The Corvette Factories: Building America's Sports Car Hardcover – November 16, 2009

Having managed an R&D Lab in Ashtabula Ohio wanted to see if Molded Fiberglass, located in that town, received its due credit for building the first Vette bodies. It did! Great research - found out more than I had known about the early Corvette history. Had a fellow working in the Lab who had worked for Molded Fiberglass and built some of the first bodies. He also built prototypes for several years after.Excellent book. Lots of details regarding construction methods etc.Tried to buy a Vette in 1974 but even having an uncle who managed a Chevy dealership in NJ, who tried to get me one, there were none available with over 37,500 sold that year. This despite the fact that even the 454 had only 270 HP. Had to buy a Datsun 260Z. No regrets, great car once headers and Hitachi SU fixes eliminated the poor pollution controls used at the time! First Vette was whe we moved to SC and I bought an '87 then a '93 40th Anniversary. But none can come close to my current 436 HP LS3 2008 coupe.Recommend the book to Vette lovers as well as those who would love to have one. Even those who turn their nose down to Vette's in favor of European cars can find out how my 2008 weighs only 3200 pounds and the 6 speed gets 28 mpg on the highway!Go Chevy!

Great book.The used copy I bought was more worn than I would have bought.

This book covers the early history of the Chevrolet Corvette. Any one who is a Corvette fan needs to get this book. Great pictures and text.

I am a Corvette nut. I love everything about the Corvette. This book gives great insight to how the Corvette came into being and how they were made. I've always been fascinated by car assembly plants and how they can turn out so many cars in a relatively short period of time. Now you can see pictures and read comments by the people that were on the line. From the beginning in 1953 to today's Bowling Green Assembly Plant. You'll be fascinated at how these cars come together.The author also gives some great information about the different generations of Corvette. It's not just about the factories and the assembly lines.I highly recommend this book.

Great book with many interesting facts and photos covering the 56+ years of manufacturing America's only true sports car. Glad to see that it was pointed out that the Corvette got its start in Flint, the home of Buick. My only complaint is the miss-mash organization of the photos. They do not follow the text or chapters and bounce around from one decade to another, often on the same page.

This is a "must read" book for the person that really wants to know about the corvette. From its humble beginnings in Flint Michigan to Bowling Green Kentucky. I am a member of the NCM and a "new" owner of a 1981 Corvette. I read anything and everything about America's Sports car. This book is very well written and easy for the non-corvette owner to appreciate. Zora would be proud of the way Mike Mueller has told the story of "The little ship that could"

I bought my Dad this book for his Birthday & he absolutely loves it! He is the most difficult person in my family to shop for. If he wants something he goes out & buys it, if he doesn't have it it's because it's incredibly expensive. When I called him to wish him Happy Birthday he went on & on about this book for 20minutes. If you're a Vette enthusiast this book will appease you.

The book was received with little wait and in good condition. The book was more than I expected. Great illustration, easy read. I am pleased with my purchase.

I should preface this by saying I have read numerous Corvette books, including more than one from Mike Mueller, and I am a Corvette owner. If I wanted a history of Corvette, why buy this book? I wanted a history of the factories. So after 33 historical pages of Corvette, the author got into some history of the first plant, in Flint, MI. I had assumed I would be reading in detail how cars were assembled. There was some detail but the book title was misleading to me. I mean, if you were writing about Corvette Factories for a small audience of Corvette enthusiasts, wouldn't you have thought it should have been at least moderately technical? The accompanying photos were good but were not presented in order of assembly. The finished car was shown after nine pages of description and photos; thirteen pages later the car was still being assembled. The lack of a logical pictorial flow was disconcerting.A few pages into the St Louis factory, there was a piece on a 1963 Corvette (second series Corvette) while the text was still back in 1958. Then a 1968 photo appeared, a few photos of more 1968's (this being the third Corvette iteration) then back to 1954. The photos continued jumping from 1958 to 1977 which gave the reader no feel for factory progression and modifications over the years.By page 109, we have arrived at the new (and present) factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The text in the portion better supported the photos than the previous accounts but much technical detail on how Corvettes were and are assembled, was just not there. Instead, Mueller focused on the people problems associated with the move from St. Louis to Kentucky rather than detail in print and photo, how the car was assembled. The 40 or so pages are mostly non interesting factory shots.The remaining 50 pages, detail the present iteration (C6) Corvette and the famous National Corvette Museum, both of which have been widely published in monthly Corvette magazines.Had I known what I now know, this book would not be collecting dust on my library shelves. A disappointing read, considering what it could have been.

A very nice book, but come in a palstic air pakage and have damage in one corner, that is very sade