hyperv6

Sorry for the other false starts but I kept getting error messages on my first attempts to post. Anyway here is Pratt & Millers new GXP R that will replace the GTO R. It will appear first at The 24 hours of Daytona in January. I expect this is base on the GTO R and has been enhanced over the original R chassie. One is to expect this is a RWD racer and will play as Pontiac racer of choice till the return of the GTO in a couple years. I am wondering if the NHRA Pro Stock teams will also make the change to the G6 GXP in the coming year.

Weigh loss may be a wash as I found these numbers on Autoblog. The Sportwagon hardtop weighs about 115 lbs., although you'll be removing the production lid at the same time, which means you'll drop 42 lbs. for a net gain of 73 lbs. More weight can be saved by permanently removing the soft top, as well. However, that requires a professional and who wants to permantly remove their convertible's soft top anyway? I expect they plan to fit these to 5-8% of the Kappas built so the company will make there money. Also I see this being popular in Europe. Not what I would do, but look at what people do to make their Vettes different and it could be much worse.

This only proves how easy it would be to make a coupe like the protoype GM showed on the original Solstice. We should see GM's take on this real soon. Also a Sky story in Popular Hot Rodding said the 300 HP is 1-2 years off. That would get us to the low 13's or a High 12 depending on the gearing. It just gets better all the time. By the way did anyone also note the weigh loss with the hard top and removal of the stock lid and soft top assembly. It really brings the weight down.

Aahh! That is the hard part! Anyone will agree on performance but so many disagree on what a Pontiac looks like. At this point too few have been buying what has been offered so it would be best to go a new stand out design but not get cartoonish about it. I have seen to often it does not look like a Pontiac or a GTO. To find a design that fits the larger opion by the public is the million dollar question. I feel they need to have a rich tasteful looking design that will appeal outside the Pontiac fans prospective. Without new blood Pontiac will die. Think Audi with a better nose. Add to it a wheel and tire combo that even on the badse model makes it look upscale. The key is to make a car that looks and feels like a $50,000 car at a $35,000 price. GM needs to make it cool to own a Pontiac again. They are doing this with Caddy and have finally made Saturn attractive so it is possible.

Here is some insite on what Pontiac may do? Holden eyes exports as GM deal to turn Commodore into Pontiac Grand Prix shapes up By JOHN MELLOR 23 November 2006 GM HOLDEN will sell more cars overseas than it does in Australia if a plan to export its billion-dollar VE Commodore to the US as the next-generation Pontiac Grand Prix sedan comes to fruition. In an exclusive interview with GoAuto to discuss the concept of the VE as a world car rather than just an Australian car, company chairman and managing director Denny Mooney said that he was anticipating approval for the US program. "You will see an announcement in the next three to four months. Assuming it happens, (shipments) would start a little beyond that. I am not making an official announcement (in this discussion)," he told GoAuto, "but it looks very favourable." "I can tell you unequivocally that we designed the VE with the US in mind." Mr Mooney confirmed that VE Commodore SS-V four-door sedans were under assessment in Detroit and indicated that speculation in the US motoring media that these Holden sports sedans would be sold as the Pontiac Grand Prix was not far off the mark. In the strongest indication yet that GM is about to announce renewed Holden exports to Pontiac in the US, Mr Mooney revealed Holden plans to export more cars from the company’s Elizabeth plant in Adelaide than it sells here. "I think from a manufacturing strategy here in Australia, Holden will ultimately have at least as many exports, if not more exports, than we have domestic (sales of local cars)," he said. The plans are part of a strategy to drought-proof Holden from the changes taking place in Australia in which large-car sales are drying up following a shift in the nature of the market. "The one thing everyone needs to remember in this market, as in every market around the world, is that the market is fragmenting," Mr Mooney said. "You are not going to see any market in the future with one car or a couple of car lines dominating the market like we did 10 or 20 years ago. "Everybody (when assessing large-car performance) wants to compare back to the market 10 years ago, but the market is much more fragmented. There are many more brands out there and many more models out there than there were back then (therefore) you have to find more markets for the car that you have. "I don’t know if we would go as far as Toyota’s model where they have many more (Camry) exports than they do domestic sales, but I can see in the future to survive we must have a fairly significant amount of export business." Mr Mooney said that in addition to the Middle East, where sales are expected to remain around 30,000 units a year, the US was "the other big market that we are looking at". He said that an export program of a four-door sedan to the US market could potentially achieve far more volume than the Pontiac GTO (Monaro), which failed to achieve the 18,000 units expected of it. "If you look at this kind of vehicle in the US today, the sedan market is 20 times bigger than the coupe market." Asked if the potential of the Pontiac program was inhibited by using the Monaro coupe body, Mr Mooney said: "There is no question. Coupes are very niche products in the US. Very niche. There is significantly more volume in a sedan. As sedans got better looking and got more sporty performance in the US market, coupes over time just disappeared." Mr Mooney said that Pontiac was "the natural partnership" for a Holden-sourced VE sedan program in the US. He has already told Australian media earlier this year that the SS-V would make a great Pontiac and that Holden could play a role in moving Pontiac to rear-wheel drive. Left: Current Pontiac Grand Prix GXP. Meanwhile, Mr Mooney said that the first shipments of the VE have gone to the Middle East and the VE launch was held there two weeks ago. "We will do more than 30,000 vehicles there next year and we will do about 30,000 this year. That includes the Chevrolet Lumina (Commodore) and the Chevrolet Caprice (Statesman). It could increase, but that is our current forecast for next year. I am optimistic. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the product." This compares with a forecast for 62,000 VZ/VE sales this year in Australia. This means that if Holden was to export more cars than it sold domestically, sales of Pontiacs would have to be well over double those achieved by the GTO. Mr Mooney said that one of Holden’s strengths was that it already had installed capacity, equipment and infrastructure for the VE architecture. He said that under the GM "flex strategy", a model could now be moved quickly from one plant to another. "It potentially gives you more options in more markets." Far from seeing it as a threat that VE production could potentially go elsewhere, Mr Mooney saw the “flex strategy” as an advantage for Holden. "GM looks very hard at its existing installed capacity before it decides to spend money on new installed capacity. So we have the advantage of having spent half a billion dollars (on VE capacity) over the last three years," he said. He said that having VE architecture being built elsewhere in the world, like for the Camaro, would benefit Australian parts makers supplying the program and would mean that GM could afford more sophisticated systems for cars sold in small markets. This was because the investment recovery in sophisticated systems was being spread across total VE architecture volumes. "Some of the engineering that we are doing on that vehicle (the Camaro) that is advancing the architecture will help our vehicles (Commodore) over time because it will apply directly to our vehicles," he said. "It can help us put more advanced electronic features in our cars here and can help leverage lower cost components that would be common." Family II demand slows THE age of the Holden Family II four-cylinder engine, which went into production in Melbourne in 1982, is beginning to catch up with it, the chairman and managing director of GM Holden has told GoAuto. And the four-cylinder plant that makes it may only just see out the decade. Denny Mooney said that the cut-back of 200 jobs at the Holden engine plant announced last week was attributed to the age of the engine which has led to reduced demand for it around the world. "Daewoo is going gangbusters but not in the models that use the Family II engine," he said. "They sell cars in 140 countries around the world under multiple brands with all different powertrains and it just so happens that in some of the regions that take the Family II engine the volumes are down or there are some older models using the Family II engine that are going out of production as some of the newer stuff is coming in. "I think that by the end of the decade this engine plant will probably discontinue. I must say that several of my predecessors have wrongly predicted the same thing (the imminent demise of the engine). "But it is still pretty good export business. We will be doing 500 a day next year." Mr Mooney said that four-cylinder engine production would cease when the engine ran out of customers. Source: John Mellor/GoAuto.com

The engine was not an issue even at the lower power. The problem was price, price and price. GM charged too much for a pickup truck that cost as much as a Vette. I love trucks but would still pick a Vette over a pick up any day. If they could have priced this at $25,000-$30,000 it still would not have been a runn away sales leader but it would have put the car into the market at a price where it did not compete with anything GM offered like it till the Camaro comes out. We could have done with a lift off hard top and no carpet in the bed. Coth interio orption would have worked too. A V6 option would have worked at the right price. They still sell a lot of ZQ8 truck today with a 4 or 5 cylinder so there is a market for great handleing well priced under powered trucks. To bad this was not the Colorado in the first place. God knbow it is betterr looking and they could have done a Cameo thing with the bed sides for the feetside.

It is just an info error on a car that is going to be gone soon. No more No less and why make a big deal out of it?

Best to watch in the dealer books for a G6 as GM seems to like to sneek some odd studio peeks into them lately. Remeber we saw the Sky 2 years ahead in the studio.

That is the same quote Saleen leaked for both cars a few weeks ago on theCar Crazy Interview . 450 HP, No more no Less.

This was just a comentary on GMI and is not based on many hard facts other than what we have already read abput here. The whole thing is based on what we have heard bout the revamp to be announced about Pontiac and the increase of RWD, They also note about the RWD G8 may show up as soon as Chicago. The G6 part I think is mostly speculation on their part as it was only reported in this post. I expect soon enough GM will start their Saturn like rebuild fo Pontiac and I expect RWD will play a strong part. It is just too soon to tell for sure what they will do. This is one I expect Lutz will announce himself.

There are some in GM worried about over exposure like the SSR recieved before it hit the showroom. But I think they also do not understand that the problems was a Pick up truck that cost the price of a Vette was just not a great Idea. Now at $25K we might have sold a lot more.

Just saw our friend and #1 Camaro supporter Scott S is back on line and feeling fine after a tune up. [just had some heart work done and glad to have you back!] Anyway they were speculating on what Camaro may show up at the NAIAS on Z28.com. One post stated that they expected a coupe to be there only to be followed by a mention by Scott of "No Coupe". They also had mentioned a Convertible to which nothing was said or replied to. Silence at time can be our best clue from the Fbodfather and it may prove to watch and see if GM anounces if a Topless Camaro may appear this year. If it does it will be interesting to see if a more production like car is shown and what clues to the production car changes we will see. I get the feeling a Impala concept will be in the spot light but I also expect the Camaro will also be featured in someway. It might be another good year to drive north and visit Cobo. Hope all is well with you Scott and pray your back to full speed soon. With the new cars that are coming I think you will be very busy.

The true last real Pontiac Pontiac that eats away at the GTO crowd, is if you point it out that the 1984-88 Fiero 4 cylinder was the last Pontiac powered Pontiac ever built. It was built in Pontiac MI, only sold by Pontiac and even had a Pontiac 4 cylinder 2.5 in it. It was a true 100% Pontiac something even some older Pontiac's can't claim. Even the GTO had a little Chevelle under the body shell if one was to get technical. But that is all history and just part of the baggage of using an old name since so many have different ideas what a Pontiac really is and makes it difficult to please all on what their personal definition is. I like them all but too many just want to like a specific style, type or year so how do you address that in a new car. The bottom line is after cars like the Korean Lemans, the 1974 GTO, 1984 Bonneville and to some the 2004 GTO do you make anyone happy by using an old name. I looks like Pontiac might make 50% of the old timers happy at best.

The problem with using the old names is a very tough thing. I can hear it now, "It dose not look like a GTO or Bonnieville"!!! Which bring to point what does a GTO or Bonneville or Ventura look like? It means so many things to so many people it would be hard to satisfy they majority. I have been a Pontiac fan for years and owned or driven almost every kind of Pontiac. I also have been involved with many different Pontiac clubs and groups and can tell you there are many today that still feel Pontiac has not made a car since the last 400 rolled out in 1979. I guess my point is to give a new car a old name give it too much preconcieved idea's or hopes. A new Pontiac today will have little of what many want to see as it will not have a Pontiac Motor, It will not have a lot of ribbed cladding, it will most likley set a new direction for Pontiac just as the 1959 did with the wide track. A fresh start requires a fresh name. Keep in mind Bonneville to some means a sleek 1965 coke bottle bodied car but to others a cheesey 1984 Lemans rebadge. There is just too much baggage to lay on a new car here and Pontiac can't afford any mistakes to survive. I agree that Pontiac's new cars need to make a statment but it needs to make a new statment. I would love to see some of the names of the old show cars that never made production be used. This would bring a fresh name to the market but keep a little heritage in it. Keep in mind not everyone loves or has loved Pontiac. If they did we would not see so few cars being sold.

I would not say keeping yet but they have been used again. Just do note the speeedo and tach do look like production worthy items that bear a similar appearance to the Concept. Who know this whole dash my end up in a Impala?

Chevy is not looking so much to up scale but to capture sales. The Malibu will arrive as a near FWD Impala replacement as the RWD will in a way create a new market of lower cost high value RWD sedans. This is something all the companies did but all had left this market to die for a good while. No matter what the gas price the Malibu will sell and if gas stays cheap the Impala will sell very well and if not Chaevy can afford to keep it somewhat a nich car as it shares production with the Camaro. The real question is with the popularity today of 4 doors will it cut into the Camaro's sales to the practical family types that want a spory RWD car but need better back seat availability. I expect this platform to also find a home at Buick with one or two models and Pontiac with at least two. Buick will be more Lexus like as the Pontiac will be all about performance. The Pontiac will also be more expensive and more Nich as it can afford to be now that the dealer network is shared with Buick. The Malibu and Impala working as a team will give GM a heads up on the market and also offer something Toyota really can't offer. In the end we win and I believe GM will win with this tag team combo.

Did not see this posted any where so here it is. The dash of the Silverado 427 SEMA truck had a dash with a little Camaro in it. The Speedo and Tach are similar to the Camaro concept as is the console. Don't know if any of this is base of future production items but it would be tempting to use them in show cars prior to release of the Street car. I expect the rest of the dash is not anything Camaro related as it is just to big and truck like. But the gauges on the other hand might be a hint of the production items as they are toned down from the concept. The interior also featured recovered Vette seat.

Change the Headlights and nose a bit, throw in a Better quality interior thant the present truck with out the quad cab we might talk. The 5 ylinder is great but it needs the I 6 offered as an option. I am a present owner of a ZQ8 Sonoma and would no trade my truck even for a new Colorado or Canyon. They just feel too cheap with a nose only a mother would love.

You can hate it all you like. I just used it as an example that Pontiac needs to use a new name so there is no baggage attached from ther previous model. I only used the X-400 as a example as it was used on the prototypes of the Bonneville and GP in the late 50's and 60's. Pontiac has many names they used on show cars and never went to production with them. The point I am makeing is if they use a old showcar name it will something old but new at the same time. As for using GP or Bonneville to many non Pontiac buyers have a stereo type of what they think it is in most cases bad . Then you have the old time Pontiac fans who have a mind set on what each name means to them and the new car is going to be a giant leap from the old and for sure not the same car. My whole point is if you want to advance Pontiac your going to have to do somethings new here. Lets face it the old cars just did not get it done and a new name always sparks the interest of the buying public. It is a old marketing trick and it is proven to work like it or not. I am a long time Pontiac owner and love the old names but understand they names are tarnished. Pontiac in the past has used new name or little used named to bring a spark back to the line up. The bottom line is that Pontiac needs to steal buyers back from other brands to survive and the old names will have a harder time doing it.

I can hear it now "It dose not look like a Bonneville"! or "It's too plain to be a Bonneville. It is time for Pontiac to bring out a new name as they are not goint to will with using a old name. GP is about the only thing they might get away with. Many old time Pontiac fans will complain and the new buyers justy won't care if it has a old name or not. Best of both worlds is to go back and use a name from one of the many show cars over the years. How about the X 400 as it was used on old show cars from 59-64 or Club de Mer? A old name with little baggage from the past. Lets face it any reused name is going to be hit complaints that it's not this or that. Just too much precieved ideas with old names. Besides this is a new start for Pontiac time to give it a real original name.

Looks was the downfall of the Aztek As it really was a decent vehicle. Pice had nothing to do with it as we considered buying one as they were marked down new to $15,000 with all wheel drive and we could still not briong ourselves to buy one just because of looks. When it came to price it was a steal in it's segment but mu wife and myself just could not close the deal on it and make it look good enough in our minds to lay down the cash even at the firesale price. I know several who did buy one and have been very very happy with them! It's a shame as if they had got the styling right this could have been a winner right out of the gate at a time when Pontiac needed it. When I saw the protoype at the Detroit show I e mailed Pontiac as asked what the hell are you doing!!! I many not get all my predictions right but I saw this one coming from a long way off.

As I go by Goodyears tech center and test track on my way to work everyday I look for sign of any interesting test vehicles. So far no Vette's have been seen but I suspect they have a special tire just for this car and it won't be a Eagle EMT! What I do see though is a few striking NASCAR tire builders freezing their a$$ off right now.

I agree with the Marketing ploy to a point. But my point is different. They are trying to keep the cars equal so they put on a great show but Aero push has made inpossible to let the cars race at some tracks. It has turned into a F1 race at some where no one can pass the leader becaust there is no air on the nose for down force of the second place car. I have seen the COT at RCR last spring in the shop and it is not going to win ay freinds on looks, it will only win them, with close on track performance. The fact is NASCAr need all the MFG to stay but if you take todays Monte, Charger and Ford they all fit the same template except for the nose. So changing the bodies for any other reason except to keep the on track aero performanc close between mfg and safety is just not true. If any thing the MFG's are not happy with car that don't look like what they selll and lobbied for car that did look more like their own. The COT if anything may drive a MFG away than keep one in. Nascar knows that you have to keep all the car competitive and cost down as that is why they have grown to be as large as they have. Every paying fan has come to see his driver have a chance to win. Unlike other series where only 1-3 cars have any chance. It all about entertainment.

The news here is the first indication the Monte is going away. The race car is just stickers and some facia mods but not much change in the car. As for the COT it will be hated by the drivers and fans till they run at Daytona with much larger plates and put on a better show with much more drafting like the truck have done for the last few years. In other words Montoya will pass more cars in one race than in 5 years of F1. For those who had not read my earlier repost from Jayski.com on this topic, should note. The Bush [name to be changed] is still looking at the Camaro, Mustang, Challanger and Solara as the coupe series. They want the car to be different and have a different appeal. Now that all are slated for production the odds are better of this happening. I think this is the real news here as we all knew the Monte's days were numbered.

Thanks for the assist with the time challanged! Guess this proves the early bird does not always get the worm!!