GM HERITAGE CENTER ~ WOW !!!

On a trip to Michigan in August of 2019 I was lucky to see the collection on display at the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights. The GM Heritage Center. It is GM's collection of cars and is not open to the general public. From their web site:

"The General Motors Heritage Center serves as a showplace for the vehicles of the GM Heritage Collection, as a corporate conferencing and special events venue, and as the permanent home for the corporation’s collection of historic literature and artifacts which document GM’s rich history of innovation. Located in an 81,000 square foot facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan, the Center has more than 165 vehicles on display. Each of the vehicles in the Collection illustrates a design, technical or sales milestone or accomplishment in the history of General Motors or automotive history."

Before entering the building we were surprised with a beautiful blue C8 parked out front just for our group.

What you see is only a small part of GM's collection and there are so many amazing cars you pretty much go on sensory overload not knowing what to look at next.

I only had ever seen a Futureliner in magazines and on TV. So cool I alwas wanted to see one, walked in the door and there it was...amazing !!!

"The GM Futurliners were a group of custom vehicles, styled in the 1940's by Harley Earl for General Motors, and integral

to the company's Parade of Progress-a North American traveling exhibition promoting future cars and technologies.

The scope of the collection made it hard to pick just a few pictures for this article but here are a few favorites:

  "1911 Oldsmobile Limited ... The Oldsmobile Limited was one of the largest cars ever built in America and in it's day. With 42 inch wheels and brass trim it is an elegant and ever imposing automobile. A Roadster, Touring Car (shown here) and top-of-the-line limousine were offered. In it's short three year production run, under 700 Oldsmobile Limited models were ever produced with a factory price ranging from $5,000.00 to $7,000.00. Today their value exceeds $1,000,000.00. Oldsmobile division had owned this vehicle since the 1930's.
ENGINE: 707 CID Inline 6, 60 horsepower / Base price $5,000.oo" 

 
"1969 Chevrolet Astro III Experimental ... The Astro III was a two passenger experimental car resembling an executive jet aircraft, down to it's tricycle-type wheel arrangement. It was envisioned as a high-performance vehicle suited for travel on restricted access highways of the future. The Astro III featured a power canopy that moved forward and upward to allow easy access to the passenger compartment which was finished in aircraft style interiors. Rear vision was provided by closed circuit television and the Astro III was powered by a gas turbine engine that was found in military and civilian helicopters of the period."

"1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT Concept ... The smooth aerodynamic lines of the experimental 1962 Corvair Monza are the result of a wind tunnel testing program. The entire rear section of the Monza GT hinges upward to allow access to the air-cooled, six cylinder-opposed powerplant. The wrap around canopy opens forward and hinges for full access to the passenger compartment. The passenger compartment features reclined contour seating. The dash panel has reflection-free crackle finish, and all gauges to the right of the driver are angled toward them for maximum legibility."



So many outstanding vehicles it would be hard to pick a favorite. Each one in pristine condition. Cars that you may have seen in magazines or maybe never have seen at all. We had a couple of hours there ... I could have stayed a couple of days. I wonder what other gems lie in the hundreds of other cars not currently on display. Truly a car lovers dream location and this was only the opening event of my vacation adventure.

"2009 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept ... The Chevrolet Corvette Concept was introduced at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show. Five Chevrolet-based characters were featured in the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". The character Sideswipe took the form of a sleek, vision concept dreamed up by the Corvette designers at GM. The design was influenced by the original 1959 Stingray Racer, but also drew on Corvette heritage clues from other generations. It brought together in a futureistic that seems to be equal parts race car and spaceship."

A special treat was a talk, on the C8, followed by a Q&A by Harlan Charles, Corvette product manager. Who also had another C8 inside for attendees to check out.

LOOKING FOR GOLD ... CORVETTES

LOOKING FOR GOLD

A conversation with Michael Manderino

as told to Keith E. Jacobson

 

 I was very fortunate to spend some time speaking with Michael Manderino. He is a past president of the Chicago Corvette Club, serving in that position for 12 years. I stumbled on his web site rarevettes.com which features cars from his collection. His first was a 1987 red Vette and so the story began. He and his wife saw a purple Vette at an event and decided that really liking that color they would look for one. Turns out that it was a a special rare color but eventually one was found and purchased. While looking for this car someone mentioned maybe you should look for a gold only 15 had been made.

THE LAST 6 CARS PRODUCED IN 1998 WERE ALL  SPECIAL ORDER CARS

MEDIUM PURPLE PEARL METALLIC

THIS CAR WAS THE FIRST OF THIS GROUP

NOTE IN THE WINDOW STICKER UNDER

SALES CODE IS A “S” CODE "S" STANDS FOR SPECIAL ORDER

GM OFFERED THIS COLOR ONLY 1 YEAR

MEDIUM PURPLE PEARL METALLIC

PAINT CODE 95  “AMETHYST”

TOTAL PRODUCTION IN THIS COLOR WAS 396 140 COUPES

256 CONVERTIBLES THIS COUPE WITH BLACK INTERIOR IS

1 OF 58 WITH THE EQUIPMENT OPTIONS ON THIS CAR THAT MAKES THIS CORVETTE 1 OF 10

 

The hunt was on for a gold. and car #10 was found and purchased from Texas. Not long after that Mike's son happened to see car #5 for sale and that one was also purchased. Mike had been been invited to bring his two gold cars to an event at Mid America Motor works where he met the owner of car #1. In attendance at the event were Wil Cooksey, Corvette Plant Manager 1993-2008 and Dave McLellan, Corvette chief engineer 1975-1992 who filled him in with stories about the gold cars. Mike's recollection was that McLellan said something to the effect that they should have kept on trying to make the gold work for the 50th anniversary car and that they dropped it too soon. Also, at one point employees of Revell the model company spotted a gold Corvette and inquiring about it were told they were experimenting with it for a millennium Corvette edition. When the truth came out, the models were pulled from the shelves.

Years later the owner of the #1 Aztec Gold contacted Mike saying that it was time to sell and that it should go to a good home and it was offered to him. SCORE !!! Now three of 15 produced lived at his home. Along the way #6 was available and joined the collection. Four of the 15 produced now resided in Chicago. Eventually one was sold off and now three are in the collection.

 He also has a huge die cast collection.

A big thanks for sharing your time and your stories

THE LEGEND OF AZTEC GOLD

THE LEGEND OF AZTEC GOLD

 Story and Photos by permission of

Michael Manderino/www.rarecorvettes.com

In 1998 GM experimented with a high metallic paint "Aztec Gold Metallic," code 58U, it was to be used for the 50th anniversary car in 2003. GM took five cars and did a test on them. Then Wil Cooksey, Corvette Plant Manager, and his team noticed that in certain light and angles the car panel looked like a different color from a neighboring panel. They then took five more cars and with advice from DuPont tried again. The results were similar. Cooksey then had an expert from DuPont fly out for advice and another try again on five more, same results.

The first series was painted on 10/22/1997. The second series on 11/17/1997 and the final five on
11/26/1997. The paint results on all 15 cars were the same. All the body panels were removed from the cars and inspected.Then panel-by-panel each Corvette was reassembled with the panels that most closely matched each other. It is said that no two Aztec Gold Corvettes look the same but if you were not looking for the differences you would never see it.

GM having a high standard for consistency cancelled the Aztec Gold project. Originally the cars were to be destroyed but Cooksey prevailed and all fifteen were shipped to the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. There GM held a private auction open only to GM executives and a limited number of dealers. In total three convertibles and and twelve coupes were produced in Aztec Gold.

Chevy built over 31,000 Corvettes in 1998 and almost a quarter of a million C5s in total. So seeing an Aztec Gold is a rare sight...if you see one grab a picture !!!