Here’s a quick video summary of the vehicle recovery operations at the National Corvette Museum.
Unless you’ve been living in a sinkhole, you’ve heard all about the calamity at the National Corvette Museum early in the morning of February 12. A bizarre cave-in, approximately 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep, opened up in the floor and swallowed eight historic Corvettes on display in the Skydome section of the building. You can view the original video reports of the cave-in here and here.
The best news is that no one was injured. And now the recovery and rebuilding operations are under way, with a large crane brought in to carefully cradle the Corvettes and lift them up into safety. From there, the cars will be taken to the Mechanical Assembly department of GM Design at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, where they will receive complete restorations.
Shown in this clip are two Corvettes, a 2009 ZR1 and a Ruby Red 1993 40th anniversary model. As you can see, the ZR1 escaped with minor damage, but the anniversary model, while still repairable, was not quite so fortunate. Video below.
A little polishing and that 40th Anniversary Corvette will look good enough for the Lambrecht auction. My concern is for the 1962, and I’m watching their webcams, but progress is slow.
Reactions on the internet have been over the top. I saw tags that read “2.12.14: Never forget.” Give it a rest already, they’re Corvettes.
I know what you mean. It could be far worse. It could be a hole full of Pintos.
This is a much better stream than the Skydome1 cam that’s on the museum site.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/national-corvette-museum
The irony is that Pintos are more rare than Corvettes and they’re just as important in the history of American cars.
But car collectors are a special kind of people and Corvette collectors are even more special. Personally, I think there was a defensive circling of wagons when Sixties muscle cars began getting the auction headlines after many years of Corvettes being considered top dog in the American automotive marketplace.
I wouldn’t want a pleasure car that I couldn’t put 15000 miles a year on, but it seems to get harder and harder for a hobbyist to restore a well-used car with all of today’s electronics and plastics. So there’s a place for museum cars, and I’d like to use this space to lobby for an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser museum. The history of 20th century America has closer ties to station wagons and minivans than Corvettes or Mustangs.
pictures of the recovered 1962 Corvette. needs a new windshield and something’s going on with the right front fender
http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206298&page=2
Amazing internet phenomenon: There are Corvette Museum “Truthers” who say the cave-in is a hoax, that the whole thing was staged. I am trying to decide if we should do a story about them. What do you guys think?
Jesse Ventura hitch hike back from Mexico to spearhead this “truther” movement?
Double edge sword if you do a story; While it might show them to be drooling mouth breathers, it also gives them the exposure/ attention they crave,
If you DO run a story, I’ll read it. Always good to have at least one good laugh per day.
I haven’t heard of this and am trying to imagine why the museum would stage such antics. Surely attendance can’t be that bad. I’d be interested in reading a story about this.