A question for TeamZR1

[Andy J]

Bit of a random question for you Mr Team ZR1 but did i read on one of your posts that you actually worked at the Tech Centre at Warren MI? If so when were you there?
The reason i ask is that on the build sheet for my 96 LT1 Convertible it states that it was shipped new to C-P-C group c/o qual-effic inc Warren MI and charge to Nao Cvo Tech Centre Region 7133 11 Mile Road Warren MI.
Date on build sheet is 01/23/96
It may well be that you could have seen my car when it was new!

 

[teamzr1]

Hi Andy

I was with GM from like 1985 to 1992 so before the time of your '96
Yes I was in Warren Mi at the Tech center, Manufacture B building, down in the underground design test labs

 

[Andy J]

Ah ok.
So what would my car have been doing there? Just a company car for a manager?

 

[teamzr1]

The engineering work was done by the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada (CPC) group; also known as the small car division

GM on random takes new cars to the Tech Center to check over the quality of builds and then back to CPC or
maybe shipped to CPC to then a dealer in Canada

 

[Andy J]

When i did a carfax when i bought the car it stayed registered to GM for a couple of years then it was sold through a dealer in Washington state to a guy who kept it for 20+ years before it made its way to the uk in late 2019.
Its a really clean example with only 47k miles and 2 US registered keepers. The fact it has an interesting history with it being sent to the Tech centre from new makes it a little bit special. Well to me it does!
I would love to know more about what it did at the Tech Centre just to add a bit of back story to it.
Were there any records kept of what cars went there and why? I would so love to fill out its early history.

 

[teamzr1]

If a car was chosen for long term design and quality testing at Tech Center an engineer would make it a daily driver for a period of time.
When done it maybe decided to send the car to CPC to freshen up and then sold or simply sold off as is a used vehicle

BTW Tech Center would do weird things, for example I could see a Ford in testing garage, about same model as a GM make and engineering would swap
things like the engine or tranny and then test drive both to see what is better or if other make did better was use that to decide on
model changes to function as the other nameplate was better at.
Also, could be used to hide a new design of an engine as example into that Ford and that way when testing it on the road the spies would not see what that GM vehicle it really would go into for production