Museum Pieces
I know … I’m sorry … This is a day late … I’m such a bad blogger … š
Yesterday (Monday) I visited the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I confess to being a gearhead and have always (sort of) wanted to visit the place, but it was too far away. But my trip to the eastern half of the US brought me close enough that I could make a 2-hour detour to visit the museum and not think twice about it. Plus, like almost everyone else, I had heard about the sinkhole opening up under the Dome Room earlier this yearĀ (http://corvettemuseum.org/enews/backups/media/sinkhole.htm) and swallowing 8 cars, and – also like almost everyone else – I wanted to see the hole and the damaged cars for myself. So I went.
The Dome Room is now vacant, with security fencingĀ around the hole, and a bare floor where cars and exhibits used to be:
The 8 cars (or remains thereof) are displayed in another room. Some of them aren’t too badly damaged, like this one, and will likely be repaired:
But then there were the ones that really got squershed:
Ā
It’s my personal opinion that these should continue to be displayed as they are. They are significant models in the Corvette pantheon and, even though they’re destroyed, they’re the only ones available – it’s not like you can go out and get another “millionth Corvette built” anywhere.
The rest of the exhibits were great, too, ranging from one of the first 300 Corvettes built (as 1953s) to the only surviving 1983 ‘Vette (of 43 built – the others were destroyed during testing of the new design) to various and sundry other milestones. It was well worth the trip.
If you buy a new Corvette, you can check off a box on the option sheet that tells Chevrolet not to deliver the car to your local stealership, but to deliver it to the Museum instead. So they’ll load it on an auto transport with its protective cover, haul it maybe a mile from the factory to the Museum, unload it from the transport, and prep it at the Museum just as if it were at your local stealership, including adding any and all selected dealer-installed options. Then they’ll tell you when you can come get it.
There were 8 new ‘Vettes waiting for pickup when I was there. Now, I haven’t been a big fan of new Corvettes for 30, maybe 40 years – ever since they started making them look more like every other supercar out there. Sure, they’re fast, and expensive, and sporty, and exclusive, but they didn’t have a distinctive Corvette *look*. Until I saw this one yesterday:
I. Want. This. Car.
The picture, as usual, doesn’t do the car justice. I tried to figure out *why* I wanted this car, and finally decided that the white body with black trim gives it a “look” that none of the other 7 had (see the cars in the background). Sure, they looked nice, but not mean ‘n’ nasty ‘n’ inyourface like this Arctic White model (with the black accents). And in a radical (for me) departure, I like the coupe better than I like the roadster. So, if you know anyone who has a spare, oh, $75,000 or so that they’d like to give me, I promise to be eternally grateful (for a week, at least) as I ride around in my sizzling-hot black-and-white Corvette. I’ll even let you / them ride in it with me.
Then I went to what I can only describe as a “drool-car” store. It’s not a “new-car” store and it’s not a “used-car” store. All 60 or so vehicles in there were drool-worthy to some extent. I want this one:
It’s a 1963 (first-year C2) roadster, four-speed, 327-340 (327 ci, 340 hp), matching numbers, dream machine. Only $45,000.
I also want this one:
It’s listed for $17,000 and is a cosmetically-restored late-40s M-38. Mostly. It includes a mounted Browning .30-cal machine gun, period-correct tools and accessories, and other stuff. It has some issues, though, and because of the issues I told the guy at the counter that I didn’t think it was worth $17k. He thought for a moment and said, “$7500?” BOOM! One numberĀ and he’s into negotiating territory! What to do, what to do… I ultimately told him I had to decline because I had no way to get it back to Arizona. *sigh* (Not to mention the fact that I have a garage full of Jeeps and Jeep parts already!)
I also found two or three other vehicles I wanted, so if you know anyone with a *second* $75,000 to give me, I’ll let him or her or them share the glory of these three or four vehicles.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
The Peripatetic Traveler 
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