Cody U. 
The General Motors Bowling Green assembly plant is powering back up and is shooting C8 Corvettes off the production line despite a stroke of bad weather luck in early December. The plant even utilized a rare Saturday shift to help get numbers up and better than ever before. And while the plant is actively working to avoid a strike, this is nevertheless good news, and could mean more sales.
GM sold 33,042 C8 Corvettes in America last year, up 53 percent, and the supercar’s best since 2015. That milestone is significant, as 2015 was the third year the C7 was on the market (the C8 is also into year three), and when the Z06 of that generation was introduced. You may remember it as “Big Nasty.” A new Z06 is also coming this year.
The Bowling Green assembly plant had been victim of a bad string of tornadoes last year, causing a rooftop fire and museum signage to blow 30-plus miles away. The damage was extensive enough to warrant massive insurance claims including the total loss of about 120 Corvette vehicles. Things seem to be getting back on track now however as this past week the assembly plant pushed out a whopping 1,036 C8 Corvettes.
That number is special for a couple of reasons. For starters, it beats the plant’s weekly goal of 920 vehicles by 120. Another reason these numbers are surprising is while the plant seldom ever reaches that 920 goal it averaged about 854 cars last November according to a Corvette Blogger post. That means it beat its usual weekly production by 182 vehicles, which is huge for putting together highly capable street machines such as the C8 Corvette. The last Corvette to roll off the assembly plant on Saturday was VIN #12059. The plant was closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. day, which might explain the call for a Saturday shift. The next expected stop in production will come in April for Easter where the plant will shut down April 15th to the 18th.
The Bowling Green Assembly plant has been a mainstay in the heritage of building Corvettes. It has been the exclusive home of Corvettes since 1981. The plant will be responsible for the production of the 2023 Z06. We do know that of those 1,036 Corvettes built none of them were Z06’s as the production for those are expected in May of this year, hopefully we’ll know how much the Z06 cost before then. You can catch a glimpse of the Z06 now as it begins its dealer tour.
