Last Corvette retrieved from Kentucky sinkhole

[unhappycamper]

http://gazette.com/last-corvette-retrieved-from-kentucky-sinkhole/article/feed/107307



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.

Last Corvette retrieved from Kentucky sinkhole
Associated Press Updated: April 9, 2014 at 9:00 pm • Published: April 9, 2014

The mangled remains of a powerful Corvette — barely recognizable to its former owner — were pulled from the depths of a sinkhole at a Kentucky museum Wednesday, completing weeks of painstaking work to retrieve eight classic cars that were gobbled up by the gaping hole.

The 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette was buried in dirt and rocks, deep beneath the surface of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. The mood was somber as the crumpled car, which boasted 700 horsepower thanks to performance enhancements, was pulled to the surface.

"It looks like a piece of tin foil," said Kevin Helmintoller, of Land O' Lakes, Fla., who donated the car to the museum last December. "I'm still glad I'm here, because I would have never believed it was this bad. I'm not positive I would have recognized it."

At around the time it was donated, the car was appraised at $125,000 because of the performance modifications, said museum spokeswoman Katie Frassinelli.

[get the red out]

1. They showed the car on local news this morning

[link:|

[House of Roberts]

2. Get the guys from the Doc Hollywood movie.

They fixed Michael J. Fox's Porsche after the train hit it.

Seriously, that isn't restorable.

[hunter]

4. It's a machine. It's restorable.

I'm still riding the same bicycle my dad gave me more than forty years ago.

More than half of it, by weight, is original. I'll bet more than half that car, by weight, is salvageable.

My mid-eighties car, with a salvage title, would also be "restorable" to mint condition, but I don't know why anyone would want to do that.

I'm not a "car person." My cars last so long because I hate them and they hate me. I sit down in the driver's seat and say "Fuck you, car" because I resent having to own a car. The car says, "Fuck you too, Hunter," and it goes on years and years and years like that; a dysfunctional relationship.

The JB weld and bailing wire, the Harbor Freight tools, the generic Chinese or junkyard auto parts; they bind us together.

[NV Whino]

3. I'm going to guess the air bags didn't deploy.

[SkatmanRoth]

5. They got the last junk car out of there

Now they can go about repairing the building.

The construction workers cannot leave those car bodies in the hole. The cars would weaken the concrete when they filled it in.