip: "Glad you liked the link - I thought it was pretty cool.  And who cares about 1990-something anniversary something-something cars anyway?  Send 'em to HELL!"   That said, I passed a brand new Corvette the other day and was dumbstruck. When did they get so handsome? Maybe I've been ignoring them too long.

[RMO 699F]

That said, I passed a brand new Corvette the other day and was dumbstruck. When did they get so handsome? Maybe I've been ignoring them too long.


In total agreement...................

[DiDueColpi]

Ok-Ok-Ok.........!

Gotta admit the new ones are a fantastic car.

Now that the last remaining vestiges of the 80's and 90's are completely purged from the Vette's DNA.
They've got a pretty nice vehicle.

[Spitfire 350]

Those 80's and 90's Corvettes make pretty good donor cars for Spitfire projects. Just sayin'....

[Moderator]

;o)

[MGBV8]

Saw it on the news last night. Sad. A '62 Vette went in the hole.  Bit harder to replace than the new ones. Seems that place is built on top of underground springs & caves.

[mowog1]

I was at the Chicago Auto Show yesterday.

I spent a LOT of time with the Corvettes...and was awestruck. There was a cutaway display that was very, very interesting.

Back to Kentucky....here's a better photo of the sinkhole and its contents:

[MGBV8]

Oh no, Mr. Bill !

[RMO 699F]

The Bowling Green Corvette production facility was originally a Chrysler commercial/residential air conditioning plant (part of Chrysler Airtemp)...as I recall, Chrysler sold the plant to Fedders in 1976 or there about and then it was sold to GM in the late 70's (I used to visit that plant in the early 70's as they were still under the Chrysler Airtemp umbrella which was still headquartered in Dayton, Ohio)....as I recall,the production facility did have some underground chemical storage facilities that were used for parts cleaning in dip tanks etc..not sure of the exact location of the Museum in relation to the production facility....but was just wondering...

[BlownMGB-V8]

The 2014 car is pretty nice. The frame is way better than last year's and the body is too. Still way too heavy though, I'm just saying, if there hadn't been so much weight on the floor who knows how long the supports would have lasted?
Been a long time coming, but finally, as of this year, they have a car they can be reasonably proud of. One that it would not bother me too much to drive I think. Of course, all this business with the door top coming up to your ear level is, in my opinion, all out of sync with the concept of a convertible sports car, and they are all doing it. If I can't comfortably stick my arm out the window to wave at the girls, I'm just not interested.

Jim

[Moderator]

Follow-up from the New York Times:

<h3>After Gobbling Up Corvettes at Museum, Sinkhole Becomes a Star</h3>

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — When the earth opened under the National Corvette Museum in early February, creating a 60-foot-deep sinkhole that devoured eight landmark Corvettes, museum officials, Bowling Green residents, and 'Vette lovers everywhere reacted in stunned disbelief.

The news worsened as salvage crews plucked the buried autos from the chasm. A 2001 high-performance Z06 was twisted into an unrecognizable pretzel, shorn of nearly all its red, sheet-molded compound body. Another casualty, though less severely damaged, was the white roadster that had rolled off the assembly line in 1992 to become the nation's one millionth Corvette.

Since then something unexpected has happened: The sinkhole became the museum's hot new tourist magnet. Droves of travelers who might otherwise have had little interest in the museum and its four-wheeled exhibits began showing up to see the site of the natural disaster they had heard about on the news.

Attendance is up 59 percent since March compared with the same period last year, museum officials said, and sales at the museum shop and cafe are also showing double-digit increases. In May 2013, the museum pulled in about 9,000 visitors. This May, it drew more than 17,000.

(The NY Times article continued for another 19 or 20 paragraphs and included six photos. You can read the whole thing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/us/kentucky-sinkhole-a-mixed-blessing-for-corvette-museum.html?_r=0">here</a>.)

[lars49]

Plastic - not good for boats either!