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Millionth Corvette to be restored

Historic Chevrolet Corvette to be rescued from sinkhole disaster

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It looks like apocalyptic art – and this studio photographed 1 millionth produced Corvette was swallowed by a sink hole.

The wrecked ‘Vette was part of a Corvette museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, not far from where it rolled off the line in 1992 as the one millionth example of the iconic American supercar. More than 20 years later a sink hole appeared in the middle of the museum and swallowed it in the middle of the night.

Museum officials were on February 12 2014 at 5:44am alerted to the incident by alarm sirens, only to find part of the museum floor had given way, taking along with the 1992 Corvette a 2009 ZR1 prototype lightly damaged and since restored and others. A 1962 Corvette, 1993 40th anniversary edition, 2001 “Hammer” and 2009 1.5 millionth production vehicle all of which will be kept in their sinkhole-crushed state.

The mysterious sinkhole measured 18.3 metres wide and nine metres deep. Security cameras caught the collapse and the footage has garnered over 8.5 million views on YouTube.

This week GM head of design Ed Welburn was at Bowling Green to announce restoration will commence on the 1992 Corvette convertible by the company’s mechanical assembly group at the design centre.

Already the interior is stripped back to where the names of the workers who built the car can be seen on the chassis. The restored millionth ‘Vette will form part of a sinkhole-themed display at the museum.

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Daniel DeGasperi

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