Corvette enthusiast Don Messner was diagnosed with melanoma in January 2012 and continued living life to the fullest, knowing that the condition was incurable. He joined the National Corvette Museum for the unveiling of the 2014 Corvette Stingray at the Chevrolet media event in Detroit, and also took delivery of his 2013 Corvette, a 60th Anniversary C6 with the R8C option. While Messner was at the museum, he decided that it would be the best place to permanently showcase his collection.

Messner’s love for Corvettes drove him to build a climate controlled garage to store them in that he joyously called “The Toy Box”. Being a true enthusiast, Messner’s passion led him to find rare, low mileage cars in excellent condition. Sadly, Messner passed away on May 22, 2013, but he left his beautiful collection of Corvettes with the museum to demonstrate his love of Y-bodies to others for years to come.

“When people see these cars, I want them to remember Don Messner and his legacy. He was an amazing and very generous man,” stated Messner’s spouse Marlene. She is very grateful that her late husband’s collection is on display for thousands of annual visitors to see.

Some of the cars in Messner’s collection left with the museum include a 1967 427 convertible Corvette,  1990 Corvette ZR1, 2008 Corvette Z06, and a 2013 Corvette C6 60th Anniversary Edition.

A special exhibit of the whole Messner collection will be held in the museum exhibit hall from May 10 – September 14, 2014. If you are big Corvette fans like we are, you surely won’t want to miss out on Messner’s collection.