The Bowling Green, Ky. National Corvette Museum's effort to remove the eight cars swallowed by a sinkhole last month got off to a triumphant start: The 2009 Corvette ZR1 "Blue Devil" pulled from the hole earlier this week drove away from the scene of the disaster under its own power.

The 1993 40th Anniversary Ruby Red Corvette followed the Blue Devil back to ground level; the 1962 Vette joined the pair after a tricky extraction and workers took the opportunity to salvage the one millionth Corvette built -- a 1992 convertible -- ahead of schedule.

But not every car has fared as well as the Blue Devil. While none of the cars pulled so far appear to be beyond restoration (GM says it will return the Vettes to a roadworthy state if possible). The '62, for example, was wedged between heavy slabs of concrete. The 40th Anniversary Car appears shattered, with splits and cracks on every visible body panel. The one millionth Vette will need body panel repair and a new windscreen.

The 1984 Corvette PPG Pace Car, however, has fared worse than the other cars removed so far (watch a video of the removal below). The one-off vehicle was, as the museum put it, "karate chopped" by a slab of concrete on the way down into the pit; rear panels have been completely separated from the rest of the body. The front fascia appears to have been ripped off as well, and it's hard to spot a body panel that doesn't bear some cracking or denting.

Still, there's nothing that can't be restored given adequate resources. What remains to be seen is how the other cars -- potentially buried under tons of rubble -- have fared. We're awaiting updates on the 1993 ZR-1 Spyder one-off, a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 and the 2009 1.5 millionth Corvette. Despite the poor (if predictable) condition of some of the vehicles saved so far, progress at the National Corvette Museum has been encouraging. So we doubt we'll have to wait long until all eight cars, or what's left of them, are back on the surface. Stay tuned for updates.

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