BigPontiac

Sounds like 2 new chops are needed! One with the slotted mags, one with the turbines... (Torino vs. Charger)

The American Racing "almost" turbines were the wheels used on the General Lee

The American Racing Vintage collection has some interesting ones: (even some IROC repros!) link to catalog Another 70s period wheel (in that catalog) would be the Ansen Sprint slotted mags...similar to these...

Firefox. The Ultimate Browsing Machine.

Love the fuel injection. My Bonneville is a PITA to start if it sits for more than a week. My next project car will be a resto-rod for sure...maybe a '56 Safari...

Too bad he took it apart and then couldn't finish it. Looked pretty good to begin with.One last Laguna search resulted in this (said it fits el camino): 454

A third car to add to the project collection in the barn perhaps?link

While looking for pics, I stumbled on a few at a junkyard...they had a '74 Laguna AND '74 Chevelle Wagon... not sure how up to date they are, but either may have some parts you could use if they're still around... link

The Overhaulin' car started life like this: I believe the Laguna nose was a bolt-on...the hood they modified by taking the original, then cutting the center section out of a 60s Chevelle SS hood (I think), then grafting it into the El Camino hood. And they filled the side lights up front. Subtle mods, but they looked pretty neat... The nose they used was like a 73-74

I wish I could find a better picture of that Overhaulin' car. The different nose totally transformed the car!I love the Atomic orange on the GTO...

Laguna S3 nose, Laguna S3 nose! (yeah, I'm a broken record...but now that your deviating from stock to look cool...)

Coker Tire is one of several companies that offer repro wheels in various sizes... Corvette Rallyes example

Another interesting perspective: link to complete article

Hey, I've SEEN that car! I pass it every once in a while parked with the For Sale sign. I've wondered what possessed them to do that to it...

My dad actually has a 2006 Infiniti G35x...it's a nice car, great in the snow...even with only the all-season tires it came it. It's fantastic with winter tires. His biggest gripe with the car is that the manual transmission and AWD are mutually exclusive options. The volume of vehicles sold needs to be balanced against the profit earned per vehicle. If GM could offer the G8 as a Pontiac for an investment of $100MM in RWD only, that buys them a new product in a reasonably short time frame with minimal risk. I don't believe the Commodore offers AWD as an option, so that would be an additional spend in engineering to make it available for Pontiac....not to mention the impacts to manufacturing. So if they can sell 50k/yr for their investment, or maybe an additional 25k units if AWD were offered, but if that were to cost an additional $100MM (re:$200MM) to bring to market, maybe they decided it wasn't worth the investment (or delay in product availability). The interviews with Bob Lutz at the G8 launch stated that one of the mistakes they made with the GTO was allocating too many cars to the Mid-West and not enough to the West Coast...that "lesson learned" is likely driving some of GM's thought process. With all the gripes I've heard on this board about the GTO, I've never heard "I didn't buy one because it didn't offer AWD"... The West Coast is likely a key market GM wants to grow...odds are the Rustbelt is a secondary priority. IMO, GM needs to worry more about selling desirable cars at a profit than purely pushing volume. (Selling high volume at a financial loss is still a loss). Differentiating the brands with unique features and characteristics helps prevent overlap. For those who don't want RWD for winter driving, GM offers several other models in its other brands in FWD (or AWD) to meet their needs.

Here you go...a cool $50K and the '59 GMC is yours... For Sale Ad

In the real brochure, the photo quality is evenly matched between both trucks. The scanned version may not show as well as the real thing. I'm not sure if this is a dealer, regional, or GM national offering. Anyone else seen anything like it? I may checkout a few other dealers out of curiosity...

Appears GM is serious about improving their dealerships. This particular dealer was good sales/service, but crummy facility and location. These guys started with Olds in the 40s I think...however, they've also had Honda, Subaru, etc since the 70s... NEW BRITAIN, Connecticut - Schaller Auto World has sold its last Cadillac and Chevrolet. General Motors has pulled out of Schaller after the dealer's failure to acquire the VFW property on Veterans Drive. Art Schaller Jr. told The Herald his inventory of Chevrolets and Cadillacs has been sold, many of the vehicles back to the company. "We'll still have a presence here in the city," said Schaller, whose family has been selling cars in the city for generations. "Everyone knows that GM is facing hard times." Article continued

While visiting Mr. Goodwrench this week for service at my local GMC dealer, I happened to notice a small brochure titled "The All-New GMC Sierra BUSTS The 2007 Toyota Tundra Urban Legends". I scanned it and have attached it for your viewing pleasure.

Looks like they could be part of the tail light assembly, the part behind the lenses. Yes, no, maybe?

Now THIS I agree with you on 100% She's hot! That blonde at the CTS unveiling at NAIAS who spoke for NVH team was pretty cute too...

Just to recap our discussion: RF: "My only reservation at this point is no AWD, but if I had a winter beater on the side I would even consider overlooking that." BP: "AWD is not required to drive a car effectively in snow." RF: "iT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO with whether the BUYERS OF THE CAR WANT IT OR NOT. if the buyer wants to buy a car with it, the car better have it." RF: "buyers want optional AWD for RWD cars in bad weather" Your original statement was that YOU wanted the G8 to have AWD for winter use. I responded that AWD is not required for winter. American Heritage Dictionary defines "required" as follows: Needed; essential: missing several required parts. As cars with FWD and RWD are capable of being driven in the winter, I stand by my assertion that AWD is not required for winter driving. Beyond that, I find your argument confusing. You started off stating your personal preference, and that AWD is a DESIRABLE trait which is important to you. Then, you made the leap from your desires to all buyers, which is a completely different discussion. Additionally, your admission of not purchasing a CTS primarily based on the vehicle's price and not the availability of AWD implies that even if Pontiac were to offer the G8 with AWD you would still be unwilling to purchase one. With that said, if you'd like to continue discussing the intended buyers of the G8 and the impact a lack of AWD will have on it's sales in the North American market, I'd appreciate seeing the facts and associated references to support your conclusions. For example, what industry reference can you provide for your statement "1% of the population has snows right now"? How many annual retail sales will be lost by not offering AWD? Which key markets would be affected? What additional costs would be added to the G8 program to introduce AWD as an option? Impacts to the manufacturing process?

It is not better because an AWD car with performance tires will just spin all 4 of its tires in the snow instead of just the rear tires with RWD. Your post definitely represents the uneducated view of the general buyer public. I draw a distinction now after having a car with AWD (which cost extra buy buy) then having to buy a set of winter tires anyway for the car to be able to be driven in winter. Tires matter. Performance tires are designed for summer use. So, your analogy about shoes would more likely be trying to walk up an icy and snowy driveway in a set of running shoes during winter instead of wearing a pair of boots. Cars need proper foot wear in inclement weather too.GM is business which manufactures and sells cars. Separating the "signal" from the "noise" they get in feedback on the internet and in focus groups is a huge challenge. Throwing out requirements like "must have AWD" for cars you're not likely to want to buy because they're beyond your budget is actually doing more harm to GM than good. The Chevy SSR is a perfect example of the "GM build it"...they did, then no one came.

Here's what I'm thinking will be my next truck. The local dealer asked me what I'd want back in Nov and they semi-ordered my truck...but they missed the sunroof and MAX package w/o Z71 as I'd want. But at least now I know I like the color combo! My current Sierra is visible in the 1st pic... However, I just bought tires before winter, so I'll be waiting for 2008 and the 6 speed auto.

So, Pontiac is showing a performance sedan with 50/50 weight distribution, RWD and performance tires. How does adding AWD to that configuration improve the cars ability to drive through snow? Adding AWD adds weight to said performance sedan and wouldn't improve it chances in the snow due to the tires. Yeah, and *I* don't get it. So, when you were done testing driving the current gen CTS and wrote it off due to no AWD, you then went down to the Ford dealer and picked-up a 500????? I'd say the next gen CTS will offer AWD because BMW and Infiniti offer it. A simpler idea would be to offer a a winter tires package at the time of purchase. Saab dealers have been effective for years selling a winter tires and wheels at the time of new car purchase.