The Corvette Assembly Plant will stop offering public tours for 18 months beginning in July
Corvette Assembly Plant: When Tours Shut Down, Rumors Run Wild
The Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant is shutting down all pubic tours for 18 months, and speculation is running wild.
GM recently announced the Corvette Assembly Plant will stop offering tours starting July 16. So if you were planning a trip to Kentucky this summer, you’d better check your schedule.
What’s more, if you want a new Corvette and don’t order one before June 12, it won’t be built until at least November.
Something suspicious is definitely going on at the Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant. Plenty of people have theories about what’s behind these moves.
So Much Secrecy
First off, GM won’t say much about what’s going on with the Corvette Assembly Plant. Naturally, that’s just making everyone speculate even more. That’s generating buzz around the Corvette, so it’s a brilliant move.
What we do know is the production line shutdown has an innocent explanation. The plant manager has confirmed it’s associated with the paint shop.
Since 2015, GM has been working on adding it to the actual assembly line. Finally, it’s ready to make the move, which requires relocating the paint shop from the other side of the facility. Construction means the production line is closed completely for three months.
Is it possible GM isn’t being entirely forthcoming about the production shutdown? Sure it is, companies keep secrets. After all, divulging too much information can tip off competitors or ruin a perfect marketing scheme.
The fact is the last time GM closed off the Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant, it was for good reason. Visitors could’ve caught an early glimpse of the C7 Corvette before it was ready for a big public reveal. So, what’s up this time around?
C8 Potential
Some people think GM is retooling the assembly plant to start churning out the much-anticipated C8 Corvette. Considering how this has similarities with the lack of public tours before the C7 was revealed, it’s easy to understand why anyone would think that.
Here’s the thing: that reasoning might not be so cut-and-dry.
For quite some time, there’s been rumors of a mid-engined Corvette model. It’s something GM has toyed with for decades, but a production version could become reality. Supposedly, this is the new C8, which makes sense. But it also doesn’t.
The C7 platform obviously won’t work with a mid-engine layout. That means GM would have to create a completely new platform with that design in mind. It would technically be the C8, but will it only be for the rumored mid-engine model? Could it be that GM has a way to make it work for both mid-engine and front-engine layouts?
In a bizarre, other existence, it could be that GM is ready to put the engine in the middle of all new Corvettes, but that’s too crazy to be reality.
With a growing body of spy photographs of this mid-engine Corvette, it’s obvious GM is getting serious about bringing it to market. The question is when that will happen. It would be logical to use this time of secrecy inside the assembly plant to do just that.
The most likely reveal date for a mid-engine C8 Corvette, if that’s what GM is working on, would be in January. That’s when the Detroit auto show is held. That’s a great platform for generate plenty of media buzz, not that a mid-engine Corvette wouldn’t be big news any other time of the year.
But wait, there’s more to this story.
C7 ZR1
Then there’s the possibility of a new C7 ZR1. The C6 ZR1 made a huge splash while the C6 was still in production. In fact, in many ways the C6 ZR1 eclipses the C7 Z06’s performance. How could GM pass on making an even more insane ZR1 to really celebrate the C7?
Rumor has it the new ZR1 will use a supercharged 6.2-liter Chevy Small Block V8. Output could be over 700 horsepower, eclipsing the 650 horsepower churned out by the C7 Z06. That would give the C7 a proper sendoff.
What better time to prepare for making the new Corvette ZR1 than now? It would keep the super car out of public view, before its anticipated release in November or December.
The Real Reason(s)
If the new ZR1 is the reason for restricting public tours at the assembly plant, why the 18-month timeframe? Supposedly, with relocating the old paint shop, the current tour pathway is being destroyed. And supposedly that’s going to take a year and a half to replace.
Sure, a public tour pathway isn’t nearly as important as the production line itself. That part makes sense. That it will take so long to build a new one seems… fishy.
It’s possible the stoppage of production and the even longer dry spell of public tours has more than one cause. What if GM is moving the paint shop, getting ready to build the C7 ZR1, and start making mid-engine C8s?
It could even be all that, plus a front-engine C8s. Who knows! At this point, any or all of these are possibilities.
