I'm in Bowling Green..............

[Afterimage]

On my way home from Arkansas (driving) and am staying in BG tonight and continuing the rest of the way home tomorrow........................but not until I visit the plant and museum in the morning.

Was last in BG in 2010 to do the same thing after visiting CaC that year with a buddy. I had my new 09 Z06 at the time so I got to see the C6's being built (all the models including the ZR1).

This time I get to see the C8's being built. The GF is with me so we both get to see this. After that and the museum we are heading north.

FYI, I was in Arkansas for the weekend to do the Little Rock Marathon. Did it in 6:18:13 and you get the World's Biggest Marathon Medal when you finish (this is what they are known for in the marathoning world).

Tony

 

[2020C8#49]

On my way home from Arkansas (driving) and am staying in BG tonight and continuing the rest of the way home tomorrow........................but not until I visit the plant and museum in the morning.

Was last in BG in 2010 to do the same thing after visiting CaC that year with a buddy. I had my new 09 Z06 at the time so I got to see the C6's being built (all the models including the ZR1).

This time I get to see the C8's being built. The GF is with me so we both get to see this. After that and the museum we are heading north.

FYI, I was in Arkansas for the weekend to do the Little Rock Marathon. Did it in 6:18:13 and you get the World's Biggest Marathon Medal when you finish (this is what they are known for in the marathoning world).

Tony

Look for 2023 brochures at museum. They might have them? lol

 

[Jeffer2013]

bring back a c8 please

 

[Afterimage]

Look for 2023 brochures at museum. They might have them? lol

I can see what I can do if you want one?? BTW, still have the ZR1 in your avatar??? If it's AW that is a virtual twin to mine on the outside from what I can see.

 

[2020C8#49]

I can see what I can do if you want one?? BTW, still have the ZR1 in your avatar??? If it's AW that is a virtual twin to mine on the outside from what I can see.

Yes please see if they have brochures. That would be awesome. I still have my ZR1. It's a car I would never sell. Are you the original owner of your ZR1? Mine was factory order and I think I have just over 4000km on it.

 

[Afterimage]

Yes, I'm the OE owner of my car and was inbound to the dealer I purchased from back in July 2019.

Didn't see any brochures there, wasn't a lot of C7 ZR1 stuff around in the gift shop other than a T I bought.

One more stop and the drive home starts. I'll post up with some pics and other things when I'm back home.

 

[Afterimage]

I'm home now. Last stop was at Mammoth Cave National Park for a cave tour (totally recommended if you are ever in the area). Finished at 5pm CST and started for home (got there at 5am EST). Just woke up from a few hours sleep.

The plant tour was great but got screwed in a way. Before it started we were told there was going to be a drill for violent weather and if it happened while we were on the tour we would head for the emergency shelters with all the employees.

3/4 of the way through the alarm goes off, we were in the paint area so off to the nearest shelter (which is the male/female bathrooms there). Alarm continues throughout the plant along with "Take shelter" blasted out over the speakers in 3's over and over. This goes on for 20+minutes. During this time our tour was just hanging out in the washrooms with the workers. After what seemed forever the "all clear" was given and everybody was able to leave the washrooms/emergency shelter.

Unfortunately by the time the drill was over it was close to lunch time for the workers so production kinda stops as employees take another break (some on the line, some go to proper lunch areas) and our tour continues with very little or no "work" being done. We went by the tire/wheel area, the cars dropping down on the ground for the first time, first fire up (1 employee did fire up a Z06 while we were there as he took his lunch break). We also didn't see workers drive the cars off the line, pound them over bump strips to set the suspension, dyno, alignment, rain bath and finally to the outside we just got the tour guide talk about these areas so I felt cheated in a way.

From there GF and I left the plant and headed over to the museum, some different cars inside compared to when I was there in 2010 with the big thing in the museum centering on the sinkhole incident of 2014. I was looking forward to seeing the cars that they removed sitting there all damaged and stuff but they were nowhere to be found. There are pictures, videos, news clips from all over the world about the collaspe that u can interact with.

Then Corvette row for the museum deliveries, quite a few stingrays and 1 red mist Z06 sat there waiting for the procedure.

I have pics and later in the day I'll upload a few. It was cool to be able to visit the plant and museum again but man this is an epic drive heading to Arkansas and back via Bowling Green. Very long..................any more really long distance trips I'll fly or use a nicer car to drive (I used my daily...................a Suzuki SX4).

Tony

 

[Afterimage]

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Glad you made it home safely. This time of the year you never know what you might run into weather wise. Thanks for the story and pics.

 

[Jack Raccoon!]

Did your GF enter the Marathon? What was her time? Love you man lol...

 

[Afterimage]

Yes she did it also. Her time was 7:24 something. I didn't wait around for her, race started and I was off. hehehe

 

[Afterimage]

Some things mentioned on the plant tour from the tour guide:

Currently they are running 2 shifts building about 94 cars per shift so total daily cars built is 188.

We were told that on the line that day there may be an E ray or two being built but we didn't see them, as preproduction units probably built for testing and verification.

After the cars are built and they go into the "rain bath" area 800 GPH amount of water are dropped on the vehicles for like 5 mins or so with someone inside looking around all over for leaks. Not familiar with the C8's but I hear some people complain about water collecting at the back of the rear window and causing some sort of issue. If they are dropping that amount of water at the factory wouldn't all the cars have this problem??

Only 8 bolts connect the body of the car to the frame when they do the "marriage" of the chassis (with engine/trans all other parts on there). We saw that part and 2 workers get that done in around 2 mins.

Most tasks along the line can be done in around 2 mins or less, but 4 mins are allocated for the workers to complete them. Some vehicles are "banked" along certain parts of the line so if a vehicle is having an issue with a particular task being performed they can move it off the line, pull a banked car to keep the line moving then deal with the "problem" of the previous vehicle on that part of the line.

We didn't see it because of the lunch thing after the drill but at the wheel/tire area the worker there doesn't just mount and install the wheels they also have to install 2 screws at the bottom of each door because back at the door install area access in that area makes it impossible for those workers to install the screws so the tire person gets to do that tiny job before the car starts to come down on its own tires.

That's all I can remember right now (last night was first full night's sleep since coming home). I'll post up if I remember others.

edit: 1 more, when the bare body or partially assembled body is going down the line to protect the workers that constantly get in and out of the shell to install what they install in there cut tennis balls are pushed into the upper windshield corner/A pillar sharp point at both sides. It's kinda funny to see a car body go down the line with tennis balls protruding from the upper corners of the A pillar.

 

[Hanko_]

When I was running maintenance at a Chrysler assembly plant years ago, no one rode in the car through water test. It takes several minutes and would tie up 5 or 6 people.
We added a bit of UV solution to the water. Immediately on exit, 1 person would open the doors and trunk, and shine a black light all around. Even slight leaks would fluoresce.
Occasionally, someone at a station before water test would forget, and leave a window open. We installed an ultrasonic sensor to look for glass and sound an alarm.
We had two 50 hp pumps blowing water at the cars from the top, sides, and bottom.

 

[Afterimage]

Below from Nashville full size replica of the Parthenon like in Athens, Greece and statue of Athena inside.

Edit: We quickly drove by Graceland in Memphis so 1 more pic below.

 

[Afterimage]

Mammoth Cave National Park. We were on the historic tour. 2hrs into cave and back out. Distance 2 miles descending to 310ft below the ground at the lowest point.

At 1 point in the tour Ranger Alex (our cave guide) shuts all the lights off and u see NOTHING!!!! He talks about the early days of cave exploration and what it felt like for those people before lighting up an ancient flame lantern and it "barely" lights up maybe a foot or two around you.

Very creepy.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Mammoth Cave National Park. We were on the historic tour. 2hrs into cave and back out. Distance 2 miles descending to 310ft below the ground at the lowest point.

At 1 point in the tour Ranger Alex (our cave guide) shuts all the lights off and u see NOTHING!!!! He talks about the early days of cave exploration and what it felt like for those people before lighting up an ancient flame lantern and it "barely" lights up maybe a foot or two around you.

Very creepy.

I did the Lewis and Clark caverns in Montana a few years back while on a Vette trip down the western States. They had a section there not lighted either. We think nighttime is dark. Not...lol...