The First Historic Corvette from the Sinkhole Has Been Replaced

When the process of removing the damaged cars from the sinkhole under the Skydome of the National Corvette Museum began in early March, the first two cars to be excavated were the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Blue Devil and the 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Edition Corvette. The ZR1 was in good enough shape to start up and drive away while the deep metallic red 40th Anniversary car was in much worse shape so it wasn’t doing any driving.

When the 1993 Ruby Red Corvette came out of the hole and images spread across the various news channels, Lynda Patterson was among the people who was the most deeply affected by seeing the battered C4 Corvette. Lynda and her late husband Mike had built many memories in their own Ruby Red 1993 40th Anniversary Edition Corvette so to her, seeing that mangled ’93 Corvette being lifted out of the sinkhole was like seeing her own beloved Corvette in the same situation. After spending 22 years together loving life in their Corvette, Mike and Lynda had agreed on donating their C4 to the museum prior to his passing, but seeing the damaged 40th Anniversary model on the news served as a sign to Lynda Patterson that this was the time. She contacted the National Corvette Museum, explaining the car that she wanted to donate and the delivery was made. Due to the incredible generosity of Lynda and her late husband Mike – the first of the Corvettes destroyed by the sinkhole had essentially been replaced.

General Motors had pledged to repair all 8 of the damaged Corvettes immediately after the sinkhole swallowed them up, but many people (including myself) believe that some of the cars – at least one – should be left in damaged form. The sinkhole is an unfortunately part of Corvette history, but it is a part of Corvette history and leaving one of the cars in its damaged form would serve as a reminder to us all that at any second, Mother Nature can claim back anything that man can make. Now that Lynda Patterson has effectively replaced the Ruby Red 1993 Corvette, it will be interesting to see if GM will indeed repair the 40th Anniversary Edition car that was claimed by the sinkhole or if that car might become the one that is left damaged for future generations of Corvette lovers to recall the tragedy that was the Skydome sinkhole.

In any case, on the behalf of American performance car lovers around the country, I would like to extend a big Thank You to Lynda Patterson for donating her beloved 1993 Corvette 40th Anniversary Edition Convertible to the National Corvette Museum. With her donation, future Corvette fans will be able to check out an all original Ruby Red 40th Anniversary car in the same form that it came off of the assembly line rather than a 1993 Corvette that was built in 2014 as a result of the sinkhole. Mrs. Patterson’s donation has helped to preserve this piece of history for the future of the National Corvette Museum while also transitioning the museum cleanup effort to the next phase.

Image: National Corvette Museum