Northstar

The 2.0 DI Turbo in the Solstice GXP would probably work. It's going to get better mileage than the 2.4 in the Solstice. I think a hybrid CTS with the 3.6 would work just fine. Probably mid-20s around town. I don't know about anyone else, but I find that to be pretty damn good with over 300HP (most likely). My 380HP GTO gets 14.

Congrats! The color wouldn't be my first choice, but it's not bad, and still looks beautiful. I don't know if I'd take a non-Red Line SKY over my GTO, but I'd almost definetly take the Red Line version over it. Congrats again and give us some more feedback after you've lived with it for a while. Someone brought a C&D into class today and my friends couldn't believe it was a Saturn.

How small can they make Zeta? Is it possible to shorten Zeta so that it's basically the same size as Kappa? I think if they simply update Kappa the NG Solstice and Sky can still ride on it.

Those pics are sweet, though some of them make it look more retro.

Personally I've had pretty good sucess with salesman, but one of my dad's friends who is considering a G6 convert went to the dealer and asked if they had one. They didn't (but the salesman had to check to make sure), so he asked to see a non-convert. So the salesman took them over to a G6 and they looked around it. Next my dad's friend asked if they had any with the panoramic roof. The salesman didn't know so he went to check... they were standing right next to one with the panoramic roof.

NOS, maybe go ask at FlatRateTech if they have any ideas?

Rick Kranz | | Automotive News / April 24, 2006 - 6:00 am NEW YORK - While newspapers have been filled with headlines about job cuts at General Motors, the automaker's design studio has been adding jobs. "The corporation believes in what we are doing," Ed Welburn, vice president for global design, said in an interview this month at the New York auto show. "They realize the importance of design and having choices, design alternatives for the leadership to make those tough decisions. So we are continuing to hire." GM's studios across the globe have been expanding. Welburn was unable to say how many jobs were added, but said: "Last year we hired 14 designers alone from (Detroit's) College for Creative Studies. We hired from the Art Center, (in Pasadena, Calif.), from the Royal College of Art in London, and schools in Korea, China and Australia. "Nobody talks about it. And we're continuing to hire in North America, Brazil, Australia, Germany and Korea." Welburn said the hiring has strained studio space. "We have a lot to do, and our studios are bulging at the seams," Welburn said. "We're expanding the studio in Europe. A new wing has been added to our studio in Korea, and in Australia we took over space that was an engineering building." http://autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?...20of%20Contents

Spark plugs, eh? When we went to go pic the GTO up all of a sudden the check engine light came on when we were sitting there. You could still start it, but it needed new spark plugs. Another possibility is that the computer could be confused. When we took the GTO in because we wanted to know why it idled rough (at that point we didn't know it had a perfoamce cam) they said on their receipt that the "performance cam may cause a check engine light to come on, but it wil go out and clear itself." So, possibly the new cam is "confusing" the car. I really don't know and am just throwing out whatever I can think of.

Hmm, that doesn't sound good (obviously). Did you check to make sure the cam is still working fine? I think you need to take it to a tuner so they can make it run smoother (I need to do that with the GTO too, except I can of like the rough idle at stops). This sort of sounds like the problem you had before, except not to the same degree. What was wrong when that happened?

Interesting news, but I'm guessing that would mean the Velite would be on Epsilon. Having the G6, Malibu, and Aura all at Fairfax would not work too well. They are probably going to be at full capacity with just the Aura and Malibu.

Damn that is awesome. There will be one problem if this becomes a Saturn: Saturn will have a $15k car that looks better than there own $22k car. It's possible that we will get the Brazilian Astra, but we will still get this.

Well, unless K&N did some fudging to the dyno sheet, their "Aircharger" CAI gave them 18.54 RWHP on the dyno vs. stock on an 04 A4 GTO. I think the current CAI on the GTO sucks, so that's probably why it has such big gains. There are other CAIs out there such as the LPE that give ~15RWHP, or claim too. I was looking at Kooks headers and again it said that on dynos they consistently show 25-30 RWHP gains for the GTO. I suppose it's possible they're messing with their numbers, but as Nick said a add few bolt-ons and the LS1 makes tons of power. I will definetly go over to LS1GTO.com and ask people what sort of gains they saw on the dyno first however, if I do decide to mod.

Yuck. The wheels are terrible. The Cobalt MCE is not until the 08 MY, so it's not this fall.

If they really did cheap out the materials because it's a show model then that's not very smart by GM. I'm guessing several people crossed it off their lists if they thought it was cheap when they sat inside it. Of course the real thing could be cheap too so I guess it might not matter...

It looks more like the Outlook than the Prevue to me, but it could just be the camo. Is it just me or does the dual exhuast look dumb? Their info on the hybrids is correct.

You got everything for $1k or just the rear end? I'm guessing just rear end since headers and a cam (at least for the GTO) would be over $1k alone. A little off topic, but I'm pretty sure with about $2k in mods on the GTO I could be at ~450hp (not to the wheels though). Right now I'm at about 380 or 385 because of the camshaft, and adding headers (25-30 to the wheels so ~35 not to the wheels), CAI (18 to the wheels), and exhuast (probably only about 10) would be somewhere between 440 and 450 (again not the wheels).

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I don't know... by then Kappa would probably need updating to keep it competitive in the marketplace. While I agree with your example, Kappa II should be able to spawn the NG Solstice and Sky, a 3-Series for Pontiac, a 3-door hatch for Chevy (Nomad) or Pontiac, and even a small trucklet if GM wanted it to. It doesn't have to be able to underpin a large sedan, but it should be able to be modified enough easily to underpin anything and everything under ~185 inches that GM wants it to.

Damn, you have done a ton of work on that NOS. Do you have any idea what it's putting out (to the wheels or otherwise)? Oh, it's still a 6

Umm, no it doesn't. They did a test in C&D a while ago and it didn't torque steer much because GM put wider front tires on it which reduced torque steer and made it handle better. http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/9964...d-prix-gxp.html

The GP GXP is tuned to be much sportier. I've heard that people have tested both and the Impala SS floats and wallows in comparison, and isn't as tight as the GXP.

Pace Blue looks pretty similar to Blue Granite, so maybe it's just a name change.

We don't need a whole forum of post whores, so yes, this is a bad idea.

If people aren't looking for basic transportation, then why are so many ~$20k Accord, Camry, and Altima 4-bangers sold each year? There's nothing spectacular about them, but a hell of a lot of people sure do buy them. I agree the Malibu could and should be better.

Kappa cost $250 million to make (along with the Solstice I believe). The Sky was basically free because Opel needed a roadster anyways. Now, I'm guessing GM makes about $1500 on each Solstice and about $2000 on each Sky. It's going to sell about 20k Solstices and about 15k Skys annually. Of course I could be wrong on the profit, but it seems quite possbile, IMO. Now, if that is correct, then GM will make $60 million annually on the Kappas. That doesn't factor in any interest or when the higher-margin GXP and RedLine come. If the Solstice and Sky are on sale for 5 years, and sell without incentives throughout and at the same volume, then they will turn a profit of $50 million in 5 years time. I could be totally wrong, but I'm guessing they will make money over the course of the project.