They finally opened up a block, so I decided to make a short trip down. Unfortunately, there are no photos allowed in the plant, so I don't have anything to show from it. I can tell you it was amazing. It's not some sanitized corporate production like the Ford Rouge truck plant tour is. This is a fully operational factory, where you're effectively a barely welcome guest. You need to watch out for automated robots, and guys driving tugs full of parts at crazy speeds. It's absolutely fascinating to see how they orchestrate all those thousands of parts to come together at just the right times to birth a fully working car off the line every couple minutes. If you ever get a chance to see a modern car plant, do it.
I was at least able to get some pictures outside.
My car was born here, went to Nevada, then LA, then KC. It visited Detroit last year, and now it's back to the mothership for a brief visit.
My plant tour also included a pass to the museum. There was also a car show going on. I won't bore you guys with a ton of photos. All I'll say is the gross tackiness I associate with Corvettes was on full display.
The museum was cool. There was the usual historic stuff, and a really nice focus on racing.
This was parked up in the lot. ZR1X. The added aero on the back of this thing really helps break up that big square dump truck ass it has.
This was really cool. It's a fully 3D printed C8 frame. They used it for the initial setup of the assembly line process and early robot calibration. It's held together with sheet metal screws instead of welds.
There was also an older 3D printed C7 Z06 wind tunnel model. I was nerding out over this shit. It had a sticker on it dated May 2012. It wasn't shown to the public until the 2015 Detroit Auto Show.
I don't know how many of you guys know, but in 2014 a 30 foot deep sinkhole opened up under the big display dome at the museum. It ate 8 cars. They eventually restored 7 of them. This one had too much unique stuff on it, so they decided it was too far gone. But they kept it for their display.
There's a hatch in the floor where you can see down into what's left of the sinkhole. 30 feet is a long way.
Check out the sinkhole photos here even if you don't care much for the cars themselves. It's nuts. https://www.corvettemuseum.org/sinkhole/
i'm glad I didn't drive down just for the museum. I got through it in about an hour and a half. I probably should have spent a little more time on some of the historical motorsport displays. Oh well.
They weren't very busy, so there was a good chance we could go out by ourselves. 
I'll tell that story soon.
at that last picture
