[MikeNoun]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Yes - it's a "vehicle teardown" display. You can see the car bodies in the far background.

We do both competitive vehicle displays (to see what everybody else is doing) and we also tear down our own vehicles. Competitive teardowns usually occur when the vehicles are new; When we tear down our own it's usually after a full durability schedule (accelerated wear to approximate 10 years). The engineer can review his parts to see how they held up, even requesting bodies to be cut apart so you can see inside and such. Most of the parts are scrapped at the end but if there is something particular of interest the engineer can request to have it saved.

They used to be significant special events but now are ongoing all the time. They are housed in the GM "Knowledge Center", which is behind the preproduction build shops south of the Tech Center. This most recent incarnation was referred to initially as the "Mona Lisa" project, for whatever reason.

K

Thanks Keith!

I was just reading about the "Mona Lisa" project. They said that GM would bring in two examples of a vehicle from a competitor, and park them in the GM Knowledge Center. They would tear one completely down to its nuts and bolts (like in the photo), and leave the other car intact for evaluation. The engineers would pour over everything, from parts to connecting rod bolts, trunk lids to dashboard assemblies, to see how they were built.

I wonder if that's what's going on in this photo. Maybe they disassembled cars from every U.S. manufacturer on occasion for evaluation.

Mike