Bowling Green, Kentucky: Corvette Town USA

Tonya Prater   |  

Updated: Jul 7, 2023

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Fast cars and fun road trips.

Bowling Green, Kentucky is like a magnet for Corvette lovers. It doesn’t matter if you have a mild interest, or a full-blown obsession, this south central Kentucky town may be just the place to plan your next weekend getaway.  For those with Corvette mania, a road trip should include a stop in Bowling Green at the GM Corvette Assembly Plant and National Corvette Museum.

And if you own a Corvette, you’ll receive royal treatment with parking spots allotted especially for you.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, offers special Corvette Parking Only

Every Corvette in production is manufactured at the GM Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green.Visitors take an hour long tour through the factory to watch the Corvette come together step by step, from a naked chassis to a refined mass of beautiful metal known as the Corvette Stingray, an American classic.

Constructing the Corvette

The factory tour begins with a safety film and an overview of the Corvette. If you don’t have an interest in this fast sports car, you will by the time the movie is over. I imagined how fun it would be to fly down the highway on my next road trip in a little red Corvette now that my days of car seats and toting children has drawn to a close.

A new Corvette waiting on its new owner at the GM Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky

The short documentary type movie highlights the construction of the Stingray, shares why the transmission is located in the rear and how each of the car systems are engineered for ultimate safety and performance. Everything about the car is engineered for speed; this is not the car for your new driver. But then, maybe it’s not the car for an older driver either. There’s just too much temptation to open it up on the highway and allow the horses under the hood to run free.

Take the Corvette factory tour

The mile long, guided walking tour of the plant takes you alongside the manufacturing process. For regular tours, you’ll stop at key points to listen to your tour guide point out the steps in the construction process and discuss the use of robots and automated carts to retrieve parts.

If you’re lucky enough to have ordered a Corvette, you can take a private tour and watch your car being assembled before picking it up at the plant or during delivery at the National Corvette Museum, located a few minutes away.

Memorabilia is available at the end of the tour, including t-shirts, pressed pennies and other trinkets.  If you are a Corvette owner and weren’t on site to see the birth of your machine, you can visit the library or archives, give them your VIN number and they’ll supply you with the day your Corvette rolled off the production line and onto the test track.

Tour of the GM Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green Kentucky.

Be warned, this tour has a way of turning non-car enthusiasts into mega-fans of the Corvette Stingray coupe, Z51 or Z06. You may leave contemplating a purchase.

Tours are available for those seven and older, three times during the day. Plan to arrive 30 minutes early, as the walk across the parking lot may leave you feeling as though you’ve walked a mile before you even step foot in the plant. Purses, cell phones and cameras must be left in your vehicle and are not permitted on the tour. Tours are $7 per person, free if you’re a GM employee, GM retiree (with ID) or active military personnel (with ID) or with someone who is.

Old Corvettes never die; they go to the National Corvette Museum

Several minutes from the GM Assembly Plant, you’ll find another attraction worthy of attention, the  National Corvette Museum. This museum made international news early early in 2014 when a large sinkhole swallowed eight prized Corvettes under the Skydome. This is a great place to stop before or after your production plant tour.

One of the prized Corvettes damaged from a sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum.

Visit before November, for your chance to witness the iconic sinkhole before it is filled in and see six of the eight cars that were affected.

Two of the cars, the a 2009 ZR1 and the 1992 “One Millionth” car are now in Michigan awaiting restoration. The other six will remain on permanent display.

NOTE: The Bowling Green CVB provided tours for the review. Opinions are all my own.