[VIDEO] One Month Left to Tour the Corvette Assembly Plant Before it Closes for ‘Manufacturing Advancements’

Last year, the Corvette Assembly Plant hosted 30,000 visitors who came to witness the building and assembly of America’s Favorite Sports car. So it came as quite a shock last month to learn that public tours will soon be coming to a temporary halt.

Bowling Green television station WBKO visited the Corvette Assembly Plant and talked with Plant Director Ray Theriault about the upcoming pause in public tours. The plant tours are scheduled to end on February 5th due to “manufacturing advancements,” and there is currently no date set for when it will re-open.

When asked about the pause in tours, Theriault says “There comes a season where it’s time for us to continue to focus internally a little bit and to advance our manufacturing such that we can continue to produce award winning supercars right here in Bowling Green.”

As far as what those manufacturing enhancements are, it’s our speculation that there could be several factors at play which include building some Captured Test Fleet (CTF) cars for the upcoming 2025 Corvette ZR1, as well as the rumored 2025 model year interior update that could see the end of the “Great Wall of Buttons” that houses the car’s HVAC controls on a sloping partition located between the driver and passenger seats.

We’re hoping that this pause in the plant tours isn’t something longer than expected, especially with the NCM Bash coming up at the end of April. However, it appears based on the way they are talking that it could be many months before the public tours resume. The National Corvette Museum manages the tours, and we’ve heard that they told the tour guides that once the decision to restart the tours is made, they will have to reapply for their positions. To us, that sounds like the tours will be closed longer than most are expecting.

However, we do know that workers at the assembly plant like see all the people coming through, so we’ll just have to wait it out and hope it isn’t too long of a pause.

According to Theriault, “We really enjoy having enthusiasts and our customers here because it is a win-win for both. We get a lot of excitement from the customer. So, our employees really enjoy when we have public and enthusiast and it’s a source of price for them to work where people vacation and it certainly helps us be motivated to make sure every that every car we produce and that comes roaring to life at the end of our line is a dream car for that individual customer.”

You can watch the full news report from WBKO here:

Source:
WBKO / YouTube

Related:
Corvette Assembly Plant Suspending Plant Tours Beginning February 5th
[PIC] Corvette Racing’s Chassis No. 1 Z06 GT3.R Revisits the Corvette Assembly Plant
The Corvette Assembly Plant Completed the First Three 2024 E-Rays This Week

Subscribe Now: