hyperv6

There is a nice red 64 I think Fleetside with a 327 in it here in town for sale. It looks good driving by and only want a litt;e over $5K. Not fancy but it looks nice. I saw a 63 over the week enf with the extra chome trim and original caps and white walls on it. It was pretty upscale for a 63. It was clean every where but the left 1/4. The fender lip had blisters. It was sad as the rest of it was show room new.

I do not have those numbers yet but it would be safe to say I bet they are under 500 units. There were only 4519 SS built in 08 and with sales down I would guess there were less this year. GM never really marketed this well and few people knew of them or what they could do perfromance wise. I still get people telling me they like what I have done with my SS and it is stock. I never was a HHR fan or FWD but after seeing it at the Cleveland auto show and then the test drive on a whim sold me on it. I saw before they were working on one but I never expected a car this well tuned. GMPD did a hell of a job on this car.

When I was shopping last summer all I could find were Red and Black. I was going to get a Red one but they never had all the options. I finally got a black one with them all. I really like the black better but hated to keep it clean. Of the 4600 made in 08 over half built were red and black. ALL other colors are just in the hundreds built. I work with a guy who found a silver one and I see Blue once in a while.

You were lucky as RSA, Old Gen GT's, GT+4. LS and some other tires are all being replaced with new product. Think of these as the Old Malibu's of tires. Not horrible but not as good as they needed to be. All tire companies have older tire models and new lines. So the quality will vary. I have been using Goodyear Assurance triple tread on the wife car and mine in the winter with good results. Few companys will used them as an OE tire as they are cost more than they will pay. I did see them on on $40,000 Ford and that is it. I have gotten a lot of miles out of these vs the BFG Comp TA's that lasted 24,000 miles.

That is where we made a photo shop of a Viper drving over 2x4's to get into the drive. The boards were branded with the Mopar Direct Connection name. It was called a joke. Being a smart art major he not only got the joke but complimented the Photo Shop.

I was looking at the GXP but I alrady have one 2 seater and did not need another. The LNF is what sold me on the HHR SS. When I threw the shifter into 3rd gear and looked at the dash to see over 96 MPH I told the wife I could really like this.

I don't know about the towing rating since this engine is unrated in anything it is in. But as for engine durability it should not be an issue as this is one of the strongest engines GM makes. They did this engine right and did not just bolt a turbo on an old engine and expect it to work. Mine has sodium valves, better head, forges rods etc. I am seeing 21-23 PSI with no issues. Even the tranny is bolted up to strengthen the block and bottom end. Before Lingenfelter died he was doing work with my company and I got to sit and talk with him in his race rig one afternoon and talk about what he was working on. It was amazing what they were getting out of the Eco at that point. He was using the SAAB cast black and mostly modified stock parts to get to 1500 HP. He said at that point the heads were cracking and they needed to go to a race head. I Know for sure it would out last the leaky Iron duke. If anything a GMC version would make a good model called a Tornado? Also they need to go to 19 inch tires. The ZQ8 tires look to small even at 17 inches.

I had no issue with the dash it was solid and did not make noise or feel like Tupperware. The door panels on the new truck are what bothered me the most. Migh HHR is similar but the plastic is better and they at least made them red and black with w silver accent to make it look less cheap. On the standard HHR they do look very rental even in the LT2. I also hated I could not get leather in anything but the crew cab. I never understood this. At least make it an option in the extended cab.

Not when in less than a year you are going to a east coast school to do your grad work. He had to deal with it for only 10 months. It did give me some time to beat on him for his Direct Connection 2X4's. He now drives much better cars.

I think a 2.0 Ecotec Tubo in a 2WD standard cab with a ZQ8 would be more fun than the V8. The parts are just sitting the to go in out of the soon canceled Solstice. With the tune kit near 300 HP and less wieght than the V8.

Many times like the Monte the nose is there for a reason. It was to make a car that was a flying brick a race car which makes it cool in a Superbird kind of way. Even the over hang on my SS is loaded with an intercooler and pipes to make it faster and more stable at speed vs the standard HHR nose. The one thing I do hate about long over hangs are curbs and bad driveway approches. They paved my buddys street and the angle made it impossible to get his Viper in his drive unless he put boards down.

Had a 1988 S10 Tahoe and a 1997 GMC Sonoma SLS with the ZQ8. Both trucks were great and just want I needed. Both went 100K miles and never had any big issues other than an Alt, WP and one AC seal. I also got great resale on both and the GMC was in such good shape it sold in 4 hours after I put for sales signs in it. I sold it for almost $6K with 100,000, not bad for a 2WD truck that was 11 years old. I only paid $17K new and it stickered for $24K The GMC had an extended cab and every option I could get on a 2WD. If I could have bought a new truck like this I would have in a second. I tried to get myself to buy a Colorado and looked at the 4x4 and 2WD extended cab ZQ8. Both trucks drove well and and I was pleased to see how much better the 5 cylinder was vs the old 4.3. But I had one issue and that was the interior. Ever since they came out I could not get past the interior. Too much cheap plastic and cheap seat fabric. I just could not get excited about buying one no matter how I tried to convince myself. I always see 1983 like Camaro interiror. I waited for several years to see if they would fix it but they never did. I am sorry they never did because I would love to have a small truck again from GM but it will have to wait till I buy again later. I did buy an HHR SS and even though it has a lot of cheap plastic it does not look like a rental car with the red and ebony leather and suede interior. The seats and color make up for the plastic door panels. I love the look of the 4x4 with the off road package. It just looks mean. No matter what you you buy make sure it is an extended cab as it is hard to live without one if you had one before. I still wish I could have got over the interior because I lover the rest of the truck.

You had better get updated as they have been replacing poor tires like the RSA and others with new updated tires. Most of their new tires like the Assurance line have been award winners and are now a top selling tire. In the past I would agree with you but today since they got shead of their old CEO Gibara the new CEO Keegan has invested heavy in new improved product. They are about 2/3 of the way to replacing the old tires with the new and better lines. Note the new Eagle GT is a very different and good tire for its price range today. I have worked for all the companies and they all have their good and bad. Even Michelin and BFG. One underrated tire on the market is the Toyo. It for the money will top most other brands.

That was a crack at HanKook on my part. Hankook are crap tires. I used to do work for Hankook and know that they really are. They are cheap and not a high quality tire to this point. They may imporve later but since their arrival cheap price has been their selling point.

Drive a new Cobalt SS Turbo. It is one of the few FWD cars that is fun and fast to drive right out of the box. It still has a little Torque Steer but the steering is not numb and it is a blast to drive. THe LSD help and the comp mode make launches very easy if ou do not know how to deal with the torque steer. The Cobalt is as fast as the Camaro SS at the ring snd the video shows it is easy to drive fast. There is little that discourages Fun. In fact check the times of cars running 8:20's at the ring and just see what it is keep up with and what it was faster than. I will not say it will be a car everyone will want but it will suprise many how well an old platform was tuned by John H and the GMPD team. The magazines did not gush over an old Delta because of their GM bias. I expect GM will only improve on that yet. Little cars and some mid size cars are going FWD for several reasons. GM needs to and will have to build them. So lets make sure they are the best on the market. They are here and not going away.

Yep I think quality from every Hankook tire I see on the new GM cars. It really shows where they are putting the money. The ZR1 and CTS V are the excpetions and you are paying for them. Just becuse it says Pilot or Eagle does not mean the best tire when it is OE. While the Pilots on the ZR1 may be better the ones on my SS are crap. As for the Eagles GM never used the best ones available because they would never spend the money and Goodyear would never give them away. I am not sure how may Pilots there are but there are around 35 Eagles and GM never used the best one only the cheap ones even on the Vette. I also know Goodyear spent a lot of money to put the tires on the Vette and it never made money on those tires. Today after their money crunch they are a little more wiser. Selling cheap tires to OE only tarnishes your image and make you little money. You are correct the cost cutting here hurts and it often hurts the tire companies in the end. Goodyear has been working more with the Euro comapnies as they often buy the better tires even on the cheaper cars.

Hyundia quality has gotten much better but no one said they were perfect. The key to most Hyundia buyers is how much a month and it is often less than Honda and Toyota for more car. Add in their good warranty, better than Honda and Toyota looks and it sells a lot of cars.

Also could be due to the lowest bidder for the contract.

There are a lot of wild reasons some tires are OE. I have friends at all the tire companies and the stories you should hear. The OE Pilots in this case are better this case than the OE FI's. The key is OE. Goodyear and Michelin both have better tires that will not meet OE spec at the price GM will wants to pay. If you notice Goodyear has pulled out of most of the OE market since most MFG want cheap low profit tires. Note the Michelins on my HHR SS are crap but that is not to say all Pilots are crap. The same goes for the Goodyears. Also note that the Auto MFG have to stick to drive by noise standards that many of the better tires will not meet with the tread designs they have. The bottom line we used to see cheap Uniroyal on past GM cars and Hankook today is they are cheap or the lowest bidder. I know in the Goodyear deal they were in a money crunch and did not do all they could to win the deal. Right now they are doing much better and I do not see them moving back to OE unless a MFG is willing to pay the worth of the better tires. The OE tire market is wicked and there is even a lot more that goes into this. The bottom line is most aftermaket tires are better than what you get OE. Michelin, Goodyear and others seldom sells the best tires in OE they have. FYI the best FI Goodyears have never been offered OE. They cost too much. Also not all Pilots and FI's are created equal. The name is abused and used on too many tires to condem the name on just one model.

Just got some insider info from a friend who works at Hyundia. He said some models are showing advanced rust to the sub frames and control arms. These are not 10 year old cars either. He did not give me the model names in the e mail but will post them when I find out. He said the fix right now is to drill the frame, hit it with a hammer to break lose the rust and then pump it full of wax. Needless to say he was not impressed with the fix. Might want to see if anyone else speak of this since it has not been reported in the press.

The problem with design is so few can get it right and many others copy other cars even if it is not right. Just look at the many who have copied Benz. While Benz is not offending in the past, many of their cars were also not leaders. They had acceptions like the Pagoda coupe or the Supercharged cars of the 30's. Their cars of the 60's-70 gave more image in rep vs style. But everyone as copied parts of these cars for years from Ford to Lexus. Designers have done cars with too much or cut things till they were too plain. It is almost like there is so little original thought anymore and often they get our of ideas. The new Camaro is one I think they have gotten 90% right. It has herritege but the folded and creased body sets it apart but does not make it unlivable. I do wish they could have done more the rear lower panel. The styling on the CTS I love as they have the sheet metal pulled down on the tires and it looks strong and has presents. GM tight now has some of the most original good styling going. The problems comes in that Styling alone does not sell cars and it take the entire package of Rep and quality. Lets face it many people buy cars that are ugly because they are cheap and reliable. It will be interesting to se what they do with the small two box cars like the Spark, Yaris and Smar in the future. There is only so much sheet metal and the designer is in a box to make it look good keep it user friendly and pass crash standards. I also like what Alfa Romeo and Maserati has done with styling. I see a lot of them around town and the styling flows well for a sedan. If GM could make an Impala that looked like that at a Chevy price.

I am sorry to say it is only going to get worse for the diehard car enthusiast.

Just wait the goverment is not done yet. The time is coming where Grand Pa is not well and is costing the goverment health care a lot of money so we will put him to sleep like old shep and while were at it we will ask you to leave your old car at the drop off station to be recyled. In Japan they already tax cars as they age so it is cheaper to buy new. Now you know why the bullet train is full. I may have made this sound as a joke but the truth is both are options some have already expressed here. Now is the time to fight both as we have not lost these rights yet but soon could. I have already pointed out there was a law that they tried to pass in OR to prevent you from changing tire and wheel size because bigger tires use more gas and create more green house gases. Take the time to read the SEMA web site on pending laws. We have not see the worst yet.

I do expect smaller Diesels with twin turbo's since the truck people are more accepting of them As for electric they have more work to do before we will see much in a truck. The Camaro and Mustang will live on in a smaller package and with a V6 with at least one or two turbos. That is why the Alpha is on hold now. Ford already has stated this is where they are headed but the question is when. The Turbo V6 may be sold side by side in a few years before the V8 is gone.

The sad fact is there is not going to be any more large traditional American cars due to the goverment rules. If they remain big they will not be V8 powered and will have some sort of electric assist. Just look at BMW with no plan for a future 7 series if I read correctly the other day and anouncing more 4 cylinders. This is not just a GM issue it will be an issue for all. Hell Benz and Ferrari are both looking at electric sports cars. The few large cars will be expensive or electric. I really ponder what the companies will do with trucks. I know Unibody and smaller engines are on tap for the half tons but what about the guys who need them to tow an work with a one ton. Some people really need them to earn a living.