For sale (soon): 8 Corvettes; must be able to remove from sinkhole

It gives a whole new meaning to the question, “Dude, where’s my car?�: Eight rare Corvettes were swallowed by a sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., on Wednesday.

It was news that hit the Corvette community like a quarter-mile run in a 1967 stroked-and-bored 427-cubic-inch Vette with four-speed and posi rear end.

As Courier-journal.com wrote: “Butch Hume, president of Louisville’s Falls City Corvette Club, cringed when he heard which cars were involved. ‘I was stunned,’ he said. ‘That just doesn’t happen in Kentucky, and what a terrible place for it to happen.’�

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(Unfortunately, Butch knows cars better than geology. Later in the same story, we find this: “Jason Polk, a professor of geology and geography at Western Kentucky University ... is part of the team investigating the cause and extent of the sinkhole. ... The Bowling Green-area geology lends itself to sinkholes and they are not at all uncommon, Polk said.� Oh.)

Museum employees were also taking it hard. As Executive Director Wendell Strode said: “There were a lot of tears this morning as [employees] were having to deal with what’s in there.�

Of course, those could have been tears of joy, giving thanks that they weren’t in the museum when the ground opened up.

But, as a car guy from way back, I feel their pain. It’s like the pain I feel knowing that I once had the chance to buy a 1966 Vette convertible for $3,000 and my old man said, “It’s too much car and it’s too much money.� He always did have lousy luck in choosing used cars.

Still, before everyone gets carried away, let’s take a closer look at these lost “treasures.� As my colleague David Undercoffler reported:

“The six affected cars the museum owned were a black 1962 Corvette, a 1984 custom pace car from the IndyCar World Series, the 1 millionth Corvette and 1.5 millionth Corvette ever built, a 1993 Ruby Red 40th anniversary Corvette, and a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette.

“Also damaged were two cars GM had lent the museum: a one-off design concept of a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder -- a model that was never built -- and the original 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil show car.�

Now, if you’re a Corvette person -- or the unlucky owner of one of these valuable hunks of fiberglass -- this was not your best morning.

But seriously, the 1 millionth and the 1.5 millionth Corvettes? A 40th-anniversary Corvette? I mean, I have the 20th- and the 35th-anniversary Playboy editions (just found them the other day, clearing out boxes in the shed; don’t ask!), and they’re interesting, but c’mon, they aren’t the Mona Lisa. (Although if there were money to be made, I’m pretty sure Chevy would make a special “Mona Lisa Edition� Corvette.)

Not only that, if there’s one thing that can be fixed, it’s cars. Especially cars that are worth a lot of money.

So cheer up, Vette fans. No more crying in your Bud Lites. Just like in “The Monuments Men,� all is not lost. A little money, a little fiberglass, some hammering and that 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette will be (almost) as good as new.

And if not, I’m sure someone will make you a good deal on some slightly worse-for-wear Vettes.

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