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GM investing $439 million in Corvette plant

General Motors is slowly trickling out announcements about its $5.4 billion in US plant upgrades over the next three years. The latest one is something that fans of one of America's most beloved sports car will be happy about. The Bowling Green, KY, factory that assembles the Chevrolet Corvette is receiving $439 million of those funds to build a new paint shop. Covering 450,000 square-feet, the site will make painting the 'Vette more efficient and environmentally friendly. The upgrades there include robots that use paint more effectively, technology to eliminate sludge water, LED lighting to improve inspections, and less energy-intensive baking ovens. While the groundbreaking is already complete for the building, full construction is expected to begin this summer and take two years. This is the biggest upgrade for the Kentucky factory in a few years. In preparation for the latest Corvette, the Bowling Green plant received $131 million in 2011 for upgrades and to add more workers there. Related Video: Chevrolet Corvette Plant Gets $439 Million in Upgrades New, environment-friendly paint shop drives efficient production, retains 150 jobs 2015-05-21 BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Torch Red, Shark Gray Metallic and Laguna Blue Tintcoat, three popular palate choices on the 2015 Corvette, kept the marketers who make up names working late. Now they can dream about more painstakingly precise pigments, thanks to a new paint shop that is among $439 million being invested at the only plant in the world that builds Chevrolet's iconic sports car. General Motors announced the moves today that include retaining 150 jobs and building the 450,000 square-foot paint shop that is almost half the size of the entire current production facility. The investment builds on approximately $135 million GM has invested in the plant over the last four years for the new Corvette Stingray and Performance Build Center. The announcement was followed by a groundbreaking event for the new paint shop. "The Corvette is one of Kentucky's most-cherished icons," said. Lt. Gov. Crit Luallen. "Such a significant expansion of the Bowling Green Assembly Plant will help the company remain competitive in the region and around the world." Construction of the new paint shop, which includes substantial technology upgrades, is planned to begin this summer and take approximately two years to complete. Corvette production schedules will be unaffected by the construction.

Tarantino's stolen Chevy Malibu from Pulp Fiction recovered after 19 years [w/video]

Quentin Tarantino fans will likely remember Vincent Vega's cherry 1964 Chevrolet Malibu Convertible in Pulp Fiction. In a movie drenched in automotive references, the Malibu is very nearly a character in and of itself, and it serves as the subject of Vega's soliloquy about the kind of man who vandalizes another's automobile. It also happened to be Tarantino's personal car when the film was shot, and was apparently stolen shortly after production wrapped. Now police have located the car some 19 years later.
As it turns out, the thieves cloned the vehicle identification number from another '64 Malibu and had the car registered under the new digits. It was then sold to an unsuspecting buyer. Police happened upon the duplicate VINs while investigating another potential theft. Right now, it's unclear whether Tarantino has taken possession of the Chevrolet, if it has remained in the possession of the fraud victim, or whether it's caught somewhere in the gears of justice. Either way, you can catch Vega's memorable thoughts on the car keying in the Pulp Fiction clip below. But consider yourself warned: the video contains explicit language as Not Safe For Work as it comes.

Sinkhole Opens Up In National Corvette Museum, Swallows Eight Cars

More cars are being moved inside the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. to avoid falling down the same sinkhole that swallowed eight classic sports cars early this morning, Autoblog reported. Museum officials said the hole was discovered when motion sensors activated around 5:45 a.m. The rescue mission can be viewed on the museum's live feed cameras, which weren't working after the sinkhole emerged. A 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and a 2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil," both on loan from General Motors, were among the cars that fell into the sinkhole. The museum owned the other affected Corvettes, which included a 1963 Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace Car and the 1 millionth Corvette ever produced. The state of the cars at the bottom of the hole isn't known, but trial lawyer and sinkhole expert Ted Corless said the cars may be a total loss for the museum and GM. "Most states, including Kentucky, exclude damage caused by sinkhole activity," he said. "There will be, in all likelihood, a claim made, but a lot of policies would specifically exclude these kinds of damages." Corless has 15 years experience dealing with sinkholes. He said that typically neither the building, nor the cars themselves are protected under their insurance policies. "I would have to say, more likely then not, they're going to have an uninsured loss measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars." The museum is closed Wednesday while a structural engineer assesses the damage. Related Gallery 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Test Drive View 9 Photos Related Gallery 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Test Drive View 9 Photos Weird Car News Chevrolet GM corvette