600-HP Corvette exposed
A Romulus loading dock worker not only took spy photos of a top-secret supercharged Chevrolet Corvette — he took the super high-performance sports car for a test drive, according to a police report. The employee drove the prototype car, valued at $1 million, around a parking lot on Monday, and used a camera phone to take some 23 photos of the vehicle, the report states.
The report was obtained Friday by the gmsource.com automotive blog and posted to its Web site. Romulus police would not release the report to The Detroit News on Friday afternoon, saying it was part of an ongoing investigation. The incident took place at the Central States Trucking Co.'s facility near Detroit Metropolitan Airport the day before the vehicle was shipped to Germany
02/23/07 General Motors Corp. is investigating how photos of a vehicle identified as a top-secret, super high-performance Chevrolet Corvette showed up on several Web sites Thursday.
Several photos of the Corvette that showed both its exterior and engine began appearing Thursday on auto enthusiast Web sites such as Autoblog.com, Jalopnik.com and thegmsource.com. It's unclear where the photos were first posted.
The car was identified as a prototype of the 2009 Corvette SS, a 600-plus horsepower supercharged supercar dubbed by some as the "Blue Devil," after GM CEO Rick Wagoner's alma mater, Duke University.
GM spokesman Terry Rhadigan confirmed the automaker is investigating a possible "breech of security" but would not confirm the vehicle in the photos was a Corvette supercar prototype. "We don't comment on future products," he said.
He said GM believes the photos were snapped in Romulus by an employee of a transport company that was in the process of shipping the vehicle.
Rhadigan said GM could not confirm numerous Web reports that the employee was arrested Thursday by Romulus police. A Romulus police spokesman declined to comment Thursday night.
"We acted on what was an alleged breech of security," Rhadigan said. "We are still piecing it all together." More at Detroit News