Northstar

We will, it's already out, and it's the same as the 2006 SS. I think a 2010 RWD Impala SS is much more likely.

Well Saturn definetly had the 4-door ION coupe before MB, but I'm guessing it was someone else.

The Silverado especially looks much better in these shots. Other than the WT model that I think is rather ugly, they all look pretty good. http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=475753

Right. Kerkorian didn't invest in GM for any reason other than to make money for himself. So, he goes out and says "Hmm, what is a way I can make GM's stock go up? Oh, how about an alliance? That would get lots of news and make the stock jump, and I'd make millions." GM's plans are working, but they're going to unfold too slowly for Kerkorian to get even richer while he know's he'll still be alive. Plus, by adding Nissan to the mix, the only thing that's going to happen is the plan is going to get re-juggled and delayed. Do you honestly think Kerkorian gives a rat's ass about what happens to GM 5-10 years down the road when he's no longer living? No. All he wants is more money. On Monday if GM announces high sales and if GM later announces a profit for the 3rd quarter, I think that should pretty much end GM's board listening to Kerkorian.

31lbs of boost? That's rediculous.

Since when did the 350Z have four seats? That's news to me. The Z06 also only lacks .3 inches in headroom, offers .5 inches more legroom, 1.6 inches more shoulder room, and .4 inches more hip room. You were saying? The Z06 is over 5 inches longer and over 4 inches wider. It also has a much bigger engine, bigger brakes, bigger wheels, and a dry sump system that adds a significant amount of weight. If you want to compare a regular Corvette to the 350Z, then the Corvette still spanks the Z in any performance category, and the price difference is not so great.

Olds was lost well before Rick was CEO. You think he's solely responsible for everything? Was he the only one that said "let's invest in Fiat"? Was it his only his decesion to sell GMAC? Kirk knows little about the auto industry. If he wants to offer suggestions, then fine, but telling someone how to run a company that he really doesn't know that much about is out of line.

LEDs are cool but I don't really care. The jeweled look goes better with the rest of the vehicle anyways, I think.

The front would have looked better without that dumb little tiny slat there for the grill. The rest of it look ok.

Umm, you just did the same thing you ridiculed them for doing. Obviously a business man isn't going to be driving a Z06 every day, but I know I would sure have a Z06 if I could afford it.

It's official: Holden’s Commodore is heading to America as General Motors forges ahead on a BMW-rivalling compact sedan. A Pontiac-badged Commodore will be unveiled at the Chicago motor show in 2007, signalling the start of the Commodore’s global tour. Speaking at this week's Paris motor show, General Motors product guru Bob Lutz did more than hint that the Commodore would wear a Pontiac nose and badges before long. “Come to the Chicago auto show and all we be revealed,” said a smiling Lutz, who earlier praised Holden and the new Commodore for being one of “the best vehicles GM has produced”. Speculation has been rife about Commodores being built in other markets, but nothing has been confirmed to date. However Lutz’s admission to drive.com.au confirms the rumours that the Commodore could be built in markets such as the United States to provide a large, rear-drive car to help revive General Motors’ ageing vehicles. The Commodore’s architecture is also expected to spawn many more rear-drive cars within the General Motors world, starting with the born-again Chevrolet Camaro that was unveiled at the 2006 Detroit motor show in concept form. The Pontiac “Commodore”, which is expected to wear a different name when it goes on sale in the States in 2007, is not the first time a Pontiac has been spawned from a Holden. Three years ago Holden sent Monaros to the 'States with fresh noses and Pontiac GTO badges to revive one of the most famous nameplates in Pontiac’s history. Like that car, the rebadged Commodore is expected to get some minor changes, including the classic Pontiac twin-nostril grille. GM considers Torana Also at the Paris show Lutz confirmed that General Motors is forging ahead with plans to produce a compact, rear-drive car to rival premium sedans from BMW and Lexus. And it could lead to the revival of the Torana, which was born-again as a concept in 2004. Lutz admitted a new rear-drive small car is on General Motors’ radar to compete with other dynamically-focussed small sedans such as the Lexus IS250 and BMW 3-Series. “As we look at rising fuel prices and the success of the (BMW) 1-Series in Europe … we are telling ourselves one of the things we’d like to investigate – and I stress, investigate – is a smaller, lighter, rear-wheel-drive architecture,” he says. The comments fuel longer-term expectations that the Torana could be reborn as a smaller, more fuel efficient alternative to the Commodore. However, Lutz stressed any such project would not be simply a “shrunken Commodore”. “The probability of a VE being shrunk is very remote,” said Lutz. “It never works well to take a large architecture and shrink it.” Lutz also said that any such small, rear-drive vehicle would be designed from the outset with a four-cylinder engine. While he said a larger engine is a possibility for a such a car, he wanted the small, rear-drive platform vehicle to be initially designed as a four-cylinder. “It will be smaller, lighter and more agile (than a Commodore),” says Lutz. http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleD...eID=20396&vf=12

I don't see what's so great about the inside. When you don't compare it to Ford NA interiors, it's nothing special.

Sure, so would I, but having a say doesn't mean ordering the CEO and board of the company to form an alliance with another company when he doesn't even really know what's going on inside GM. I think it's pretty clear that GM can make world-class cars without help from anyone else. Personally, I think Kerkorian is just being greedy. If the alliance goes through, that means the stock price will probably see another big spike, which means Kerkorian makes millions upon millions more dollars. He doesn't care about GM's long term, he wants to get even richer in the short term, since he won't be around for that much longer.

Cheaper I guess, but I'm not sure that's set in stone.

Screw Kerkorian. Why doesn't he take the huge amount of money he has made now and stop pretending to know how to run a company that he's only interested in because he's invested so much into the stock?

Look for a V8 to become available for the '09 MY.

Hummers are different though. There's still a market for SUVs, and apparantly lots of people want more Hummer models (see H3).

I remember at work we had a guy come in every week or so to fix any dings, and he didn't have to do anything on the underside of the metal to pop dings out. I don't remember him doing anything on a hood of a vehicle, but that doesn't mean he didn't or couldn't. There was a ding on the crease that runs down the side of an STS, and he popped it out and it looked brand new. I do remember, however, that he was unsuccessful in getting a ding out of the rear quarter of the GTO we had at work, so it doesn't always work, but that's the only one I recall that didn't come out. I think my sister talked to someone about popping a couple dings out of the Alero and they said it'd be $50/ding.

If they're right next to a river then that'd make it pretty cheap to farm, since they can just build some sort of cannal or something to their land and get free water constantly.

Actually, I wouldn't count on that.

Chevrolet WTCC Ultra: Exciting Driveable Race car Concept • Muscular: Strikingly fresh design, outside and in • Powerful: 190 hp common rail diesel • Efficient: Modern lightweight materials Paris. "It’s a wild thing": The Chevrolet WTCC Ultra has got what it takes to be the star of the Paris Motor Show – and not just because its rear spoiler shoots so brashly up to-wards the heavens. The bold and aggressive design of the racecar study takes the Chevrolet body language to the extreme. "We wanted to explore the concept of a Chev-rolet muscle car reinvented for Europe," says David Lyon, Executive Director GM Asia-Pacific Design. "A concept that celebrates Chevy’s racing heritage with a very forward looking design." The ready-to-drive concept car set to premiere in Paris was developed by a GM team around the globe (for more details, see page 4). It is the vision of a new generation of touring car- a design icon that bends the present WTCC regulations. "In addition to the premiere of the Chevrolet WTCC Ultra, we are also celebrating our second victory in the World Touring Car Championship," says the boss of Chevrolet Europe, Wayne Brannon, referring to Rob Huff’s success in Brno in Czech Republic on September 3. "Our com-mitment to the WTCC is of enormous value for emotionalising the brand." In line with Chevrolet's diesel offensive, the compact WTCC Ultra (length/width/height with spoiler: 4,324/1,906/1,569 mm, wheelbase: 2,650 mm) is equipped with a powerful 1,991 cm3 diesel unit generating 139 kW/190 hp. The basic version of the four-cylinder engine is the common rail unit with four-valve technology and variable turbine blade ge-ometry currently powering the Chevrolet Captiva and due to go into the Epica from spring 2007. The increase in performance was achieved by raising the turbo boost pres-sure. The WTCC Ultra has a sophisticated independent wheel suspension on McPherson struts on both axles. The lower wheel control at the front is taken care of by an A-frame arm, while at the back, two additional wishbones and one trailing arm link the wheels precisely to the chassis. To keep the unladen weight as low as possible, the designers of the WTCC Ultra have made plenty of use of modern lightweight materials. The body parts are finished in "Stealth Blue", a further development of the familiar Chevrolet blue, and are made of a glass fibre and carbon fibre laminate. The flat underbody of the fully functioning touring concept car, which also graphically divides up the vehicle because of its dark colour, and the front and rear spoilers are made of a plain weave carbon fibre composite. The win-dow frames and the air inlet grilles at the front are finished in semi gloss dark grey. They make an attractive contrast with the glossy silver-painted wheels and the polished alu-minium door handles, number plate and centrally positioned tailpipes. Another aerodynamic feature apart from the flat underbody and the spoilers is a rear dif-fuser to create additional downforce. The design: As dramatic and exciting as possible For Ewan Kingsbury, the Lead Designer of the WTCC Ultra, "aggressive", "muscular" and "dramatic" are the words that first spring to mind when he is asked to describe the design of the new project. "As the chosen theme of the car was a concept racecar, this immediately gave me license to push the passion and aggression of the styling to the extreme". The proportions of the WTCC Ultra give the impression of a car that looks fast even when it's standing still. "A car's proportions are the biggest factor in its appearance, so all the early work concentrated on this area," said 25-year old Kingsbury, who studied transport design at Coventry University in England and subsequently worked for Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) Design before moving to GM in Australia. With the WTCC Ul-tra, the designers pushed the front screen forward to create a more aggressive frontal bias, with the added bonus of visually shortening the front overhang. The track was wid-ened significantly to 1,685 mm at the front and 1,670 mm at the rear, giving the car a more muscular and powerful stance. The lines and surfaces were created to project the impression of great energy under tension, captured at the moment before unspringing. "The intention was to give the con-cept a fresh, exciting and aggressive combination of surfacing and graphics," explains Kingsbury. All the lines on the car, plan view lines included, accelerate rearward of the front door, to give the car more speed, and keep the visual weight in the correct position. A dramatic effect is created by the steeply rising sweep of the lower window-line, which, together with the small separate front quarter-light window between the A and B posts, serves to create a fresh identity. The sharp, accelerating graphics contrast with more organic, flowing surfaces. Kings-bury: "A dominant surface feature evident in the car is the use of ‘broken’ lines in many areas. This is most obvious in the waterline on the bodyside. This line contributes to the frontward biased proportions, by drawing the eye forward and down." Equally striking are the powerful wheel arches to accommodate the 20" slicks needed to keep the car on the road. New Chevrolet front end graphics form the main fuselage of the body. The front section is dominated by two grill apertures which are visually split by a body colour section to accommodate the Chevrolet logo.. "When designing the front section, we took inspira-tion from birds of prey," explains Kingsbury. "The form of the lights is crucial to exhibit the correct expression." The indicators, which are fitted into the top of the light unit, have been used to graphically ‘hood’ the main LED projector element, while the reflectors are captured by an aluminium surround. The interior: As ergonomic as a production-line Chevrolet "Our general aim was to bring the sporty nature of the exterior design inside," explains Breony Crittenden the designer in Australia responsible for leading the colour and mate-rials design. "We opted for raw dark surfaces by using, for example, unpolished metal or matte carbon fibre inserts. By doing this, we kept a little secretive about the material, and called this design principle the "stealth theme". But Batman fans will get their money's worth in the WTCC Ultra, too: The upper part of the dash is finished in rubberised paint - and was inspired by the suits in the film “Batman returns”. Overall, the Ultra’s interior consists of materials and textures selected for their performance characteristics creating an aesthetic of functional beauty. . For weight distribution, the driver is situated as far back and as low as possible. All the control surfaces of the car are designed to be exactly where the driver requires, from the steering wheel and sequential gear selector, to the adjustable pedalbox and the console-mounted electrical switches. The inner door releases in the front doors are also situated further back than usual to be in reach of the driver. The steering wheel is similarly rear-ward of normal, and houses all the technical information readouts for the driver in two screens. The main circular screen displays the gear selection and tachometer, as well as oil and water temperatures, fuel and oil levels, and brake bias. Four push buttons on the wheel control the functions of the main screen. The second screen situated in the top of the ergonomically designed wheel rim displays the tachometer as a graphical display, to aid the accurate timing of gear selection. The surface treatment around the circular screen emulates the wheel arch design on the exterior. The seat also borrows aspects of the exterior, comprising complex interwoven surfaces that echo the broken lines of the exterior. The striking form of the frame and the uphol-stery is designed to support and protect the driver, and is made from carbon fibre com-posites with self-skinning polyurethane cushions. Aggressive sculpting of the frame and cushions provides ergonomic support of the driver to ensure a comfortable driving posi-tion. The surface of both the cushions is broken up by an asymmetrical pattern of raised dots, designed to give added grip to the driver. The seat provides head and neck protec-tion via wings that project either side of the head support, and a six-point racing harness is employed to keep the driver in position. The love of detail is also evidenced by the embossed Chevrolet insignia on this harness belt. Nowhere on the car are there any printed logos or letters – everything is embossed, milled or cast. The project: As global as the Chevrolet brand "The WTCC Ultra is the most global concept vehicle GM has ever created," says Peter Bramberger, GM Design Manager in Australia. Indeed, the way it took shape is indica-tive of Chevrolet's international alignment. The initial concept and early design work was developed in South Korea by Max Wolff and Steve Eum from the GM DAT Advanced Design Studio. The dynamic look of the car stems from "down under" – it was the Aus-tralian GM design department that came up with the exciting contours and the no less striking interior. Not the first hot Chevrolet GM’s Australian subsidiary has styled: Cur-rently a team at GM Holden is working to turn the Chevrolet Camaro concept car into re-ality. The design of the WTCC Ultra was coordinated and approved by GM Design Vice President, Ed Welburn (USA) and David Lyon, Executive Director GM Asia-Pacific De-sign (South Korea). GM Vice President Bob Lutz was involved in the project from the very beginning and enthusiastically supported it. All the exterior design development was carried out at GM Holden Design, where the clay model was constructed. The interior was also built completely digitally in Australia. The WTCC Ultra prototype vehicle was entirely constructed by the Japanese company, YDS, which had already built the Chevrolet studies, T2X and S3X. For the animation to be shown at the Paris Motor Show on the Chevrolet Europe stand, GM Technical Centre in India created the 3D data for the outer skin from the clay, and the Swiss company, Protoscar, produced and rendered the animation to a storyboard provided by GM Design European input was provided by GM Europe Engineering but also by the British mo-torsport specialists, Ray Mallock Limited (RML). The technical partner for the Chevrolet team in the WTCC helped with race components and the chassis. "Apart from that, sup-pliers like Hella, Osram, Dupont and Kumho participated in the development of parts for the vehicle. These companies are based globally, and once again an example of the global nature of the WTCC Ultra," said Bramberger. Chevrolet WTCC Ultra: Technical data Exterior dimensions Length (mm) 4,324 Width (mm) 1,906 Height (roof / with rear spoiler, mm) 1,490/1,569 Overhang front/rear (mm) 935/739 Wheelbase (mm) 2,650 Track width front/back (mm) 1,685/1,670 Engine Type: Four-cylinder Common-Rail diesel Capacity (cm3) 1,991 Bore/stroke (mm) 83/92 Output (kW/PS) 139/190

We aren't getting the Chinese LaCrosse, but the next LaCrosse is a global vehicle, so it will be sold in China too. But, that doesn't mean the current Chinese LaCrosse looks anytinglike the NG LaCrosse. Well Oshawa is being converted to one big plant instead of 2 smaller ones. I doubt they would keep one side open just for the Grand Prix and a couple months of LaCrosse production. The Grand Prix was a 2004 model, so by the 2008 MY it will be 5 years old, which is basically the end of a normal car's lifespan.

Now THAT's a truck. It let's everyone know they better get out of the way, but it does it in a classy way.

I think the Sierra looks better, but this is better than the new F-Series Super Duty.

If I have to make that many parts for the brake, I think I might as well just make something differnet. Keep the suggestions coming, and thanks for the help, guys.