Retired 4-Star US Army General Richard Cody, former commander of the 101st Airborne and Army Vice Chief of Staff, recently toured the Bowling Green Assembly Plant where the Corvette is assembled.

Fifty-six years ago today, the very first production Corvettes were completed and rolled off a temporary assembly line at Chevrolet's Customer Delivery Center in Flint, Michigan. All the Corvettes were hand-built and for the first time in a mass produced vehicle, a revolutionary material called fiberglass was used instead of steel to make the body panels.

2009 was a year of highs and lows for Corvette. The high was most definitely the introduction of the Corvette ZR1. With a supercharged 638 horsepower engine, it's the most powerful production Corvette ever built by GM. When we talk about the low points, it's the global automotive recession that resulted in a 52% decline in sales from the 35,310 Corvettes built in 2008 to just 16,956 built in 2009.

While at the National Corvette Museum's C5/C6 Bash, we heard from the manager of the Bowling Green Assembly Plant Paul Graham about GM's plan to close factories over the summer. Paul informs us that the only change for the Bowling Green Assembly Plant will be an additional week added to the normal two week shutdown in July. We also hear from Corvette's Chief Engineer about the production targets for the Corvette ZR1 and how its production has been affected with these closures.