The misfortune that struck the National Corvette Museum, in Kentucky, when eight of its unique Vettes plummeted into a sinkhole inside the building might be turned around 180 degrees and end up being an even bigger tourist attraction than before. At least five of the cars have already been extracted from the hole, and so far, they have not been touched in any way.
It’s not hard to see why that would be such a good idea: many people who aren’t Corvette aficionados had not heard of the National Corvette Museum before, and now they have, and know that eight one of a kind cars were involved. The museum and the cars became internationally famous specifically because of the sinkhole, so it would be thoroughly justifiable to have them on display, in their damaged state.
According to the NewYorkTimes, this has already been suggested by sonorous names of the scene, like Edward T.Welbrun Jr., who is GM’s VP of global design. He said “The initial thought was: Restore them all, but now there has been so much interest that the current thinking is to not restore them, at least right away.”
Another voice in favor of keeping the damaged Vettes the way they are now is that of Kevin Mackay, a specialist restorer from Valley Stream, New York, arguing that “a lot of those cars should be left the way they are. They’re part of history. In some ways that would even be more of a tourist attraction.”
By Andrei Nedelea
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