GM to Shutter Performance Build Center in Michigan, Report Says

Those looking to take part in the assembly of their Corvette’s V-8 engine though Chevrolet’s Engine Build Experience program should make plans to head south. According to a report in Automotive News, General Motors will close its suburban Detroit Performance Build Center engine-assembly facility in January of 2014. Currently located in Wixom, Michigan, the program will be resurrected at an as-of-yet undetermined date some 500 miles south at GM’s Bowling Green, Kentucky, Corvette plant.

Since opening in 2004, the Wixom facility has turned out nearly 40,000 essentially hand-built engines, its pending closure putting a temporary halt to the Engine Build Experience program. While primarily marketed to prospective Corvette owners, the program also allowed for customers to take part in the assembly of LS7 or LS9 crate engines destined for vehicles of the purchaser’s choice. (We actually assisted in the assembly of the 100-millionth Chevy small block produced.) Although no official date for the program’s Kentucky reboot has been given, GM did say it’s planning a more comprehensive program for the experience. The move will ostensibly give Corvette buyers the opportunity to watch their car and engine being assembled in the same facility, but as Automotive News points out, the 6.2-liter V-8 option in the current Stingray is made in an entirely different location. GM also built the LS3 and LSX454 crate motor, as well as the now-defunct Northstar V-8 at the Performance Build Center.

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GM has been been focused on consolidating its powertrain operations for a year now, and while we’re sorry to see the facility and its approximately 30 employees close up shop in Detroit, they—and the visitors to the new facility—can drown their sorrows in any number of products from the region’s selection of top-shelf distilleries.



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