The Corvette Factories: Building America's Sports Car
Since its birth in 1953, Chevrolet’s Corvette has gone from underpowered, impractical styling exercise to world-class performer. While the engineering and styling behind the car are well-documented, what about how the cars are actually built? Author Mike Mueller delves into the GM Historical Archives to find the answers. First constructed on a small six-car assembly line in a GM facility in Flint, Michigan, Corvette required extensive manual assembly and hand finishing. When regular production moved to St. Louis for the 1954 model year, the process had been streamlined enough to steadily increase production for each successive model year through 1978. By the time discussion of the C4 car had begun, the St. Louis plant was showing its age. Nagging quality issues and a need for additional production capacity necessitated the search for a new assembly plant. Quietly, the search began. A suitable building was located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and assembly commenced there in 1981, while the St. Louis plant began to wind down. Production shifted entirely to Bowling Green in 1982 and has remained there ever since. The Corvette Factoriestells the story of each plant and the cars that rolled out their doors. Extensively illustrated with Chevrolet’s fascinating period photos, Mike Mueller tells the story like no other auto historian.