Damaged C5 Corvette Is a Heartbreaking Beauty

There is a very special beauty in engineering and construction. Especially in cars. While the outside body that we normally see is designed to be pretty and appealing, it’s the bones underneath that consistently impress me. Every new supercar that flaunts its fancy new carbon platform, the pushrod suspension on a racecar, and even the elegance of polished exhaust headers never fail to make me smile.

I bring this up because Corvette Forum member My87Vette@20 posted up some photos of a 2000 C5 that met an untimely end with a high curb. Fortunately he’s alright, and walked away from the accident unscathed. But sadly, his C5 can’t say the same.

The yellow car looks so sad at first glance, the body mangled, it sits perched on blocks as its own wheels no longer perform the task. But still, it’s beautiful. The tattered remains of the front wishbones, the dirty caliper still wedged perfectly inside the wheel, and the gentle fraying of fiberglass around the corners all splayed across a sad canvas of gravel.

Heartbreaking and visually demanding in equal parts.

But I’ll be damned if after that moment of automotive zen I didn’t immediately think about how that LS1 and 6-speed manual tranny would fit really nicely in my old Porsche 944. And it’s a hell of a deal for $4,500.

What? I may be a writer who finds beauty in destruction, but I’m still a horsepower junkie.

Chime in with your thoughts on the forum. >>

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