Chevrolet offers Corvette buyers the opportunity to build the engine for their cars

WITH VIDEO -- Chevrolet Corvette buyers can already take delivery of their car at the National Corvette Museum, get professional driver training and watch their cars being built. Now, General Motors will let them build the engine.

GM is offering buyers of the 2011 Corvette ZR1 and Z06 models the chance to build the engines for their cars. For a suggested retail price of $5,800, plus the cost of getting to Detroit, a Corvette buyer is welcome to GM's Performance Build Center in Wixom, Mich., where engines for the ZR1 and the Z06 are built by hand.

The Engine Build Experience package includes a concierge service that will set up most of the arrangements.

Buyers who select the option will work side-by-side with professionals at the Performance Build Center. Together they will build up an engine, starting with a bare block and moving through a series of assembly stations. Virtually all of the work is done by hand, with minimal automated assistance.

At the end of the line, the engine is test run on a dynamometer and the builder adds a personalized nameplate. Then the engine is sent the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky., for installation in the car.

The most important part? Whether built by you or by the professional technician, the engine from the Performance Build Center is covered by a five-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Watch a Corvette ZR1 engine being built at the Performance Build Center:

By Jake Lingeman