CRAZY ‘BOUT AN AUTOMOBILE A visit to the National Corvette Museum Written by Jeffrey Cohen
Our teenage son is a bit of a car nut. We love to go to Mecum, the car auction in Indianapolis, and any other car-themed events around town that we can find. He is especially enamored of Corvettes. He has an uncanny ability to recognize cars by their vintage and not just Corvettes: “Look, there’s a ’72 Charger”, that sort of thing. He also “builds” me a car, often a new ‘vette, complete with details about the chassis and engine, as we drive to school in the morning. One day earlier this summer, I surprised him with an impromptu father-son trip to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that included a visit to the NCM Motorsports Park, a high-performance driving venue next door. Located just off I-65, it’s about a four-hour drive from Indianapolis to Bowling Green, where all Corvettes are also manufactured. Back on February 12, 2014, the museum made international news when a sinkhole collapsed in the Skydome part of the complex in the small hours of the morning. Thankfully, no one was in the building when it happened, but security cameras were rolling to catch the incident on video. Eight cars were swallowed up by the thirty-foot deep hole, including several irreplaceable classics. After that cataclysmic event, visits to the museum soared as people from around the world were drawn to witness for themselves the 86 slmag.net
destruction and subsequent restoration and rebuilding project. Since then, the sinkhole has been filled and an interactive exhibit has been built atop what was once a gaping chasm. All eight of the Corvettes that fell victim to the sinkhole are on display, some restored, and some just as they were when they were recovered from the hole. We looked at an outline on the floor of where the sinkhole was, as well as where the cave beneath still lies. You can even peer into the cave via a manhole in the floor. It was like visiting a crime scene. Visible from some distance away, the museum is a striking landmark topped with a conical yellow roof and bright red spire. Beneath the roof inside the very un-museum-shaped museum, the building uses curved walls, geometric design and full-scale diorama displays to tell the story of the Corvette’s past, present and future. More than 80 vehicles from every era since 1953 are displayed, with each display changing periodically. While some are beautifully preserved production models, many are one-ofa-kind concept vehicles rarely if ever before seen by the public. The museum also features a tremendous collection of automotive memorabilia, informative films, educational exhibits, historical displays, a library and archives.
