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Sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum


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Too bad it wasn't a Ford museum.

 

I know you're just busting stones (no pun intended) but man, I wouldn't wish this on anybody. It's really heartbreaking to see irreplaceable/milestone cars damaged like that.

 

I was also thinking that in a way it's kind of neat that you KNOW these cars will be recovered and possibly restored, and then the whole sinkhole thing will just become another crazy detail of their history, making them even MORE rare, unique and valuable. Someday I bet you'll see "the sinkhole zr-1 spyder" as a headlining attraction at Carlisle or someplace.

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The cars are all going to be restored by Chevrolet in Michigan. The current plan is in the next 10 days they will reinforce and brace the existing floor, recover the cars, and then begin rebuild.  My wife thought it would be a great idea just to leave the cars and hole there and put a clear floor over top.  The sinkhole is now part of the museum's history, so that way they could preserve it.  But it would be a shame to lose those historic cars.

But they've honestly lost any value they had now.

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I'm kind of curious. If that part of the country, is limestone, are there any plans and is it possible to "look" and the ground under the factory?

 

Just saw this on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?/video/us/2014/02/14/nr-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-over-corvette-hole.cnn&hpt=hp_t2&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

Edited by 694doorbird
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694doorbird, on 16 Feb 2014 - 09:25 AM, said:

I'm kind of curious. If that part of the country, is limestone, are there any plans and is it possible to "look" and the ground under the factory?

 

Just saw this on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?/video/us/2014/02/14/nr-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-over-corvette-hole.cnn&hpt=hp_t2&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

You would think they would have looked into that before building it to begin with, but from looking at the shoddy foundation that it's on to begin with, I'm thinking geologic surveys weren't in the budget at the time.

If you watch the helicopter videos, you can see that the cave goes way back under. How far..........can't tell, but it's open for quite a ways.  And the outside shots of the yellow cone you can see that the ground all around it has sunk a good 6 -10 inches.  Not sure I'd leave my car in there if it was on loan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like tomorrow is the day that the first Corvette will be lifted from the sinkhole in Bowling Green's National Corvette Museum.

This from Wendell Strode, Executive Director of the Museum:

 

"Katie Frassinelli and our Communications Team have done a great job of sharing information with our staff, our members and supporters. We have tried to share t...hat information via our Facebook page regularly as well. Thus, we have mostly been doing weekly updates the past 2-3 weeks. I cannot emphasize enough how proud we are of the entire NCM Team with how they have acted and reacted to this situation!

You probably have seen where our Construction Management Firm, Scott Murphy and Daniel, have named this Operation Corvette Plus. They then explained that plus is moving "Up".........so everything that is down in the sinkhole will be coming "up" as will the new foundation and structure.

I talked with Mike Murphy, CEO of Scott, Murphy and Daniel, tonight. He said that he and the crane operator got in the man cage and lowered themselves down into the sinkhole today to check out things for the extraction that will begin Monday morning probably about 9 am central time. He also shared with me that after the Blue Devil is extracted that the next car will be the 40th as after lowering themselves into the sinkhole they believe it will be less challenging that the 1962.

It appears that the 1962 has a chunk of concrete or something laying on it and it will need to be lifted probably at the same time that the car is lifted.

Remember that our Skydome web cams will be streaming all of this live, if your schedule allows you to tune in on Monday. We are working with 3 different broadcast media to video tape the extraction of all 8 of the cars and the restoration as well. Our intention is that in working with them, we will have sufficient footage to have a documentary when all is said and done. Katie and our Communications Team will be releasing regularly video footage as timely as possible (like they did when it happened)."
 
I'll be watching.  They still haven't located the 1.5 millionth Vette or the red Mallett Vette.
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If you missed it, they got the ZR1 out in one piece, started it up............and drove it out!!  Amazing to watch.  What a tribute to how well built that car is.  Of course, that's probably the ONLY one they'll be able to do that with, but even one out of 8 is an accomplishment.

post-15-0-52556900-1393871905_thumb.jpg

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Number 3 came out today. That should be the last of them for a while. Plans for now are to brace up the spire above the sinkhole, then work on getting the rest out in April. They will all be displayed at the museum through August before sending them off to Michigan to be rebuilt and repaired.

 

post-15-0-30221700-1393978340_thumb.jpgpost-15-0-93607700-1393978352_thumb.jpg

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And number 5 is out as well, only in not so good shape.  The 1991 PPG Pace Car came out with only about half it's body in tact. A huge slab of cement karate chopped it.

 

The Spyder should be the next one if they can dig it out, but the last two are still nowhere to be found.

 

post-15-0-25091000-1394061845_thumb.jpg

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You would think they would have looked into that before building it to begin with, but from looking at the shoddy foundation that it's on to begin with, I'm thinking geologic surveys weren't in the budget at the time.

If you watch the helicopter videos, you can see that the cave goes way back under. How far..........can't tell, but it's open for quite a ways. And the outside shots of the yellow cone you can see that the ground all around it has sunk a good 6 -10 inches. Not sure I'd leave my car in there if it was on loan.

Good point. Wonder how many people pulled their cars and if not what their insurance rates went to

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Being the product Corvette supplies with their car, I think Adams should step up to correcting the paint and getting them ready for show when they're done with the cars.

Would be some good PR since the national media has been covering this story.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I made the trip to the museum Saturday morning on my drive home from Dallas. It was quite the experience to walk thru.

 

I really haven't seen pictures of the cars posted online with the exception of what the museum themselves have put out to the public. Does anyone know if we can post pictures of the recovered cars? I have some pictures we took. But don't want to get anyone in trouble for posting them.

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