National Corvette Museum opens new “Driven to Preserve” exhibit featuring car with local connections

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The newest exhibit at the National Corvette Museum, “Driven to Preserve,” is now open featuring a car that has local ties: a 1979 Corvette.

“This really tells the story of how we care for and preserve our collection of over 120 iconic Corvettes, as well as over 50,000 archives that we have,” director of marketing and communications Ryan Eichler says.

That 1979 model is connected to the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, run by GM, in a unique way.

“This is what is known as the Bowling Green Pilot Car. So this car was assembled and disassembled over and over again, and Bowling Green Assembly Plant workers that built the Corvette in 1981 were actually trained on this Corvette. We’re coming up on 45 years. That Corvette has been manufactured here in Bowling Green, so really an iconic car to be able to see and be able to put out on display,” Eichler says.

Another featured car is a black model that has been through a lot, but is now being restored for the public to see.

“This is a Corvette that, you know, on that fateful day that the floor opened up in our famous SkyDome, one of the Corvettes that fell in and was restored by our National Corvette Museum preservation team,” Eichler says.

Staff want to use this exhibit as a way to show off all the work they’ve done, while also making way for the future.

“This is a fantastic exhibition for us for so many reasons. One of them being because it does allow us to really put the spotlight on our staff, and not only the staff that manages the care of our collection, but also our preservation team, which continues to do more and more preservation projects… and then really is a tease and lead up to our new 66,000 square foot collections facility, which will open to the public in spring of 2027,” Eichler says.

The exhibit is now open, and is located at the end of the museum right before the gift shop.