Northstar

The Pistons are getting beat pretty bad tonight. The Heat seem to be a team on a mission.

Nope, it's getting the 3.6 and I'm guessing a 6-speed auto. Originally it was supposed to get the 3.9 and production was to start in March '06, but they decided to give it the 3.6 and production is now starting July '07.

Well the Camaro is going to have more than 350HP, but a 350HP Camaro won't beat the Challenger in a straight line unless it's a lot lighter than we think it's going to be. Any Camaro with 400+HP should smoke the Challenger though, unless DCX figures out how to give the Challenger liposuction.

Saw my first Ford GT today. First time I was pretty close to my house but out of the subdivision and it was going WOT the other way... probably about 80 MPH and it had just started not too long before at the stoplight. I could smell the burnt rubber for a long time after. Then when I was coming home from the dealership I saw it again and drove behind it for a little while. Damn what a sweet car! I love the Z06 but I have to admit the GT is something above and beyond the Z06.

I submitted my thoughts on the Enclave, and I'm going to link this to the front page. Thanks for posting.

That's TE (Theta-Epsilon).

http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1394497 NEW PICS 5/31

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but it shows how big the Challenger really is when it's sitting next to the old one. It does look better in the video than in most pictures, though.

The price was $16.9k. I don't know what they run for, but it was a 355/4-speed auto combo.

My dealer has one that has 1700 miles on it for $26,900. They had it new too and and it was $23200 on the sticker. It was the grand prize in a charity fund raiser and the people that won it wanted the money instead.

I was cruising through the local PBG and Lincoln-Mercury dealer today when I spotted this 63 Impala, so I took some pics: And two with the GTO in the pic:

Fred Beans is in PA? I thought it was in TX for some reason, guess not. Are CV8R tails the ones that are slightly darker, almost blood red? I would like the 427s instead of the 06s, but they're pretty similar and the 06s cost half as much. CV8R wheels are also sweet. I would really like some Coupe4 wheels.

The local Chevy-Cadillac-MB-Volvo dealership posted an ad in the paper for 2 people to detail cars. It says it's full time, so I'll have to investigate that (I would rather work 4 days a week and have 2 days off - something like Mon, Tues, Thurs, Sat) but I think it might be a pretty good job for the summer. I think I'd get to clean up the new vehicles and take them to the gas station to fuel them up, which might be fun. It's certainly better than a burger-flipping job, and I think I'm going to get really bored if I don't get a job for the summer, but I don't want to work full time either. What does everyone think about this as a possible summer job?

Indeed I have been spending some time over there, and I ordered my black tails from Fred Beans on Saturday at $100 off MSRP. Hopefully I'll put them in tomorrow or Wednesday (they ship within 2 days from what I've seen over there). I forgot I was look at some Holden/HSV wheels on eBay AU, and they were surprisingly cheap.

Whichever. It's just for fun, so you can make up your own rules if you want. AAS - why do you regret the headers? Were they too loud after a while and you just didn't like the extra noise or what? I ask because if I get enough money together I'm probably going to put headers on the GTO.

Hmm, I didn't even think about an engine swap, but an LS7 is $13k. The Cobalt SS's engine is $3250.

colt45shooter - It's fine to post your dealership in this thread if you want to.

Is used an option? A GP GXP would be a ton of fun if you could find one for the right price. I don't know if any are down to $23k yet, but that would put you at $18k after your Alero trade-in. BTW I thought you got a G35? Did that fall through?

Ok, so I'm bored and thought this would be a fun thread. If you haven't figured it out already, in this thread you are to post the mods you would do to your car if you had the money. I'm going to do what I would do for $5k and then for $10k, I suppose you can do whatever you want, but it would be more fun if you put a couple price limits on your mods, IMO. Anyways, here goes: First, performance: Kooks 1 3/4" x 3" w/ 3" Metallic Catted Connection Pipes Headers. $849 on PFYC Borla dual exhuast: $859.95 on eBay. K&N CAI: $195.95 on eBay And finally, a tune. Approx $500. For appearance: SAP grill inserts: $194.99 SAP front fascia extension: $284.90 Banshee Dual Outlet Exhaust Inserts $149 Basically, when I would cut out my bumper for the dual exhuast, the inserts make it look finished. My rear end would look like this: http://ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?p=...228#post1358228 Gravana Woodward Dream Cruise GTO hood: $849.99 Suspension: GTO eXtreme X Coilover Adjustable 1/2" to 1 1/2" Drop: $453.64 Hotchkiss sway bars: $412.95 For a grand total of: $4750.37 Moving on, if I had more to spend... AFR 205cc Mongoose Street Head w/ Comp Springs and Porting: $2,449.95 Vigilante 9.5" Torque Converter: $699.99 And finally, I'd have a little over $2k for wheels and tires.

Hmm, I don't know. I think I'd wait for the 2008 model, but you obviously don't have very long to wait. Does it have to be a sedan? A Cobalt SS SC would be more fun for probably less money.

I don't know if Autoweek will have this later in the week, but for now I won't post all of it - just the good stuff ------------------------------------------------------- Lutz: 'I would give myself a B+ or an A-' Dave Guilford | Jamie LaReau | Automotive News / May 22, 2006 http://autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?...B/60517019/1003 To say General Motors had a bad year last year is putting it mildly: It lost $10.57 billion. But Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, 74, says attitudes inside GM are changing. He says a new culture led by a product renaissance will help the company complete its turnaround. News Editor Dave Guilford and Staff Reporter Jamie LaReau sat down with Lutz on May 8 to talk about GM's financial health and product plans. When you arrived in 2001, there was a sense that GM culture was too bureaucratic. Has it changed much -- or changed enough? You could argue that no matter how fast a culture changes for the better, you're always impatient. When I got here, if I might criticize the past, product development was delegated at too low a level, especially design. There was insufficient senior management involvement with the product direction. We tended to gravitate to always trying to find the scientific methods for everything, including measuring of customer taste and determining what kind of product we should do for one segment and putting a great deal of faith in quantitative analysis. What that leads you to is a sort of portfolio of balanced mediocrity -- nothing stands out and is exciting or surprising. I really tried to make the product development process less of a retrospective analysis. I find that is such a defeatist strategy. It disregards the quality of execution. If your product is a blockbuster hit, it creates a segment. I have been trying to shift the balance, with the complete support of (CEO) Rick Wagoner. You have been at GM going on five years. You came in as a change agent. How do you think you've fared? I would give myself a B+ or an A-. It took me maybe 18 months to fully understand what was going on. When I came in, I was somewhat in awe of the orderliness and the systematic approach to everything. After about two years, it dawned on me that what I was admiring as a system was in fact broken. That's when we really started focusing more on the globalization of product development to avoid the duplication among the regions. I started unashamedly advocating products that there was no earthly substantiated need for in the analysis, like the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, Chevrolet HHR and Chevrolet Camaro. There's other stuff we have coming that is just a little bit outside of what that system would have generated. There are at least three products, one of which will be shown as a concept at the Detroit show, that is what I call design-driven product planning. You'll also see a departure from the rational approach in that many of our vehicles in the future are going to be very similar in proportion to the GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook (crossovers), in that there will be a tremendous emphasis on the chassis. The look that we want is like a weightlifter in a tight T-shirt -- where the clothes look too small for the physique. You'll see a much stronger orientation toward the emotional side. What is GM's culture like now? Is there a sense of urgency? Absolutely. There's a difference between a sense of urgency and panic. Panic is not good, and we don't have any of that. There's a knowledge that the old ways won't work, and that we're in a new world. --------------------------------------------------- Hmm, could this concept be the Impala?

Harald Hamprecht | Automotive News / May 22, 2006 General Motors is looking at low-cost production sites in Thailand, India and Mexico for a new global family of small crossover vehicles. The five-passenger vehicles would be smaller than the Saturn Vue and Chevrolet Equinox, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said last week at a design event in Ruesselsheim, Germany. They would be marketed by Saturn, Opel and possibly GMC and Hummer. "It won't be badge engineering," Lutz said. "We'll carefully protect the brand identities." Still to be determined is the vehicle architecture. Once that and the assembly site are selected, production could begin in 37 months, Lutz said. The annual production target is 200,000 units. Lutz said this new family of crossover vehicles cannot be assembled profitably in North America or western Europe. Also off the short list is South Korea, where the Chevrolet Aveo is assembled by GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. "As a production site, there's only Thailand, Mexico or India," he said. "Even South Korea is getting too expensive for us." Continue reading: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...B/60519042/1003 ---------------------------------------------- So, apparantly the sub-Thetas may be back on track if they can find a good place to build them?

Paying Off? Saturn will be GM's hot brand this year, Lutz says By JAMIE LAREAU | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS AutoWeek DETROIT -- General Motors' efforts to revitalize Saturn will pay off handsomely for the brand this year, a GM senior executive says. While GM's Chevrolet brand will still see the most growth in terms of unit sales, Saturn will experience the greatest "rapid overall percentage expansion" of GM's eight brands this year, Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman for global product development, said in an interview with Automotive News. Lutz credited the expansion to the new Saturn lineup. Saturn dealers already are sold out of the new Sky roadster into next year, Lutz said. Dealers will get the Aura sedan, Outlook crossover, Vue Green line hybrid crossover and a Sky Red line high-performance roadster this year. Saturn will get a rebadged Opel Astra sedan next year to replace the Ion. "When you think of where Saturn was two years ago, compared to where they will be 18 months from now, it'll be unrecognizably different," Lutz said. Lutz stopped short of predicting how much of a percentage sales increase Saturn might experience this year. Saturn sold 64,324 light vehicles in the United States through April. That's up 1.2 percent from 63,581 in the year-ago period. Lutz said GM is studying increasing production of the Sky and the Pontiac Solstice roadster, which are built on the same rear-wheel-drive platform in Wilmington, Del. GM had aimed to build 20,000 Solstices and 10,000 Skys this year, but Lutz said the plant has the capacity to build more. Globally, Lutz said, Chevrolet is on "an extremely fast growth curve." The brand sold more than 4 million vehicles worldwide last year, he said. In the United States last year, Chevrolet sold 2,651,124 cars and light trucks. http://autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?...41/TOC01ARCHIVE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the Astra is a sedan, does this mean it's the one from Brazil and not from Europe?

If we can't we can always lock the thread... I guess it's up to them.

The jet shot is cool and it looks like it got fixed up pretty well. How long did it take them?