Yes, it's true. Nearly seven months after a giant sinkhole swallowed eight cars at the National Corvette Museum in the United States, a plan to fill the hole in and fix the damaged cars has been finalised.
In the first months following the collapse, museum directors had originally intended to keep a part of the sinkhole open and unfilled for posterity, after the realisation that more people were coming to look at a massive hole than some old Corvettes. But it wasn't to be.
‘We really wanted to preserve a portion of the hole so that guests for years to come could see a little bit of what it was like, but after receiving more detailed pricing, the cost outweighs the benefit', said museum director Wendell Strode.
Even a tiny portion of the hole open would have required the construction of a vast array of safety precautions, make it cheaper to fill in the hole than keep even a sliver of it open. One million dollars cheaper, in fact.
Happily, of the eight cars that were swallowed on that fateful February, three will be restored. A 2009 ZR1 prototype, known as the Blue Devil, and the one millionth Corvette ever produced, a white 1992 convertible, will be restored at the museum. A 1962 Corvette will be restored off site.
With $250,000 financial backing from General Motors, Corvette had originally intended to restore all eight of the damaged cars itself. However an ‘outpouring' of requests from visitors and fans has seen five of the cars kept in their damaged condition to record the significance of the event. They will be incorporated into a future exhibition that will commemorate the sinkhole.
And so one of the most unusual sagas in motoring this year almost reaches its finale. Anyone out there been to visit the Corvette hole?
Picture: National Corvette Museum
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