As fanboys of any great car will tell you, at some point in your life you have make a pilgrimage to the birthplace of your favorite car. For Corvette fans, that means a trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky, current home of the Vette assembly plant, as well as the National Corvette Museum. One of the cool things about being in the vicinity of an assembly plant like Bowling Green is that you occasionally spot vehicles that aren't generally available yet. Such was the case for one lucky Vette-lover who goes by the handle Blade3562.
After emerging from the museum, Blade spotted a veritable fleet of fresh C6 Corvettes sitting in a Wendys parking lot across the street from the factory. Upon closer inspection, he realized they were all of the ZR1 variety with the drivers apparently fueling up inside in preparation for the journey north to Michigan. Of the eight cars, one was in the particular shade of blue seen in the initial batch of press shots while the rest were split between yellow and red models. We've already seen a number of yellow prototypes from back when this thing was still wearing camouflage, including one that made a brief appearance at last year's Laguna Seca ALMS weekend. The red ZR1s, however, are new to our eyes and the shade works well with the carbon fiber roof.
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Last Saturday night before the Press Days began for the 2008 edition of the Detroit Auto Show, the 2nd annual GM Style event took place in a huge tent set up in a parking lot near the Renaissance Center headquarters of General Motors. Like last year's event, this runway show featured cars and fashions, but the feel of it was a bit different this year. This time last year, GM had yet to make its big design comeback breakthrough, for instance. Also, the cars were almost secondary to the celebrities last January. This time around, a year after the CTS, Malibu and Volt debuted in the days following the first GM Style event, the red carpet was gone and the fashions were worn by anonymous models, with musical accompaniment from Mary J Blige, Maroon 5 and Kid Rock. For 2008, the cars were the real stars. The automotive lineup was bookended by the oldest and newest Corvettes with a group of contemporary models in between. BTW, the tall gentleman in the front row who's white brimmed hat keeps popping up at the bottom of the pics? Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
For the second year in a row, General Motors kicked off the North American International Auto Show festivities with its celeb-studded GM Style Event. The show this year featured music from Mary J Blige, Maroon 5 and Detroit-area native Kid Rock. The star of the show, however, was the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The 620hp+ sports car was the finale of the runway fashion show that featured an assortment of GM production and concept cars. We'll have more on the rest of the GM Style Event later, but for now, just enjoy the ZR1.
General Motors invited Autoblog down to its design dome at the Warren, MI Tech Center to have a look at a couple of the vehicles that will be displayed at the Detroit Auto Show next week. Fortunately, it was one of those rare instances where they allowed us to bring in cameras and we took full advantage. One of the two vehicles on display was the recently-unveiled Corvette ZR1. At the time, there was some controversy in our comments about certain design elements of the ZR1, including the window in the hood, the side vents, the carbon fiber and the wheels. We had the opportunity to talk with Corvette Exterior Design Manager Kirk Bennian at the design dome and ask him about all of your concerns. Before you all get riled up, the car we were allowed to photograph was not mechanically correct, but rather a standard Z06 used by the design staff to test out exterior parts. That means it doesn't have the carbon brake disks and there's an LS7 under the plastic window instead of the new LS9. For all of you who thought the ZR1 badges on the previous press photos looked cheesy and tacked on, that's because they were. The proper badges weren't available yet when GM did its original photo shoot. This car does have the proper badges.
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