Eight cars damaged by sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum

The sinkhole inside the National Corvette Museum. Photo courtesy National Corvette Museum.

A sinkhole opened up Wednesday morning beneath the Skydome at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, swallowing a total of eight cars on display, including two on loan from General Motors.

The sinkhole, which opened up at 5:40 a.m., is reported to be 40 feet in diameter and up to 30 feet deep, and the museum has called in a structural engineer to determine if the sinkhole poses any additional threat to the property. Nobody was in the museum at the time the sinkhole formed.

Photo courtesy National Corvette Museum.

Photo courtesy National Corvette Museum.

According to the museum, the cars damaged in the event include a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and a 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil,” both on loan from General Motors, along with a 1962 Corvette; a 1984 PPG Pace Car; a 1992 “1 Millionth” Corvette; a 1993 40th Anniversary Corvette; a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette; and a 2009 “1.5 Millionth” Corvette, all owned by the museum itself. No cars on loan from individuals were damaged in the incident.

Six of the eight Corvettes, pre-sinkhole. Photos courtesy National Corvette Museum.

According to information supplied by the museum, the Tuxedo Black 1962 Corvette was donated by David Donoho of Zionsville, Indiana, the car’s only owner; the bright orange 1984 Corvette was on permanent loan from PPG Industries and was on display when the museum opened in September 1994 (and features a 450hp 401-cu.in. Katech-modified V-8 engine backed by a T-5 five-speed transmission); the white millionth Corvette (VIN 1G1YY33PXN5119134) features a 5.7-liter LT1 and four-speed automatic; the maroon 40th anniversary Corvette (#14768) was donated by Hill and Karen Clark of Bay Village, Ohio; the red Mallett Z06 (#009) features a 700hp LSX V-8, was clocked at 178 MPH in a top-speed event, and was donated by Kevin and Linda Helmintoller of Land O’Lakes, Florida; and the white 1.5 millionth Corvette (VIN 1G1YY36W295114471) features the Z51 Performance Package, 430hp 6.2-liter V-8, and six-speed automatic transmission.

The black ZR-1 Spyder was built as a show car with unique bodywork and chopped windshield and made its debut at the 1991 North American International Auto Show. The Blue Devil, meanwhile, (experimental VIN 1G1YY26EX850022EX) was originally built as a 2008 Z06, then converted a year later into a pre-production ZR1 that was used for Chevrolet’s press photos and served as a sister car to 23EX, which famously lapped the Nürburgring in a record 7 minutes, 26.4 seconds. A GM spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that the two cars on loan to the museum were worth about $1 million each.

The exterior of the National Corvette Museum’s Skydome. Photo by Paul (W9NED).

Inside the National Corvette Museum’s Skydome. Photo by Paul (W9NED).

The Skydome, completed in 1994, was to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2014. The sinkhole reported this morning is the first such event on the museum property, which is located in a region of the state full of underground caves and notorious for its sinkholes.

One car in the Skydome that was not damaged was the only remaining 1983 Corvette, which has reportedly been removed from the Skydome. Corvette Museum staff were able to remove the rest of the cars in the Skydome not swallowed by the sinkhole later in the day. Of the 80 or so cars on display in the museum, about 30 were in the 140-foot diameter Skydome.

A tip of the hat to Nancy Gates for the heads up on this story.

UPDATE (12.February, 1:07 p.m.): After initially announcing that the rest of the museum would remain open, museum staff closed the entire museum until the situation can be evaluated further.