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When the folks at the Chevrolet Division of General Motors decided to make a Spyder version of their performance car by cutting down the windshield and side glass of a ZR-1, little did they know how low it would eventually become.
The ZR-1 Spyder as it sat in the NCM pre-sinkhole. It had been re-painted from its original Silver.
Typically, concept cars were built deep within the secluded halls of the manufacturer’s secret skunk works facilities, but this one-off ZR-1 was built right at the plant at Bowling Green. Destined to be revealed at the 1991 North American Auto Show in Detroit, this Spyder ZR-1 features several custom touches that set it apart from the rest of its exclusive brethren and the ultra-low windshield is only a part of the equation.
There was only a rear corner of the car viewable in the sinkhole. The car was excavated, the boulder removed from the car's interior and the car was then mounted to the rigging that would rise it to the surface. The rock that forcefully inhabited the cockpit of the ZR-1 Spyder now resides outside the NCM by the Café as part of the landscaping!
When talking about the fourth-generation Corvette, anything that used the terms “ZR-1” and “convertible” immediately set the car apart from an already exclusive crowd of performers. There were a few examples, but they are rarer than hen’s teeth and they’re not in very good shape thanks to getting worked over by heavy equipment once they were deemed no longer necessary for testing purposes. As of February 12th, 2014, this special ZR-1 was added to that list of rare and almost-unrecognizable ZR-1s.
It became obvious that the damage was quite extensive and with so much custom work performed on the car originally, there was little possibility of restoring the car.
Originally Silver with a Yellow interior, this ZR-1 Spyder was the first concept car that GM built on the factory production line but it features many non-factory components. Since it was destined to be a show car, the Spyder ZR-1 featured an articulating CHMSL (third brake) light that pops up from the gas filler door and additional vents in the hood and side panels to allow for additional cooling of the engine compartment.
The car is almost unrecognizable, save for that unmistakable intake on the LT5 engine. Much of the bodywork and cues that made the ZR-1 Spyder so special have been relegated to twisted pieces of previous craftsmanship.
The major component that sets this ZR-1 apart from so many others is the windshield and side glass treatment that lowers the car’s overall profile and gives it that sleek appearance. Additional treatments included roll-bar-like aero bars protruding from the rear deck lid.
The weight of the debris and the other cars bore down on the open cockpit of the ZR-1 Spyder.
Each of the Corvettes were pulled in the order that they were located. The ZR-1 Spyder being the sixth Corvette recovered meant that there were five other cars resting on top of it, along with tons of rock and debris. This meant that its lowered windshield frame and body treatments would take the brunt of the fall. Of course, the extent of which would not be known until the car could be excavated, much like any archeological find since the only part of the car that was viewable was a bit of the driver’s side rear area. Upon realizing the entire scope of the damage, the car was then lifted in a special cradle to help keep it intact for delivery on the surface
The ZR-1 Spyder now resides close to the spot where it dropped into the sinkhole. It has been changed forever, but will continue to tell part of the story of what happened that early morning of February 12th, 2014.
Much of the special bodywork that once adorned the ZR-1 Spyder no longer exists on the car. What is left speaks as a testament to the extreme forces that worked upon each of these cars in such an abbreviated timeframe, merely seconds. Amid all of the mangled framework and assembled components are pounds of tightly-packed earth that cling to the car in crevices and on every surface. Due to the extent of the damage, the ZR-1 Spyder has been relegated to the “As-Is” group of the Sinkhole Corvettes. Not unlike its earlier sibling ZR-1s, it had days where its once-shiny paint was the pride of GM, but now, it wears a layer of mud and stone. It serves as a testament to where it’s been and that it has a story to tell.
