It’s hard to forget that fateful day in February 2014 when the ground opened up beneath the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, swallowing eight irreplaceable Corvettes->ke1280 spanning nearly five decades in age range, each valuable for their own respective reason. Now the first Vette recovered from the deep abyss has made its triumphant return to the spotlight at the 2014 SEMA show.->ke216

This 2009 Corvette ZR1 represents the pentacle of Corvette engineering in its sixth generation. Sporting a supercharged, 6.2-liter V-8 making 638 horsepower and 604 pound-feet of torque mated to a six-speed manual transmission, the ZR1 could hit 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds.

When the car landed some 30 feet underground, it suffered a number of bumps and bruises. The passenger side rocker panel had a large chunk missing, much of the carbon-fiber ground effects were ripped off, the passenger front fender and both doors had cracks in their exterior fiberglass, the windshield, hood window glass, and passenger headlight were all cracked, the driver side rear control arms were bent, and the oil lines feeding the engine’s dry-sump system were damaged.

The ZR1 stood untouched in the Corvette Museum for another seven months on display before being returned to Chevrolet for restoration. The car’s fiberglass body was almost completely disassembled for repair and the entire car was repainted the same electric shade of blue.

The ZR1 will be joined by two other car are slated to be restored -- the 1 millionth Corvette, a white 1992 C4 convertible and a black 1962 C2 Corvette coupe,->ke141 both dressed with red interiors. Unfortunately for the other five cars, they were too far damaged for restoration. Chevrolet will keep them in their current mangled state for a historical display at the National Corvette Museum.

Click past the jump to read more about the first ‘Sinkhole’ Corvette restored.

Why it matters

Restoring these three cars helps preserve their historical significance to the Corvette lineup. Conversely, keeping the other five Vettes in the same crushed condition they were pulled out of the hole in also helps preserve the historical event. While its sad the cars will never be in good condition again, restoring them would mean replacing nearly every part on the car, essentially taking the car’s significance away.

Chevrolet Corvette ZR1

The Corvette ZR1 is the high-water mark for the sixth-generation Corvette. Its power came from a supercharged, 6.2-liter, LS9 V-8 that made 638 horsepower and 604 pound-feet of torque. The engine helped the lightweight Corvette dominate the track, even beating the then-new 2013 SRT Viper in a MotorTrend comparison test.

Pricing for the ZR1 started at $106,880 for the base trim level and $116,880 for the upper trim level.