National Corvette Museum
 The National Corvette Museum in 2006. |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place |
Bowling Green , Kentucky , United States 
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| Art | |
| architect | Neumann, Smith & Associates Exhibit Works |
| opening | 2nd September 1994 |
| management |
Wendell Strode (Executive Director)
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| Website | |
The National Corvette Museum is an automobile museum that opened in 1994 and is primarily dedicated to the history of the General Motors Corvette sports car, which has existed since 1953 . The museum also finances the Corvette Hall of Fame , into which an average of three people have been admitted every year since 1998 who have been closely associated with the Corvette in the course of their life, be it as motorsport enthusiasts, designers or managers.
The museum is only a few hundred meters away from the Bowling Green Assembly Plant , which has been producing Corvettes since 1981.
history
The museum goes back to an idea of the then 43-year-old Terry McManmon, who first went public in 1984 about his plans to open his own Corvette library. At this point, McManmon had already been working as a Corvette appraiser and expert trainer for the National Corvette Restorers Society ( NCRS for short ) for four years . At an NCRS convention in August 1984, McManmon first addressed his idea, which was welcomed by then President Keith Kibbe, but which did not lead to serious efforts in the following years. Kibbe's successor, Bill Clupper, also liked the idea of a Corvette library or Corvette archive, but even after two years the concept was only theoretical. At this point there were no official plans to put it into practice; in addition, the project was not yet well founded. Starting with the NCRS convention in Sparks , Nevada , in 1986, the implementation of the planned project should come a little closer. After McManmon presented his ideas to the board in attendance at this convention and his suggestions were accepted, he was immediately elected chairman of the Library / Archives and Museum (L / A & M) Committee . From then on, this committee consisted of 13 men, who were soon supplemented by three more who were involved alongside McManmon until the project was finalized.
In January 1988 the team was finally given the first car, a Corvette from 1953 (number 262 of only 300 cars produced), as a first showpiece from entrepreneur and Corvette collector Ray Quinlan. Only shortly before heard Dan Gale, who is also a member of the now 16-member L / A & M Committee was of Edward Lechtzin, the former PR -Assistenzdirektor of Chevrolet that the company Chevrolet itself for some time through a opening of a Corvette Museum discussed. Committee member Bill Clupper, still president of the organization, who had numerous contacts through his work at Packard Electric (later Delphi Corporation , now Delphi Automotive ), brought the plans for realizing the project back to Bowling Green. Although Robert C. Stempel , the CEO of General Motors at the time , said in 1984 that General Motors could not participate in the financing of the project, it was nevertheless implemented in the following years with the help of private investors and banks. After the Final Report of the Library / Archives & Museum Committee was submitted on July 11, 1988, four years after the first steps, it would take another six years for the museum to open.
Arrangements were made for registration as Section 501 (c) (3) of Title 26 of the United States Code in 1988 with the assistance of the Legal Department of the University of New Mexico ; In addition, they worked with the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn , Indiana , which had been in existence since 1974, and took ideas from them for their own museum. After more members were accepted into the committee in 1989, new questions arose , for example where exactly the museum should be built, since other locations in Nebraska , Michigan , Florida or Nevada were also possible in addition to Bowling Green . Nevertheless, the decision was made to open the museum in the industrial city of Bowling Green, mainly due to its proximity to the Corvette plant. After a 32.9 acres large field of the same adjacent extending Interstate 65 was visible from, as well as the complete infrastructure and 4.3 million US dollars were provided as tax-free bonds available, the architects were Neumann, Smith & Associates , and Exhibit Works , a company that focused specifically on building museums.
After the then President Ray Battaglini spoke in July 1990 of a possible start of construction in December 1991 or possibly even earlier and of subsidies from Chevrolet in the amount of six to eleven million US dollars, the facts came back down to earth in the months that followed back. Mainly because of the financially difficult years 1989 to 1991 at General Motors, the museum could not hope for financial support from Chevrolet or General Motors, which is why consultants were hired in July 1991 to raise twelve million US dollars in a so-called Capital Campaign To get support money. However, the desired millions did not materialize here either, which is why the project had to be suspended again. Especially under Dan Gale, who had been working on the project since 1986, the construction of the museum should still get underway. Under the leadership of Gale, Battaglini and Darrel Bowlin as the main participants, the NCM Annex , a primarily souvenir shop, was opened on November 2, 1990 and was considered a harbinger of the previously announced museum. Finally, those involved in the project got support from Chevrolet and further fundraising. By Jim Perkins , the former CEO of Chevrolet, the museum still not built promised the millionth Corvette built. Chevrolet also produced 999,999. Built Corvette put up for raffle as part of fundraising. The museum also received media attention through Chevrolet, after which the groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 5, 1992. At the time, the associated ceremony was held on an empty lot, where a Wendy's - next to a McDonald’s branch - is today.
Until the end of the opening of the museum, donations from private individuals, workers from the nearby plant, local society, clubs, hobby organizations or Corvette-affiliated companies contributed primarily to the opening of the museum, although The Annex also generated modest profits, but these never served as a significant source of income or should ever serve. Since the costs now amounted to 15 million US dollars, another bond had to be purchased in addition to the tax-free bond already received to finance the project, whereupon another 6.6 million US dollars were loosened by local banks. After the Bowling Green / Warren County Tourist Commission agreed to sponsor the first bond on June 1, 1993 , the city and county sponsored the second bond, leaving the NCM Foundation out of debt and allowing construction to begin. After around a year of construction and exactly ten years and two weeks after Terry McManmon submitted his proposal for a Corvette library to the NCRS Convention in Copper Mountain , Colorado , the National Corvette Museum was officially opened on September 2, 1994.
Some 20 years later, the museum made international headlines when on the morning of February 12, 2014, because of the typical in Kentucky again karst rich topography of a hole in the ground under the floor of Rogers Center , which was to break a large part of the floor had opened the museum and eight rare until unique Corvettes were badly damaged or destroyed. The cars involved were estimated to be worth one million US dollars. Among the damaged vehicles was the one millionth Corvette from 1992 and the one and a half millionth Corvette from 2009. One and a half years after the hole in the ground , the Skydome was opened on September 3, 2015, after the ground had been extensively removed and the hole was refilled opened again.
Corvette Hall of Fame
After the Corvette Hall of Fame was established in 1998 , an average of three people who have been closely associated with Corvette in their lives have been admitted every year since then.
The people who have been admitted since 1998 are listed below:
Web links
- Official website of the museum (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Popular Mechanics Dec. 1992 | P. 102/103 | Corvette's Gallery of Greatness , accessed May 10, 2017
- ↑ Eight vintage Corvettes swallowed by 40-foot sinkhole inside National Corvette Museum , accessed May 10, 2017
- ↑ National Corvette Museum Skydome to Reopen September 3, 2015 (English), accessed May 10, 2017