Sal Collaziano
Staff member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2008
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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, GMC
The problem is that by the time you get to the assembly stage for most mass-production cars, you've gone past the most interesting part, because affixing sub-assemblies to one another is a bit like building a pre-fab house. It can be interesting. Once. Even at Maranello, for instance, watching a Ferrari worker attach an instrument panel to a bulkhead is all right the first time. But we could spend hours watching a woman hand-wrap the cut pieces of leather over each piece of that panel using nothing more than elbow grease and a hair dryer.
That's why we enjoyed our tour of General Motors Powertrain Tonawanda Engine Plant in Buffalo, New York. We've seen plenty of engines dropped into cars. Watching people and machines build an engine, that got us interested. And not just any engine - this was the Gen V small-block we were witnessing the birth of. Or rather, hundreds of births during our few hours at the factory.
There have only been five small-block family members since 1955, and this latest is not only a rebirth of GM's signature engine for its reborn signature car, the C7 Corvette Stingray, but represents the rebirth of the company itself and the factory that makes it; the Gen V incorporates new internal technologies and new build technologies.
GM has invested $825 million since 2010 at Tonawanda for the engines it builds, $400 million of that specifically for the Gen V small block. Since 1938 the plant has built 70,967,249 engines, and will crank out - get it, "crank" - its 71-millionth engine this year. Our first thought on stepping onto the plant floor: "Modern Marvels, here we come."
If you prefer the picture tour, there's a captioned high-res gallery above, and a few videos below. Otherwise, read on...Continue reading Touring Tonowanda, where GM builds the new Gen V small-block
Touring Tonowanda, where GM builds the new Gen V small-block originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Oct 2013 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Our first thought on stepping onto the plant floor: "Modern Marvels, here we come."
What's so interesting about a plant tour? If we're honest, usually nothing. In most cases, we go on them because they're part of a larger trip - the vegetables we endure while we wait for the dessert of the press-trip drive - and we stroll narrow concrete halls avoiding forklifts and bodily injury so we can watch workers bolt large sub-assemblies together, and then finally, voilà, admire a color-wheel phalanx of [insert mass-market car here] arrayed for delivery.
The problem is that by the time you get to the assembly stage for most mass-production cars, you've gone past the most interesting part, because affixing sub-assemblies to one another is a bit like building a pre-fab house. It can be interesting. Once. Even at Maranello, for instance, watching a Ferrari worker attach an instrument panel to a bulkhead is all right the first time. But we could spend hours watching a woman hand-wrap the cut pieces of leather over each piece of that panel using nothing more than elbow grease and a hair dryer.
That's why we enjoyed our tour of General Motors Powertrain Tonawanda Engine Plant in Buffalo, New York. We've seen plenty of engines dropped into cars. Watching people and machines build an engine, that got us interested. And not just any engine - this was the Gen V small-block we were witnessing the birth of. Or rather, hundreds of births during our few hours at the factory.
There have only been five small-block family members since 1955, and this latest is not only a rebirth of GM's signature engine for its reborn signature car, the C7 Corvette Stingray, but represents the rebirth of the company itself and the factory that makes it; the Gen V incorporates new internal technologies and new build technologies.
GM has invested $825 million since 2010 at Tonawanda for the engines it builds, $400 million of that specifically for the Gen V small block. Since 1938 the plant has built 70,967,249 engines, and will crank out - get it, "crank" - its 71-millionth engine this year. Our first thought on stepping onto the plant floor: "Modern Marvels, here we come."
If you prefer the picture tour, there's a captioned high-res gallery above, and a few videos below. Otherwise, read on...Continue reading Touring Tonowanda, where GM builds the new Gen V small-block
Touring Tonowanda, where GM builds the new Gen V small-block originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Oct 2013 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
More...