Final Corvette pulled from Kentucky sinkhole
Officials at the National Corvette Museum say they'll try to repair the eight Chevrolet Corvettes that fell into a sinkhole under the institution in February, but some of the cars – valued as a group at about $1 million – may be beyond repair.
In this undated photo provided by the National Corvette Museum, workers pull out a car from a sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum, in Bowling Green, Ky. On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, workers pulled the last car from the sinkhole, completing weeks of painstaking work to retrieve eight classic cars that were gobbled up by the gaping hole.
National Corvette Museum/AP/File
The last of eight Corvettes has been rescued from a sinkhole under the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Well, sort of. There isn't much left of the Mallet Hammer Z06 except for a few pieces of mangled wreckage. It must have been a heart-wrenching scene for everyone involved in the recovery, including the car's former owner Kevin Helmintoller.
Helmintoller donated the tuned Z06 to the museum last December, at which time it was appraised at $125,000, according to Fox News. Given it's current condition, the Mallet Hammer may put the brakes on the museum's plan to restore all eight sinkhole cars, with help from General Motors.
Since crews began pulling the cars out of the sinkhole, the news has been mixed. While the 2009 Corvette ZR1 known as "Blue Devil" appeared to have only superficial damage, things seemed to get worse as the cars that had fallen further were recovered.
Yet the crumpled Mallet Hammer Z06 and the other seven unfortunate Corvettes will be on display at the museum until the end of August. The group--which the museum calls the "Great 8"--is reportedly valued at around $1 million.
The massive sinkhole opened up under the museum's Skydome in late February, sparking conspiracy theories and plenty of publicity that may benefit the museum in the long run. Repairs to those Corvettes that can be worked on are expected to be completed by early August.
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