My wife and I vacationed in Tennessee and Kentucky last week (10 days total). Needless to say that while in Kentucky we visited the Corvette assembly plant and museum. This was an awesome experience and I suggest that anyone that has not done this, should experience it. Even my wife enjoyed it, which I did not think was possible.
The plant tour was way more than I expected (2-1/2 hours), and was amazing to see just how they build these cars. The museum was just as good. The sink hole has been repaired and the Skydome is open to the public again. 6 of the 8 sink hole Corvettes are now on permanent display in the same place that they were destroyed. And you can't begin to imagine just how badly these cars were destroyed. There is nothing left to them. Below are a few pictures of them.
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This is a rock that they removed from the top of the 1993 ZR1 Spyder. It is about 2-1/2' wide, 7' long, and about 18" thick. It has to way tons! It is on display by the entrance to the museum.
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They left a small area of the sink hole open so you could see just how far down it really is. And I want to tell you it is DEEP. The glass covers the hole. You can put your camera on top of the glass and take pictures. Several people were doing it.
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This is the sphere that extends from the Skydome floor up through the roof. Half of the Sphere base was over the edge of the sink hole, but the Sphere did not move and remained intact. It is supported at the roof which helped keep it stable. If that had come down the damage would have been much worse that it was.
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We took over 400 pictures on the trip (2500 miles), many of them at the museum. This is but a sample of the photos we took. Too bad you are not allowed to take pictures of the assembly plant, but that is completely taboo.
-Dan-
The plant tour was way more than I expected (2-1/2 hours), and was amazing to see just how they build these cars. The museum was just as good. The sink hole has been repaired and the Skydome is open to the public again. 6 of the 8 sink hole Corvettes are now on permanent display in the same place that they were destroyed. And you can't begin to imagine just how badly these cars were destroyed. There is nothing left to them. Below are a few pictures of them.
491.jpg492.jpg495.jpg499.jpg490.jpg
This is a rock that they removed from the top of the 1993 ZR1 Spyder. It is about 2-1/2' wide, 7' long, and about 18" thick. It has to way tons! It is on display by the entrance to the museum.
135.jpg
They left a small area of the sink hole open so you could see just how far down it really is. And I want to tell you it is DEEP. The glass covers the hole. You can put your camera on top of the glass and take pictures. Several people were doing it.
503.jpg501.jpg
This is the sphere that extends from the Skydome floor up through the roof. Half of the Sphere base was over the edge of the sink hole, but the Sphere did not move and remained intact. It is supported at the roof which helped keep it stable. If that had come down the damage would have been much worse that it was.
489.jpg
We took over 400 pictures on the trip (2500 miles), many of them at the museum. This is but a sample of the photos we took. Too bad you are not allowed to take pictures of the assembly plant, but that is completely taboo.
-Dan-
. The assembly plant visit was also amazing to be able to get a close up view of how they assemble the greatest sports car in the world. Like you, I too was amazed at how much my wife really enjoyed both places. Funny thing, as I stood there watching them put the cars together and looking at all the bins filled with hundreds of plastic parts,nuts, bolts, and various fasteners, I told my wife; "just think, 40 years from now someone will pay $100's of$$$$ for that little bolt because of the markings it has on it
." I was going to post some photos to share also, but just haven't had the time. Thanks again.
Getting them on one at a time. Will add more. The third photo shows a small section of the tape marking the edges of where the hole was in the floor before reconstruction. It traces around the entire area to show you how massive the sink hole was.
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