hyperv6

Well they said no Holden Coupe or GTO. Could they have changed their mind? Or was it one of the famed Holds. This looks like the concept drwings we saw of the GTO a few years ago but as normal they always look better in sheetmetal. Either way 5-8 years of this car here as a Pontiac wouldf be fine and then replace it with a smaller lighter Alpha. I do ponder it is a hard top so I wonder how much more this will cost over the Camaro it brought here.

Apocalypitca [4 cellos playing Metallica] doing Where Ever I Roam.

After seeing the Chevy a few days ago I can say it fits the line up well and should do well if value priced as a Chevy. On the other hand I never understood the Saturn. It just did not fit their image of a import or even euro style. While it is not a bad vehicle I would not be upset if it went away. Even with the platform modifications 4 of these platforms is too much. I am not counting the Cadillac as it has been mived very upscale to the others. I see the Buick and GMC removed enough to fit different styles as one looks more truck like vs the other. I see the Chevy as the family value vehicle and can be sold cheaper for those who don't need all the bells as whisles.

Where are all the people who hated this car and thought it was going to kill Pontiac one and for all? Good Job GM keep em coming. I am a long time Pontiac fan who is very proud of the new Pontiac with a Aussie accent. I may just go out and make a Kraft Vegimite sandwich.......... Well I may just use peanut butter and pretend as Vegimite is pretty nasty.

I think we are missing one point. GM will share this with other companies at a price. This technology can be licensed and sold to others at a fee that would not only cover GM's development but also put them at a price advantage. Lets face it GM has had some of the best Trannys and A/C systems in history and many have bought the rights to use them. Hybrid systems if perfected can be added to this list. Lets face it many can't afford to spend the money GM has on develpment. Many companys need a dance partner to make it today as few can do it alone.

I was lucky to attend a showing this week with the stylist engineer that did the outside of the ZR-1 this weekend. Sorry I do not recall his name but he did give our group a step by step of why the ZR-1 looks as it does. The car is as it is not to give it a ricer look but to make it functional. The front splitter is balanced to the rear spoiler to balance the car. It is what it is due to giving the car good aero numbers but remaining fully balanced. He has said the original concept called for a large wing like the Pratt Miller race cars. Well it produced too much rear down force and too much drag for a street car. It really messed up the balance. HE said the drag went to .51CD. The side rockers are designed to catch the air and the little mud flap thing right infront of the rear tire is needed to hold the air over the rocker ground FX. They spent a lot of time on the hood to keep it low so sight lines were not interupted. He said turn in to ta corner was a prime concern. The hood window was just somting different and to set the car apart from any other Vette. The side vents are for removing hot under hood air. Between the exhaust and brakes the side engine temps can climb to near 3,000 degrees when the top engine is only 300 degrees. The extrators are to remove the hot air and keep it in check. The carbon fibre is more to reduce weight of the new hardare while leaving it clear lets people know this is a high tech Vette vs just sheet molded. The wheels are designed to be much more stronger over 5 spokes with their new raidial spoke design. They are also lighter and 25% stronger than most after market wheels. I think Speed Line made them one of the worlds best racing wheels company. Anway most of what is on the car was designed by a racer that is also a stylist. He and the Vette team made sure this was a functional cars as much as a good looking car. The Vette here is far less ricer than some want to believe. This is not some Civc that had some big wing bolted on. This is a collection of working performance part. While expensive at $100,000 this is one of the worlds best bargins. The lap speeds of this car will be very close to the Pratt and Miller racing Vettes. Many will not believe what this car will do when we see the numbers. I just spent a lot of time looking at the brakes. this thing could stop a bullet train. As the Jake mascot stand for "Take No Prisoners"!

If that was the case that is sad. Most well placed GM people I know or have had the pleasure to meet work at a present themselves at a higher standard on or off the job. I got to meet the guy who did the ZR-1 body styling yesterday. He is a ex racer and they do not come any nicer. He did not show the need taunt anyone. Real deal or not it's not worth the BS for what insight that was given.

Nothing like getting Corperate Punishment for speaking the truth. I agree that Rick must have made a call to Bob.

As I stated the before on this the Cylinder Deactivation that will not be on the GXP has the most to do with what car it is offered in. No dropped Cylinders will get you the manual tranny option. It is the smart move as the majority of the manual trannys would be in the GXP anyway. It will appear in the 09 GXP and the 09 cars are to start production soon from what I have read. I am not sure if we might even see this even as soon as late summer.

He is your much smarter better looking twin brother from a different mother with the green card that has quit living in the past on old used up slogans that were used to sell Iron Duke Grand Am's. Now that the shared smart a$$ coments are over with. I did get to spend time inside a G8 this morning. It may not be the perfect interior but it is over very good qaulity and is respectable compared to others on the market in this price range. Rear seat room is grand and the pass through is as large as I have seen with the seat not folding down. The Emergency hand brake is well placed and blended in. Seats are very nice. Considering the price I was not expecting a CTS interior and was not disapointed. I do wish they had give it a little more contrasting trim in the solid color interior as it needed a little to break up so much gray. I expect the seats with the bright inserts will make for a very plesent and livable interior. For the money this car is a home run. There were a few things I would complain about if it was $10K more. But lets face it most of us would always find something we would like to change.

Pontiac is going to intro the Manuel in the GXP. From what I was told it would not work with the present cylinder delete engine they are using right now. Besides 90% of them would be sold in GXP's anyway. As for the return of an old name and a long over used Excitment theme. It is better to start living in the present. This car is heads and shoulders over the cars of the 70's-2007. We should call this car Norris as if Chuck Norris was a sedan he would be a G8. This car in GXP form will round house kick the Charger into yeaterday with it's bad wing and stickers. I think Pontiac's new theme would be better today if it was "Pontiac We Kick Ass". I am even more excited in seeing what the Camaro will be now with less weight and more power in a smaller package. Job well done again Bob keep em coming!

No this just means a small FWD to fill out the line up. I still expect the Alpha if approved would still replace the G6. This does not me Pontiac will be a FWD company just they may offer 1 FWD. I find no sin in one car as long as it is sporting and fills out the Pontiac line. Think of this as a Vibe G5 replacment. That is if this is true.

And we should be suprised? Just wait till the LS3 GXP arrives.

Autoblog said the German Auto Press is reporting that Pontiac and Saturn may get a version of the Saab 9-1 hatch. I have said a Mini Fighter would be a good addition to Pontiac if they have to have a FWD. I just hope there is no Saturn version or it is so different that it can not be compared. They said Buick could get one too but I can't see that as it just does not fit their mission.

I still see the move to smaller Mini Vans and other higher milage vehicles as a given for the Taxi market. WIth gas going up it just removes more of their profits. Few will want to pay higher fairs. Same with Police departments. Sales of FWD V6 police cars is at an all time high as higher gas prices have put a strain on department budgets. They locals here have found the Impala to do the job very well and have not had any complaints. If anything they are buying more as they have been happy with them. There could be a market for GM to make a Minivan that is taylored to cab duity and used a hybrid small engine for around town use. What better way to test out and prove new hybrid technology.

I always took him as a young guy that may have worked for GM but he was slapping door panels on somewhere. The GM people I speak to that are in the know don't post on these web sites and if they do they are very careful not to say much if anything at all. If they did they would have the black Tahoe in front of the house by morning.

First off GM had a hold on Zeta not canceled so almost anything is possible accept the GTO at this point. What most think is the CAFE law is passed but what few understand is the rules are now written yet. Scott Settlemire made it clear most future platforms are on hold till GM know what the exact rules will be. Why develope a lot of high volume cars when you may have to change them for future use? Once the people in Washington get around to setting the ground rules some cars may be delayed or cancled later. Besides with the price of gas more and more police and cab companies will be turning to Impala's and other V6 cars. It is getting hard to justify a large V8 car when $4 gas and liablitity of a chase can be replaced with radios, spike strips and a V6 with no speed limiter. Most departments will have to make changes somewhere with gas going up and up. Unless you want your taxes to go up too.

Like Rick or not GM has the best set up of most large companies. We have Rick who was given a company with poor managment structure, massive debt, and a failing market. He had to be crazy to take that on at a young age. Most past leaders of GM came in tooke the money for 5 years and ran off. Rick came in and started to work on fixing the money problems. He was bright enough to say he was not a product guy and went to get the best one available Bob Lutz. I read all the complaining about GM but I have seen few people provide names of people who can do much more than what is already being done with out making any mistakes. If you want to see what is going on read about the last 5 years at Goodyear tire. THey have had the same problems GM has had on a smaller scale. Debt lack of product and no profits. Kegan has come in and has done much of what GM is doing. GM even took some of his ideas for the UAW deal. Goodyear now has much better prodicts because he let the product people do their jobs. They now are showing profits because of the new product and reduced liabilities. It too them some time but they are in much better shape and improving daily. GM is in the same boat but their boat is so much bigger and will take much longer. I am sure when chang is needed GM already has in mind a short list of those who will continue to improve the company. The key is to keep a good mix of Finace and product men at the top together. GM went much too long with out any good product people with any say. Rhwy don't have to lead just be high enough to make a differance.

Sorry no scanner! The pictures are not much different form the magazine advertising but the info is good on options etc.

This is not the production set up it and the grill are still missing parts. At one point the headlights were just driving lights stuck in because the production units were not ready. We will see the completed prodution factory lights and grill by spring or summer.

You Find a way to make a V8 that will make 30 MPG and we all be glad to keep them around. It is simple as that. To say anything less than a V8 is just very short sighted. If we should complain about anything it should be to still make RWD cars. As for Olds, their last cars were better than most other GM cars but looking back they were still crap. The styling was different bit not so much better and the quality was up but they were still behind times and most other car lines. Olds needed as car that was better than other companies cars not just a better Olds.

Just picked up the new G8 book at the dealers. It has a lot of good info. thye have all the options and colors listed. I did not read it all but it did claim a 0-60 in 5.3 seconds. The cars should not be too much longer and we can see them sitting on dealer lots. The only thing on the catalog that is odd is that it has a odd fold out format.

As for the V8 many of you will have only the choice of a few V8 cars and just old cars. If your ok with that fine if not deal with it in your own way. I for one will not forgo owning a new car because it does not have a 8 cylinder in it. I once swore I would never own anything but a V8 but after some drives in some of the worlds best cars that were not powered by 8 cylinders I found I was very short sighted and I will be the first to admit that I was wrong to ever think that way. If you limit yourself to only V8 cars you are only going to miss some sweet rides. It is like only liking one car and rejecting all others you will miss out on some sweet rides in your life. On too many brands that is not the issue it is too many models. With the way GM is cutting down on models and rolling the brands into one dealer is a great way to keep the brands alive and not have too many models. Seems like GM is going back to their roots in some sense. In the past you bought a Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, Olds or Cadillac. At most you had a choice of a few trim levels on one or two models. This is the direction GM is going today. The GM of tomarrow is going to be the brands we love and have today but most will only have 4-6 models. I see Chevy as the only full range brand as a value leader. In the end we will have the same number of brands selling less models each in hlf as many dealers. This is a formula that will work but will take some time to get done. A Pontiac with 5 srong models vs a Pontiac tring to pass off Vibes and Torrents as Pontiacs. By keping a G8 and solstice then revamping the G6 as a Alph AWD and then adding one other model that may fit the Mini mold to replace the G5 would go a long way in selling Pontiacs to every one and not just Pontiac fans. The GTO and Trans Am are dead and in the past it is time to move forward and start winning people would buy Acuras, Audis, Mini, Subaru's, etc. You either keep up with the times or you get phased out and that is what has happened to Olds and can happen to Pontiac if they do not advance and win younger buyers. You car buyers want to buy Pontiac but GM has given them little to chose from. Don't send them away.

I will remember that the next time the guy punching his GPS is moving into my lane as I try to drive past him. I just tired of the folks who can't drive that are doing everything but driving. These are the people that may prevent us from getting old because of their lack of skills and brains. My life and family are worth more than someones slurppy.

I have been saying this for years. Pontiac needs to build their perfomance image on new cars and not keep trying to relive the past. It is 2008 not 1968.