National Corvette Museum

On By Mike and Kellye HefnerIn American Road Trips, Museums, Uncategorized

Where is it?

The National Corvette Museum is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bowling Green has been home to the Corvette assembly plant since it was relocated from St. Louis, Missouri in 1981. The National Corvette Museum opened in its current location in 1994. Click here for the museum’s website.

National Corvette Museum – photo by Rich Howard

Trivia: Corvette sports cars were named for a fast type of naval warship also called Corvette.

History of the American sports car

This beauty is not an American sports car. It is a 1947, British built MG TC Roadster.

The MG (Morris Garage) Midget was the car that most people believe started the American sports car craze. Many of these cars were imported from Europe by returning American G.I.s after World War II. MG Roadsters then began turning up in races around the U.S., and it was this model, along with the sleek Jaguar XK120, that inspired the first ideas for the Corvette.

The 1951 Crosley Super Sport

After World War II, Crosley Motors, Inc. began producing the Hotshot and Super Sport. Crosley’s Super Sport, an updated version of the Hotshot, was introduced in 1951 and included doors which the Hotshot didn’t have. These models were considered the first American sports cars to be built in the post war era. Unfortunately, Crosley Motors closed in 1952 after only eleven model years of automobile production; however, their closing opened a door for General Motors and a design genius named Harley Earl.

A brilliant concept!

The father of America’s sports car

The son of a carriage and wagon builder, Harley Earl grew up in Hollywood, California. In 1906, after watching automobiles become extremely popular, Harley’s father changed his business from Earl Carriage Works to Earl Automotive Works. Harley would go on to Stamford University to study art and engineering because his dream was to build cars his own way. By 1916, his father’s business was building custom automobiles and accessories in the largest manufacturing plant on the west coast. Harley made a name for himself as an artist and designer and became highly popular after designing custom automobiles for several Hollywood actors. Fast forward to 1926 when he was hired by General Motors. Harley Earl was the first designated head of design at General Motors. His secretive “Project Opel” resulted in the Chevrolet Corvette. America’s sports car was first produced in 1953, and the rest is automotive history.

1955 model Corvette. While the 6-cylinder engine was available, 693 out of the 700 Corvettes produced in 1955 had the all-new small-block 265 V-8 engine. This cool car had a top speed of 120 miles per hour.
This interesting car is a 1946 Stout Y46 Concept Car and was the first fully fiberglass automobile in history. Having cost over $100,000 dollars to build, this car is the only one of its kind. That was a lot of money in 1946 and in today’s dollars would cost about $1.4 million.

Nostalgia Gallery

Our favorite exhibit in the museum’s nostalgia gallery: A vintage Mobil gas station servicing nothing but vintage Corvettes!
1960s Chevrolet dealer’s showroom. Check out the cool cars, then check out the cool candy machine!
St. Louis assembly plant exhibit

Trivia: Approximately 225 of the of the first 300 Corvettes that were built still exist today.

Corvettes on the racetrack

We didn’t spend a lot of time reading about Corvette’s racing history because it was so hard to keep our eyes off of the cars! Here are a few that really grabbed our attention.

2002 Corvette C5R GTI race car
This 1962 Corvette was once part of Grady Davis’s Gulf Oil Racing Team and was reportedly sold at auction in 2015 for $1.65 million.
They are all so cool!

Trivia: In 1954, the Chevrolet Corvette became the first production automobile with a molded fiberglass reinforced plastic body. The 1963 Corvette is the only model with a split rear window.

The Skydome

The best-known landmark in Bowling Green is the Skydome, which is the round yellow section of the museum featuring a tall red spire. (See it in the photo at the top of the post.) Inside the museum the Skydome showcases a selection of privately owned and one-of-a-kind Corvettes from their beginning in 1953 to the present day. In 2014 a portion of the floor of the Skydome collapsed into a sinkhole and sent eight Corvettes crashing into a cave.

Exhibit describing where the sinkhole opened up and swallowed eight cars.

A small plexiglass covered manhole in the floor enables visitors to look down into the cave. The museum also features a great exhibit that explains the cave and why the floor caved in.

Entering this exhibit may bring tears to the eyes of the manliest motorheads!

Click here for a short YouTube video of the initial part of the cave in from the museum’s security camera. There are videos of the cave in on the National Corvette Museum’s website as well. The fortunate thing about the collapse is that it happened around 5:30 in the morning, so no visitors or employees were in the building at the time. 

All eight of the sinkhole Corvettes have now been restored, and while all of them are beautiful, this black with red interior 1962 model was our favorite. The photographs on the Skydome’s wall are of Corvette Hall of Fame inductees.

Trivia: All of the first year (1953) Corvettes were painted Polo White with black convertible tops and Sportsman Red interiors.

Museum Delivery

New Corvette purchasers have the option to take delivery of their car at the National Corvette Museum and actually drive it off of the floor. Two lucky people were picking up their shiny new Corvettes while we were there. Several other new Corvettes were lined up and waiting for their new owners to arrive later in the week. Getting to watch all the fanfare (and hear them rev their engines) was exciting for us too – even if afterward we had to get in our 11-year-old SUV and head on down the road.

Pretty new cars waiting for their new owners to drive them off of the museum floor.
We’ll take two please; one for him and one for her! Who doesn’t love that stingray emblem?

Thanks so much for joining us on our tour of the National Corvette Museum. We hope that you will add it to your itinerary if you’re ever near Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is definitely worth the stop.

Need a little more road trip inspiration? Check out these amazing destinations!

Things to Do in San Antonio: River Walk

National Route 66 Museum

Strawbery Banke Museum and Portsmouth, New Hampshire

 

Travel safely, and we will see you on the road!

Mike and Kellye

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As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.

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55 thoughts on “National Corvette Museum”

    3. Diane Collins

      Thanks Mike and Kellye! Don and I visited there in 2016 and found it fascinating. We also toured the Corvette production plant, where they only produce the cars that are preordered. We imagined ourselves in several that we saw! Great post guys!!

      Reply

  3. Great post! I saw a television special about this museum and the devastating sink hole. It’s amazing they were able to restore the cars and the building. I would be a little nervous walking around on that floor. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Interesting little find! My dad had a couple of Corvettes when I was a kid and he loved those cars. He crashed and totaled the first one (he was by himself and was somehow fine) but I still remember those cars. One was white and the other was canary yellow.

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  6. This museum certainly has some interesting stories to tell. The Nostalgia Room would’ve been my favourite part of the museum as well. That gas station replica is utterly charming. I am not a driver and not much into cars, but the yellow 1955 model Corvette you photographed has my name on it. The bit about the floor suddenly collapsing is quite frightening to be honest. Great post Kellye, you are really building up a great range of sights on the blog.

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, Leighton! Your kind words are so greatly appreciated. That yellow 1955 was a stunner, but the brand-new red one was the one I would’ve loved to drive home. Who am I kidding, I would’ve driven any of them home – if I knew how to drive using a stick shift, that is, and I don’t – LOL.

      Reply

  7. So cool seeing all those cars through the years! I’ve driven past this museum a bunch of times and every time I tell Brad that we need to come back to see it. This just makes me want to go see it all the more! 🙂

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    2. We checked out the websites, Sean, and they both look like great museums! We have to say that if we ever get the chance to visit Australia, we will choose to visit the York Motor Museum first. It looks like it has a larger collection of historic cars – similar to our corvette museum. Thanks for sharing these with us.

      Reply

  10. This is so neat!!! You teach me so much, I’ve never even heard of this. These are some beautiful cars! How do you and your spouse determine where to travel to, do you have a list? I love your work!

    Reply
  16. Discover and Explore

    Lovely share of this cool car world! I still have a boyhood fascination about the Corvette! Thank you for sharing…

    Reply

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