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Spande reiterated that there are 12 exterior paint colors available for 2022. The BGA Paint Shop started with the capability to do ten colors and now can handle twelve. In 2017, when the paint shop addition was complete, the factory practically doubled in size. The BGA Paint Shop is now 800,000 square feet, and has three floors, nineteen vertical displacement lifts, 51 robots, 240 employees, three-panel suppliers, and Axalta paint! All paints are formulated to be applied in the BGA Paint Shop. The BGA Paint Shop does not share paint with anyone!

The Bowling Green Assembly Plant conducts daily crater testing on every employee that enters the BGA Paint Shop. Crater testing detects potential contaminants that may result from specific personal hygiene products, detergents, perfumes, etc. Plant employees wear blue suits, hats, and/or hair nets that further protect panels from lint or dirt. The employees walk through an air shower to remove lint from their coveralls and walk on a sticky mat to remove dirt and dust from the bottom of their shoes.

Spande also went over the process flow of the BGA Paint Shop that includes body washers, a prime oven, wet sanding, a color oven, a blackout oven, panel unload, and more. The panels are painted in the same position as they would be on the completed Corvette. One of the main reasons that Corvettes have such amazing paint jobs is because of the wet sanding done within the process. Spande shared that this is an industry-leading process and a big reason as to why there is such a great finish on the vehicle.

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“I have owned a number of Corvettes and many other fun cars in my life,” shared Kai. “My Corvettes, in order of ownership have been 1978, 1965, 1999, 1969, 1973, and a different 1999.  I performed a lot of the work on many of these cars, but for the first time, with this 1966, I bought an old Corvette that was ready to drive.  Given the limited time I have to work on cars this made the most sense.”

“My passion, beyond the current production Corvette, is big block engine mid-year (C2) Corvettes.  My 1965 was a big block convertible, although it was not an all original car, and the 1969 was a real L71 optioned 435hp coupe that I sold to Corvette restorer Kevin Mackay.”

“Last year I decided to start looking for another C2 big block Corvette.  I was able to locate this Corvette which only has 39,000 miles on it.  It was originally purchased in the Northeast United States, but was eventually purchased by a doctor in Franklin, Kentucky. The doctor sold the Corvette to a well-known collector and restorer who restored the car to Bloomington Gold standard.  It spent the last part of its life in California, where the owner had recently passed away.”

“I was attracted to the car’s very low mileage, originality and level of options. Specific options I love are the side pipes, 4-speed manual transmission, 427 cubic inch / 425hp engine, and the knock off wheels. The power, noise, and nostalgia are spectacular with this car.  In a way, I believe that the C2 era of Corvette is reminiscent of what the new Stingray has done for the Corvette brand. At the time, this car was simply off the charts with technology and unparalleled performance, just like the 2020 Stingray.  The two cars are vastly different, but to me represent the same level of performance for their respective times. Although, it is not the rarest Corvette in the world, it is a shining example of a fantastic time in Corvette history.”

Kai’s Corvette will be displayed in the Museum’s lobby on the turntable for the next several months. The Museum is open daily, 8am-5pm CT.

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Making the cut for 2021 is the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette. The car was deemed a Best Buy because “This level of overall performance and ‘curb appeal’ usually costs thousands – if not tens of thousands – more.” The article also points out that the base-model Corvette can even spring from zero to sixty in only three seconds.

New features for 2021 include wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity are now standard, Magnetic Selective Ride Control is now available without the Z51 performance package, and there are new interior / exterior color and body-stripe options.

You can read the complete report online here.

Since 1967, Consumer Guide Automotive’s award-winning editorial team has used a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation process to identify the vehicles worthy of serious consideration by consumers. The editors utilize objective criteria, such as price, features, performance, accommodations, fuel economy, reliability records, and resale value, to assess each vehicle.

The key to Consumer Guide Automotive’s annual Best Buy Awards is the careful evaluation of every aspect of each vehicle as it relates to consumers’ real-world driving experience. It is this thoroughness that leads consumers to check Consumer Guide Automotive reviews before buying a new vehicle.

Consumer Guide’s editorial team drives more than 100,000 miles every year evaluating what these vehicles do well—and what they don’t. Whether it is driving through the city, on highways, in rural areas, on long trips, or simply picking up the kids at school, these vehicles are tested in the same way that typical car buyers would use their vehicles.

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As with in most Corvette colors, you are really going to want to see this in person to gain the full affect. The Silver Flare is a color that GM team members describe as having a lot of ‘travel’ – meaning that as you walk around the car, the color can look different. Ask anyone to describe the hue, and you’ll get different answers. The lighting and position greatly affect what the color looks like.

Shout-out to GM Bowling Green Assembly for giving us the opportunity to shoot this early build 2021 Silver Flare Hard Top Convertible!

Build and Price Your Corvette Here

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Thanks to General Motors we were able to get some photos of the new Red Mist color on a freshly painted early build 2021 Corvette. If you’re lucky, you might see the car driving around Bowling Green. Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter shared during his seminar as part of the Museum’s 26th Anniversary that he, too, would be driving a 2021 Red Mist Corvette.

The color replaces Long Beach Red, which debuted for the 2016 model year. Production of the 2021 Corvette is anticipated to start sometime in November with an exact date being fluid as production of the current 2020 model year continues.

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“In the factory we have some build restrictions. A few examples – we cannot make 100% coupes or 100% convertibles at any given time. The way we source our parts we try to predict what the fraction might be, and the different cars have different work content. The convertible top takes more time to install than the coupe. The workload in those specific stations are exaggerated a little bit. It’s not a problem if you do one. You end up slowing everything down if you do two, three, four in a row. When we schedule building of cars we typically never schedule convertibles back to back for that reason.”

Kai shared another restriction is colors. “We don’t build in batches. We do single piece flow in the order we need.” Kai elaborated that if there we an issue with the paint then they’d have many in a row that would have to be remediated, so it’s best to not have them in batches.

Other restrictions include various options. One option Kai shared was ‘E60’ or the front lift option. “It takes more energy or specific work content to install all those systems. It also takes parts. We don’t source every car to have every option. If you order a car with E60, which many more people did than we though, it can take longer to source that part.”

Kai also shared that supplier capacity can affect production. “We’ve had that situation with the current car – the high wing – we have a limited supply and many people want that. We have to match the supply base and sometimes we don’t predict what customers want in its entirety.”

Kai then explained the various event codes and what they mean.

“What we’re going to talk about is what happens in the factory from the time people order cars to the time they’re delivered,” shared Kai.

“When the plant builds cars, they’re all pre-determined what they will be and that cannot be changed due to the fact we have so many very expensive components we can’t keep an inventory. We could not have a warehouse full. We don’t want to be stuck with inventory that’s obsolete. We basically have our suppliers hold inventory and deliver it to the line in the order we need it.”

My car has been built… when do I get it? Elaborating on the Quality hold

“The first thing that happens is alignment. The car is driven over an alignment pit with operators under the car doing the work with about 30 individual checks. The next step is Dynamic Vehicle Test (‘DVT’). Over 8,000 checks are done in DVT. The car will check a lot of things itself. In here we communicate with the vehicle and are looking to find things like are the antennas working properly for OnStar.”

After the DVT is what’s known as Launch Water Test, a water test that is much longer than the standard water test (more than 250% longer), a supplemental water test to the standard test, was proposed by the plant and is not performed elsewhere. “When we bring a new vehicle to production, trying to seal a car up is more difficult than you might think. For all intents and purposes this test really submerges the car so we can find leaks.” Kai also shared that this particular test they can earn their way out of by making sure they don’t have leaks and reduce it to an audit.

Corvette CARE consists of a closer look with 32 individual checks. “Some of these things are done in the process and are an added check, not a replacement. Other things we do here are 100% functionality checks. We might cycle the seats back and forth. We don’t just install the seat and hope it’s ok.”

The normal process is known as CARE (Customer Acceptance, Review and Evaluation), which is done on all cars and consists of 270 individual checks. “It’s a moving conveyor and on here we have a number of people looking at many aspects of the car, some of them predetermined, and some we elect to include.”

Following CARE is the normal water test with 110 different checks, and then the ‘Squeak & Rattle Test’. “At this point the car goes outside and goes down a track. As you enter the track you go through small bumps that jar the car back and forth. You go over ropes and rumble strips, cobble roads. We’re looking to see if the car is making any funny noises that we can pick-up. The individuals are very acute in their auditory skills so they can find things. 100% of the cars go through this.”

“Remember at this point we are still at a 3800. All the dealer knows is that the car has been built. All these processes that are going on we don’t change the status of the car from what the dealer can see.”

The next process is ‘Batch and Hold’ consisting of 57 individual checks. “This is a process that will eventually go away. The operator is taking a look to make sure buttons work, cycling things, open and close doors, looking at how the frunk closes, making sure we have good flushness, walking around the car and checking for functionality and appearance items. Some people may wonder why you’d put your hands on the car like that but it’s amazing what your fingers can pickup and many times you’ll see our operators use the back of their hand to pickup any discrepancies between two panels.”

“Once we get to the point we don’t have issues we start eliminating these one by one because we’ve proven they aren’t an issue and we simply audit them. Some people say trust then verify. You go verify and when you verify enough then you can start trusting. That’s how manufacturing is.”

Adding all the checks up it is more than 8,500 checks.

“Depending on where you are in the country – if you’re out west they sometimes are shipped by rail. So they go to Toledo, Ohio and get on a rail, they go out west and they’re dispatched to dealers. By far, the majority of cars leave on these trucks and they go in batches geographically. We don’t ship in VIN sequence. We wait until we have cars that are grouped in a geographic area and we move them.”

Kai’s seminar concluded with a Q&A session composed of on-site event participants and virtual viewers. The seminars are available for viewing in their entirety online with purchase of ‘Virtual Anniversary’ registration. The fee is $20 and includes the Plant seminar, Corvette seminar, Hall of Fame Roundtable, Corvette Power with Paul Koerner seminar, Mobil 1 Tech Talk and Michelin Tire Design & Transformation seminar. Kai’s seminar is also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

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Highlights of the seminar include:

2020 Stingray Orders

• 83% Coupe / 17% Convertible
• 3LT most popular trim level (44% on Coupe and 56% on Convertible)
• 89% of buyers order the performance exhaust
• 61% order the GT2 seats
• 58% order the front lift (E60)
• 42% order Bright Red calipers
• Most popular wheels are Carbon Flash with 42%
• Most popular exterior color is Torch Red with 25%. (Revealed the car first in Torch Red)
• Arctic White: 15%; Black: 12%; Sebring Orange and Elkhart Lake Blue 7% each; Rapid Blue, Ceramic Matrix Gray, Blade Silver and Shadow Gray with 6% each; Long Beach Red 5% and Accelerate Yellow and Zeus Bronze each with 3%.
• Expect to see the Accelerate Yellow and Zeus Bronze pickup as they were some of the newer introductions.
• Interior color – Jet Black is most popular with 28%
• High wing very popular to where couldn’t keep up with demand (23%)

The team also discussed the new retractable hardtop and the benefits of this new format:

• Track capability
• Serious high-performance car image
• Top up appearance
• Perception of safety / security
• Quality – noise, fabric creasing
• Clean ability
• Separate rear window control
• Cargo space vs coupe
• Cargo space with top down
• No trunk partitions
• Eliminates the current convertible compromises with more attractive customer offer

Tadge shared that they receive a lot of feedback from people and ideas from customers, that people like customization. “Everywhere we can, we make choices available.”

New for 2021:

• Magnetic Ride Control available without Z51 – FE2
• Wireless Phone Projection – Apple Car Play and Android Auto
• Driver Mode Selector on screen visualization
• Strike Yellow / Sky Cool Gray Interior – 3LT
• New Colors: Silver Flare Metallic and Red Mist Metallic Tintcoat
• Additional stripe options and colors: New Stinger hood stripes (Carbon Flash with Red, Yellow or Silver accents); Racing Stripes new colors: Red/Yellow/Orange/Blue

Check out the full seminar below to hear all they had to share for yourself!

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During the Corvette presentation on Friday, Harlan Charles described the Silver Flare as having a ‘lot of travel’ and looking very different as you walk around the car. The Red Mist was described as a ‘firey red, brighter than some of the ones we’ve previously done.’

Harlan and Tadge indicated that the very first 2021 validation cars are in the process of being built with Silver Mist being the first, and Red Mist being the fourth – so the opportunity to ‘see’ a full car in the color is forthcoming. Those cars are pre-production and gives the team a few months to check them out before building customer cars.

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The Resolution reads as follows:

Senate
Commonwealth of Kentucky
2020 Regular Session
Senate Resolution No. 57
Thursday, March 19, 2020

Senator Mike Wilson introduced the following resolution which was ordered to be printed.

A Resolution honoring Corvette and acknowledging the General Motors Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green.

Whereas, Kentucky has established itself as an auto manufacturing hub, ranking thir in the country in passenger vehicle production; and

Whereas, the all-new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has been named the 2020 North American Car of the Year by a 50-member jury of independent automotive journalists; and

Whereas, production of the 2020 model will begin next month here in the Commonwealth with customer deliveries taking place shortly thereafter; and

Whereas, the Corvette was previously honored with this award in 1998 for the introduction of the fifth-generation vehicle and again in 2014 for its seventh-generation model;

Now, Therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
Section 1. The members of the Senate, both individually and collectively, recognize the honor bestowed on General Motors and, by extension, on the Commonwealth of Kentucky by this award, and congratulate the company and those GM employees involved in the design of the new Corvette Stingray.

Kentucky Senator Mike Wilson presents GM Bowling Green Assembly Plant Manager Kai Spande with a Senate Resolution Award with Museum President & CEO Dr. Sean Preston on stage.

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