Chevrolet: Corvette Pace Car on 2040-cars

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LG Chem's troubled Chevy Volt battery plant hiring once again

The Michigan battery plant known for paying its workers to do nothing has turned things around and is now hiring more workers, specifically to do something. South Korea-based LG Chem, which runs the factory to supply the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in vehicle with its lithium-ion batteries, held a job fair recently to bring on 40 new employees in order to meet higher battery demand, according to WZZM, the ABC affiliate for Grand Rapids, MI. The LG Chem factory is in Holland, MI, about 30 miles west of Grand Rapids, and it made its first batteries last year. Prior to that, though, the factory gained notoriety after a US Department of Energy (DOE) probe found that workers there were getting paid to do, well, nothing. That's because demand for the battery packs was so low that it cost less for the plant to sit idle. The DOE was conducting the probe because of its financial grant to LG Chem. But that was then and today is today. LG Chem is looking to ramp up production in advance of the second-generation Volt. That 2016 model-year version is said to have a longer all-electric range and better performance and will ride on a new chassis, but few official details have surfaced. We will know more when we get our first look at the car at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

Anti-purist 1963 Ferrari GTE sports hot rod Chevy V8

I remember reading a story around the time Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift came out. It focused on one of the star cars of that film, a 1967 Ford Mustang fastback that started the film as a shell, and in a pinch, was transformed into a modified masterpiece, complete with the RB26DETT engine from a Nissan Skyline GT-R (which started the film under the hood of an S15 Silvia). There was a genuine (and in our minds, absurd) fear in the article that taking a piece of classic American iron and fitting a twin-turbocharged JDM engine would result in some awful trend in the classic car community. If you thought a GT-R-powered classic Mustang was sacrilege, though, this car will probably make you vomit. For the rest of us, it's a neat piece of engineering. Shown above is a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTE, and yes, that's a 302-cubic-inch, small-block Chevrolet V8 under the hood. On top of that, it uses the six-speed manual transmission from a Viper, a nine-inch Ford rear end, and Mitsubishi-sourced paint. So yeah, it's a FrankenFerrari. Check out Road Heads' interview with this custom GTE's owner, which is followed by a brief test drive. And of course, head into Comments afterwards, and let us know what you think. Is this Yankee-powered 250 GTE blasphemous or badass?

2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible is a Swiss hit

We've just received an early peek at the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible here at the Geneva Motor Show. General Motors was kind enough to let us attend the final dress-rehearsal for its press conference scheduled for tomorrow's opening media day, and we've come away with a good look at the droptop C7 in person.
In the metal, the new Corvette Convertible seems somehow less avant-garde than the Coupe, even in Z51 Performance Package guise. That's not necessarily a bad thing - more of an observation. That initial impression may be because the C7's new greenhouse is one of its most prominent departures from Corvettes past. While we didn't get to see the top erected, there's no rear side window in the stock images that Chevy has already released, suggesting the C7 convertible's profile will look a lot like its C6 predecessor. And with the new power tonneau cover in place, there are also no rear ducts that come as part of the Z51 package (they've been moved under the car).
As with its predecessor, the tonneau is a handsome double-bubble piece, and the body-color "waterfall" element into the cabin between the seats has made it to the new model as well. Thus, the overall look with the top down should be a bit more familiar to prior-gen C6 owners - if you're one of those put off by the C7's new shape, you'll probably appreciate the convertible bodystyle more than the coupe.