General Motors announced that production of the 2014 Corvette Stingray Coupe has begun and that it has started shipping the all-new 7th generation Corvette to dealers from the Bowling Green, Kentucky facility where the sports cars are assembled.
About 1,000 C7 Corvettes have been made so far at the Bowling Green plant, which has assembled Corvettes since 1981. That factory was the recipient of a $131 million dollar investment to produce the new Vette, including $52 million spent to upgrade the factory’s body shop so it can manufacture the Coupe’s all aluminum frame in house for the first time.
The all aluminum frame is also a first for the base Corvette. Though Z06 and ZR1 models of the previous generation Vette had light alloy frame components, the base C6 Corvette coupe came with a hydroformed steel frame. In addition to the upgrades to Bowling Green’s body shop, GM is also moving their Performance Build Center, where the higher performance versions of GM’s LS family of engines are hand-built, from Wixom, Michigan to the Kentucky facility.
GM’s “build your own engine” program, which allowed purchasers of cars with those performance engines (or buyers of similar crate motors) to put their engines together under the supervision of the highly skilled PBC employees, will be reestablished after the move and GM is saying that the experience will be upgraded. With the engine build facility adjacent to the final assembly plant, buyers will likely get to see the engine they build installed in the car they are buying.
I love the facilities that allow the consumer to be part of the process, the only other one I know of that does/did this was AM General.
It’s pretty awesome.
Awesome, I agree, but so is the car. I’ll take that yellow one pls.
I’ll take a red
Red, yellow, blue, orange. As long as it’s not grey, white or black, I’m happy!
Ooo orange would be perty.
“As long as it’s not grey, white or black, I’m happy!”
Let the church say amen.
Red baby all the way.
When is TTAC going to get to drive/review one of these things?
Love mass production of complex products. Seeing it always works like a drug on me. Even if it’s only for useless stuff.
And I thought there would be no more postings of a sexually titillating nature…
I am excited about the 2014s shipping, and obviously the experience of seeing your engine installed is really cool, but this is yet another blow to the people of Michigan.
And a gain for the people of Kentucky. Would you rather they outsourced to another country instead?
I’m qutie excited for the 14 Vette as I am being trained as the specialist for my dealership :-) should be a fun time!
Do you drive that Focus? You must park across the street or something… ;)
WOAH! How could anyone miss that crispy red Cavalier in the background? Yes Please!
Part of the testing process. Each new Corvette must jump it cleanly before being cleared to ship.
Aha! So that’s what it was. Saw one tooling around the countryside near Nashville a couple weeks ago. Quite a head turner. Almost as much as the Fisker I saw the day before.
Sounds neat to assemble your own engine, but, they make you pay them for the experience. Add a plane ticket, hotel, meals… no thanks.
Can’t wait for the convertible…one will be in my garage come February or so….