Beyond the Chrome: National Corvette Museum’s Driven to Preserve Reveals the Artifacts Behind America’s Sports Car
Driven To Preserve - Pedal cars and kiddie Corvettes
Driven To Preserve - Ed Cole's Desk
Driven To Preserve - Guldstrand’s Racing Suit
Driven To Preserve - The Corvette Pinball Machine
Driven To Preserve - Paint “Frogs"
New exhibition spotlights racing suits, pedal cars, pinball machines, and the everyday objects that carry Corvette history
BOWLING GREEN, KY, UNITED STATES, March 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A racing suit that pre-dates motorsports fire suits. A desk that helped design a groundbreaking engine. A pinball machine that ran 24 hours straight on opening weekend. At the National Corvette Museum, the cars are just the beginning.
Beyond the exceptional and historic cars themselves, Driven to Preserve, now open in the Museum’s Limited Engagement Gallery, features a carefully selected group of non-vehicle artifacts.
Taken together, these objects reveal how Corvette history lives not just on the road, but in the suits worn by the people who raced them, the toys that inspired a generation of future enthusiasts, and the everyday tools that kept the cars in motion.
“Preservation is about more than vehicles,” said Robert Maxhimer, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Education. “The artifacts in this exhibition carry the human side of the story of the owners, builders, racers, and moments that shaped what Corvette means. Keeping those objects accessible, stable, and historically accurate is just as much a part of our mission.”
Among the highlights:
o Dick Guldstrand’s Racing Suit tells the story of a man who went from racing Ford hot rods in high school to setting a track record at Le Mans. Made by Indianapolis-based Hinchman — a company that pioneered race suit design as early as 1925 — the suit predates fire-resistant Nomex fabric, offering a direct window into how early motorsport protected its drivers. The Goodyear badging on the suit is a reminder that even then, sponsorship and sport were inseparable.
o Ed Cole’s Desk, on loan from the Cole family, connects visitors to one of the most consequential figures in automotive history. Cole, who rose to President and CEO of General Motors, was the driving force behind the small-block V8 engine that revitalized early Corvettes.
o The UAW-GM Motorsports Jacket, autographed by Corvette Racing legends Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, and Antonio Garcia — along with three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti — represents something the Museum rarely gets to show: the intersection of labor, corporate sponsorship, and the personalities of racing.
o The Paint “Frogs,” on loan from General Motors, may be the exhibition’s most unexpected objects. These small models — used by designers to evaluate how solid, metallic, pearlescent, matte, satin, and tint coat finishes behave in different light — offer a rare look at the decision-making that happens before a single car rolls off the line.
o Pedal cars and kiddie Corvettes round out the collection in a different register. A 1956 Corvette pedal car, originally commissioned by GM to promote the model’s first major redesign, was delivered to a Pittsburgh-area Chevrolet dealership that has been in business since 1918 and remains open today. A 1996 Corvette Grand Sport pedal car bears the signature of Chevrolet General Manager Jim Perkins — the man widely credited with revitalizing the Corvette in the 1990s.
o The Corvette Pinball Machine, donated by Midway Manufacturing Company, dates to the Museum’s own 1994 grand opening, when eight special-edition ZR-1-themed machines were installed and ran 24 hours a day during opening weekend.
Together, these objects do what the best museum artifacts always do: they make the familiar feel new again.
Driven to Preserve is now open at the National Corvette Museum, located off Interstate 65 in Bowling Green, Ky., one hour north of Nashville. For more information, visit www.corvettemuseum.org.
Photo Assets
o Hi-res images of the artifacts can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FW2CdjzK7lYlsMStcezj_5ttq6AP7NvA?usp=sharing
o Images of the wider exhibit can be found here:
https://corvettemuseum.smugmug.com/Driven-to-Preserve
About The National Corvette Museum
The National Corvette Museum, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit foundation, is where Adrenaline Meets Tradition by serving as an educational and research institution with the mission of educating worldwide audiences on the evolution of the Corvette—America’s Sports Car—through the collection, preservation, and celebration of its legacy. Located a mile from General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant, which has manufactured every Corvette since 1981, the Museum Campus features 115,000 square feet of exhibit and event space, more than 100 historically significant Corvettes, 50,000 Corvette artifacts, and the NCM Motorsports Park. For more information or to plan your visit, visit corvettemuseum.org, or follow the Museum on Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and X.
Sean Hixson
BTLPR
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