IT'S NOT A MUSEUM; The new Heritage Center quacks like a duck, but it doesn't yet waddle like one.(News)(General Motors Heritage Center)

Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON

General Motors may have been late waking up to the value of its own significant history, but with its centennial looming in 2008, the company is gathering its resources for a mighty blowout. And it's about time it caught on. The new General Motors Heritage Center that opened in June can't really be measured by the standards of other car company-owned museums, because it is expressly not a museum. At least not yet.

It is something both more-bigger, with more stuff-and less than a museum at the same time. It is more, in the sense that it's a repository and archive for everything related to GM's history, not just a bunch of cars or biographical displays. It is less, in that admission is by appointment, not through a turnstile or on regular hours.

Greg Wallace, manager of the GM Heritage Center, previously managed a similar, smaller Cadillac-only collection that, like the new multi-marque facility, had as one of its corporate angels Gary Cowger, president of GM's North American Operations. Like the earlier Cadillac collection, the new Heritage Center will be able to help owners restoring GM cars find historic records-such as build sheets-for their projects. A computer database keeps track of the materials, so it should be a powerful tool for historical research. Expect to pay a fee if you gain access.

Over the years much was lost or even deliberately destroyed, but General Motors has been such a gigantic enterprise, and so often did employees circumvent orders to destroy material they recognized as significant, that huge stores remained scattered in hidden corners all over the world.

When the call went out from the new centralized location in Sterling Heights, Michigan, just north of the GM Technical Center in Warren, amazing things bubbled up in attics, cellars and storage closets throughout the company. This was supplemented with selective purchases, such as that of the massive Pinky Randall collection of Chevrolet memorabilia.

"Every time a truckload comes in,'' says Wallace, "our adrenaline level rises. It's comparable to opening a treasure chest every day.''