One of the rare Chevrolet Corvettes swallowed up by the sinkhole that opened up at the National Corvette Museum earlier this year has been restored. The 2009 Corvette ZR1, nicknamed “Blue Devil,” has been made good as new, and the coupe made a pit stop in Las Vegas for the 2014 SEMA Show before heading back to its home at the Kentucky museum.
The ZR1 is the first ‘Vette from the sinkhole to be restored, having received damage that included cracked carbon-fiber ground effects, a broken side rocker panel, cracks in the doors and windshield, a damaged front fender, bent rear control arms, and cracked oil lines. While all that sounds like a lot of damage, the ZR1 was in relatively good shape compared to the others since it was the last to fall into the sinkhole. Because it sat on top [...]
Did you know that GM cares about bats and other threatened species? Well they do and they even have a person on the payroll to think up creative ways to use what others would call waste products created by manufacturing of their products. His name is John Bradburn and holds the title of GM global manager of waste reduction. GM also currently has 122 landfill-free facilities.
Researchers say that more than 5.7 million bats in the United States and Canada have contracted and died from, white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungus appearing on the muzzle and other parts of hibernating bats. Bats with the disease act abnormally and wake from hibernation too frequently, leading to death.
There is no cure for white-nose syndrome, but remedies like nontoxic fungicides and artificial bat caves show promise. Saving bats is important because they contribute to the overall [...]
Repairs on Corvette swallowing sinkhole to begin on November 10th.
Construction to fill the massive sinkhole that opened up and swallowed 8 valuable Corvettes on Wednesday, February 12, 2014, in the Skydome part of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., is scheduled to begin Nov. 10, the museum said. The plan for fixing the 40-foot-wide, 50- to 60-foot-deep sinkhole and rehabbing the Skydome building, is estimated to cost $3.2 million. The project will include removing boulders, installing sheet pilings to block cave openings and filling the hole with about 4,000 tons of fist-sized stones.
The museum also will install micropiles spaced 15 to 20 feet apart at an average depth of 141 feet based on the structural engineering design, a museum statement said. This design guarantees that in the event of another sinkhole, the floor would hold. The museum expects construction to be completed by July.
The sinkhole disaster has [...]
This is the ultimate barn find!
Have you heard about the Peter Max Corvette collection? It is a set of 36 Corvettes, one from each year starting with the model’s 1953 debut and continuing through 1989. This collection is not only famous because they were owned by Mr. Max, the Pop Art star who gained fame in the ’60s, but also because he stored the cars for years in publicly accessible parking garages without much thought for their upkeep.
Members of Corvette forums seethed every time a new photo emerged showing the dust-caked cars in a dim garage. Some wanted Mr. Max to sell the cars or donate the set to a museum. Others didn’t much care who owned the cars, they only wanted to see them.
Thanks to the hard work of Daniel McDermon over at the New York Times, we [...]
Over the past few months there have been cars reported that were stolen decades ago, only to turn up again after authorities managed to sniff out some peculiarities with VINs. Well, another Corvette has turned up after being lost for 26 years.
The most recent story floating around involves a Jaguar E-Type that was stolen from New York City and recovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while they were in a container headed to the Netherlands. There were four other cars recovered including a 1969 Corvette. CorvetteBlogger.com reports that this Corvette was stolen from Portland, OR in 1988 but authorities have yet been able to find out who the owner was, not to mention who were the perpetrators of the crime almost three decades ago.
If you happen to have had a 1969 Corvette stolen from the Pacific Northwest in 1988, you may want to contact customs officials in Los Angeles. Hopefully [...]