Mike Mueller’s latest work, The Corvette Factories: Building America’s Sports Car is a cool look back, not just on the history of the Corvette, but on the history of how we build cars. The Corvette has always been a bit of a special case because it has never been assembled or constructed like the typical car. Seeing how the earliest examples were virtually built by hand will give you a great appreciation on just how far the Corvette has come.
Interestingly, over the course of its life the Corvette has been produced in three different places. Flint, Michigan, St Louis, Missouri, and currently Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Flint operation was a hastily contructed line that constructed the first 300 Corvettes. After that, production went to St. Louis until 1981.
The book documents the different factories, assembly methods, and engineering that went into the different eras of Corvettes and to say that the amount of manual labor put into the first generation cars is suprising would be a massive understatement. Some of the most interesting images in the book are of the hand made mahogany master models that were eventually used to make the fiberglass molds that would become the bodies.
It was the EPA who really drove the decision making process to move Corvette production from St. Louis in 1981. The painting process, which was always an achilles heel for Corvette production was fouling the air around the plant and with the government getting ready to take action, the Bowling Green plant was finished and production was moved. Amazingly, 1,100 employees chose to move themselves and their families to the new plant in Kentucky. That’s employee dedication.
You don’t have to be a Corvette freak to enjoy this book. Any gearhead that is interested in the history of automotive production will be entertained and informed by Mueller’s work.
The book can be found at Motorbooks or at your local book seller.
