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GM perfectly restored the millionth Corvette after it was destroyed by a sinkhole

GM perfectly restored the millionth Corvette after it was destroyed by a sinkhole

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You may remember the giant sinkhole that opened up beneath Kentucky's National Corvette Museum last year, in which eight priceless works of American craftsmanship fell directly into Earth's gaping maw. Some of the cars weren't worth bringing back from the grave, but others were — the millionth Corvette ever made, for instance, which was signed by everyone involved in its construction.

The restoration of that car is now complete, and it's kind of incredible that they were able to make it happen when you see the before and after photos side by side:

GM says the job took 1,200 man-hours over the span of four months to turn the white 1992 convertible from a heap of garbage into a showroom-new car, preserving as many of the original parts as possible thanks to the signatures on many of them. Of the hundreds of signatures, two were on parts that couldn't be repaired, so the company scanned the signatures and transferred them to new parts. One additional signature was too damaged to scan, so GM tracked down the signer — more than two decades after the car's construction — and had her sign the part again.

Let's hope the museum has seen its last sinkhole — but for the moment, the millionth Vette is back on display in Bowling Green.