dont know if this was posted...my bad if it was

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/07/c...-to-lordstown/



Many people choose their car because it is an extension of themselves, their personality, their style and their passion. These folks tend to forge a deep attachment with their automobile, an inanimate object void of emotion. Despite that fact, a vehicle has wants and needs of its own, and some can be more demanding than a small child. As with any parent, there are curious automobile owners who often wonder, where did my baby come from? Recently 134 Chevrolet Cobalt fans got the chance to find out.

Back on September 27th, GM opened up the Lordstown, OH plant for 85 lucky owners and their guests. It was a rare chance for many to view the inner workings of an automotive assembly line, without a need to join the UAW. Event attendees received a full facility tour, on site lunch meet and greet, and of course freebee swag. Not surprisingly, the majority of the Cobalt fan base stemmed from the website CobaltSS.net.

The SS is about the only Chevy compact that can muster up an emotional following, as evident in the video of John Heinricy tossing the 2008 model around the Nurburgring. The turbocharged ECOtech powered econo car is just one of the models currently produced at the Lordstown plant. The massive facility is also slated to make the Cobalt replacement, the Cruze. Check out the gallery below to view photos from the event.

Cobalt's Come Home

By: Corey Mullane

There's something special about your birthplace, where no matter where you end up, coming home always has a special feeling to it. This Saturday we invited ECOtec owners to come back to the birthplace of the Cobalt and get in on an exclusive tour of the entire facility. From frame construction to final assembly, the owners that attended got an unprecedented look at how their car was built and who put their car together.

There were a total of 134 people that attended the owners meet with eighty five ECOtec owners bringing their vehicles to the Lordstown facility. A majority of these owners came from CobaltSS.net, an online community of Cobalt enthusiasts, and brought their customized Cobalt's to Lordstown from as far away as Texas and Mississippi to come see a tour of the plant. We hooked everyone up with special one-off Cobalt hats, posters, frisbees, stickers and tons of other goodies. We also set up a special catered lunch for all the owners, so that after their tour of the plant, they could sit down, relax and hang out with their long lost brothers.

The Lordstown Plant Facility is the highest volume single line vehicle assembly facility in the world with the main assembly building measuring over five million square feet and the full production line measuring over twenty one miles long. There are approximately 5,000 workers that put their individual touch into every single Cobalt before it leaves the Lordstown Facility. These workers work in shifts to produce roughly 1,500 Cobalt's a day, which sometimes isn't enough to meet demand!

Everyone at the Lordstown Plant couldn't have been happier to have all the owners at their facility and they couldn't have been better hosts. We'd like to thank all of the Lordstown men and women for opening their arms to all the ECOtec owners and making this VIP owner's event as special as it was.

Keep in mind that you can only register for these VIP ECOtec Owners Meet's on GMTunerSource.com, so keep your eyes peeled for the next one coming to a city near you. To see what you missed, you can check out the pictures from the event here. And remember, you can leave comments for us about the event and about where you'd like to see future events. So drop us a line below, we'd love to hear from you!

[Source: GMTunerSource.com]

 

i hope noone comes looking for a great community lol

 

haha deep inside we're a great community...just gotta get through the layer of lame posters and flakes

 

hope registration comes with a backhoe then

 

Good post man, seems like some people do understand how we feel about cars

 

Thats a big deal..congrats to the froum

Thats a big deal..congrats to the froum.

 

bump

 

Pretty bad ass, and LOL at the above posts.

 

That's awesome. I really wish I could have went. I was so jealous of all those who did lol

 

Indeed, very nice!

 

Thats coo, we are probably going to get alot more people now lol.

 

LOL at one comment it was something like "Nice crowd. This is why I wouldnt be caught dead in a Cobalt. "

 

Nice article. I wish I would have went but I had to move out of my school apartment and back home that Saturday. I want a Cobalt hat. haha. Kind of funny story, the following Sunday I had to move down to Kentucky for work. Well I was in Ohio and ran into construction and couldn't get in the lane I needed to be in so I was forced onto the Ohio Turnpike. So I get on, get my ticket and get off the next exit. The next exit happen to be Lordstown. So I pay my toll get off and think to myself that "hm, the plant has to be around here somewhere". ANd sure enoguh, right off the exit it was. There was obivously a ton of Cobalts in the lot and I decided to take a couple more minutes and drive around the plant. Needless to say, it was a good 15 minute detour and well worth the $.50 to pay to toll on the turnpike.

 

I totally almost missed this on the front page. Why hasn't it been bumped up to the top?

 

That sounds like an awesome trip. i think i almost cried when i read that article. i wonder if there are any other plants anywhere else besides lordstown?

 

Off the top of my head...

Arlington, TX where they build Escalades, Suburbans etc. (drove by there this summer)

Bowling Green, KY - Corvette

Fairfax, KS - I forget

Orion, MI - G6, Malibu

Flint, MI - just motors now I think

Lansing, MI - bunch of stuff

Wilmington, DE - Sky/Sol/Opel GT

Oshawa, ON - Grand Prix, Monte/Impala, new Camaro

 

It was so fun. We have a picture tread from the trip if anyone hasnt seen it yet

 

would have loved to be there for the meet at the lordstown plant, but unfortunatly i am out of state. we had a meet on the 19th producing 18 coby's, 2 saturn ion redlines, and 1 hhr. it was a great day for a meet. you can see pics of our meet in most of the NC threads in the south east region. plus i have most of them on my images page. keep up the good work up there guy's.

 

speaking of the plant tour when will they have another? any help or dates or even if they are going to again?

 

We did good...now we just have to cut the bullshit out and be a mature community. <-- We will never see that. Either way we do need to cut back on some of the bullshit and post more factual and informative information for new comers and stop bashing everyone.

 

I have seen more bans/bashing going on in the past 5 months then I have the whole 2 yrs I have been on here

 

x2 This is why I spend 90% of my time in the dungeon. Only reason I have yet to get banned.

 

I think my post got deleted not the other.

Back on topic though. Like it has been asked before, will there be another Lordstown assembly meet? I think I could make a good road trip out of it to take my car back to her birthplace. It would be a really cool experience.

 

I sold an article last month for $200 to a magazine. The topic was the aftermarket auto culture. I brought up Css.net, Hahn, Intense, and even Rebel with kind words. I brought up Lordstown and how local quality matters. I also highlighted a local place called Jerry's Curb Service. I can't find the article yet, but I was going to post it too if it ever shows up. As a freelancer, they just buy rights and words. I don't know where it goes after that with my articles. So, I hope that I find it some day.