Yahoo Autos Eighth and Final Sinkhole Corvette Dug Out, Barely Resembles a Car
“It looks like the worst one . . . a lot of parts and pieces. It took a lot of punishment from a lot of big rocks.”
That assessment of the Mallet Hammer Corvette Z06’s condition is from the CEO of the construction company charged with extracting the cars swallowed by the sinkhole beneath the National Corvette Museum. Dire? You bet—but just look at the car, or rather, the loose assemblage of parts that used to be a car. The Mallet Hammer wasn’t merely punished by a few rocks, it had its underwear pulled up over its head by them.
As the eighth Corvette to be uncovered in the post-sinkhole archeological dig, the Mallet Hammer–modified Vette marks the end of the car-extraction process. Over the past two months, the other seven cars have slowly surfaced; some, like the Blue Devil ZR1, emerged nearly unscathed, while others like the ZR1 Spyder and 1.5 millionth Corvette built, looked pretty terrible. As we said when those latter two rides were exhumed, it remains to be seen how committed the National Corvette Museum and GM will remain to the idea of restoring all eight sinkhole Corvettes. How do you restore a car from just a wheel or two and a torque tube?
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A private owner, Kevin Helmintoller, who was invited on-site to witness the car being yanked from the depths, donated the Mallet Hammer Corvette to the museum. We have to imagine this wasn’t a good experience—and what do you know, it was quite the cloudy day. Helmintoller minced few words: “I expected bad, but it’s 100 times worse.” Yep, and now his rock/soil/earth’s crust–ravaged baby will go on display with the other seven sinkhole Corvettes—which the museum is calling the “Great 8” for having had the misfortune of falling into a giant hole—until the fall.
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