• May 4, 2011

General Motors is backing the Chevrolet Corvette with a $131 million investment in the plant that makes it. The investment in the Bowling Green Assembly puts the push toward the next-gen Corvette, into high gear and adds about 250 jobs, according to the company.

Said Mark Reuss, GM North America president, in a statement to the press while visiting the Bowling Green, Ky plant: "Corvette has no domestic peer for performance and pedigree and stands alongside the world's best supercars with almost 60 years of continuous heritage."

Last year the state's Governor Steve Beshear signed a bill making the 'Vette the official state sports car.

The plant will assemble the current-generation Corvette for two more model years during which the investment kicks in. General Motors says about 50,000 tourists visit the Bowling Green plant every year. Some are part of a GM program that alllows people who order their own Corvette to watch the car being built. Then they take delivery of the car at the National Corvette Museum nearby. Sign me up.