guionM
02-11-2004, 01:04 PM
General Motors North America sent a few people down to GM-Holden with the intention of developing a vehicle that could be used in Buick (At about the same time, Chevy vetoed using the V-car for the 5th gen Camaro, effectively dooming it).
The whole effort of intergrating some of Holden's products for Buick, Pontiac, and Chevrolet stalled because of a combination of GM-NA's internal politics, the "Not-Invented-Here" mentality, and GM's focus on trucks. The whole thing was publically disguised behind the story of engineering difficulties of making Holden's V-chassis conform to US standards.
What changed things was Cadillac & Bob Lutz.
Cadillac's devotion to returning to RWD and (of all people) Ron Zarella running blocker for them, layed the basis for the new "Sigma" & soon to be out "Zeta" RWD chassis.
New arrival Bob Lutz recieved a forwarded e-mail from one of the people GM-NA sent to Holden to work on the Buick project about how he felt the Monaro would make a great GTO for Pontiac, and he took a trip to Holden to see for himself. Before he left, he was sold on the UTE as El Camino, the Statesman as the Park Avenue, and the whole stalled program got a new boost. If Lutz wasn't a vice chairman, able to overule much of GM-NAs politics and hand ringing, the whole project would still be stalled.
So when we get our Camaro back, be sure to thank:
*Buick Motor division-for thinking enough of RWD at one time to convince GM-NA to send people to Holden to try & make it happen.
*Cadillac Motor division (and Ron Zarella)- for basically ramming the Sigma through a GM that wasn't quite sold on RWD or Cadillac competing with the worlds best.
*Pontiac Motor division, & Lynn Myers (with high powered help from Bob Lutz)- for most certainally ramming the GTO down the throats of GM's excuse-makers from engineering to product people.
*Also add GM-Holden of Australia (of course) by disproving the contention of some at GM-NA that it would be expensive to prepare the car for the US (it actually was relatively dirt cheap) and that a small company like Holden couldn't expand production to meet the numbers the US would need.
As in any business, it's all about money, and money's all it's about. When GM-NA actually took a look at how cheaply Holden could operate, and their expertise in building a multitude of products from the same chassis for pennies of how GM-NA operated (the reason why engineers & product people here were hostile to the idea of bring over Holdens in the 1st place?), Holden ended up not just recieving money to replace the V cars, but got the assignment to create a modular RWD chassis that could be used worldwide, including here in the US.
This new chassis "Zeta" is a modular chassis. It essentially is a chassis that has various components that can be simply welded in for different lengths, widths, and body configurations, much like a Lego block set. An example would be say the rear footwell section. That could be stamped for a short coupe, a large sedan, or a UTE. On the assembly line where the floorpan is assembled, whatever piece is needed is welded in, depending on the model. This way, a large variety of vehicles can be made on the assembly line from the same group of parts. This is Holden's specialty, and why they got the assignment.
Another example of what Zeta is, think of the Ford's Fox chassis. That was a extremely advanced chassis when it came out. Most cars built on it was bigger & lighter than it's predecessors. Fox was the basis of everything from budget Fairmonts to top level Lincolns, and plenty of cars in between. It was made in different lengths, widths, and carried everything from base 70 horse 4 cylinder engines to the current 420 horse blown Cobra.
As far as the Zeta suspension & driveline components, that will come out soon enough. Keep in mind that outside of Corvette-XLR, GM is going to have only one set of components for their RWD cars. If you take a good look at the Kappa & Sigma components, you pretty much have seen some pieces of Zeta.
In short, "Zeta" is more a structure than a new set of components, which like the Solstice, will be primarily off the shelf with new parts developed only where necessary.
BTW, to bring another GTO story to light: Holden did exactly what GM-NA directed by drafting a Pontiac nose to the Monaro, tuning the exhaust, and making it meet US standards. GM-NA directed nothing more than that be done: the point was to get it to market for the time being, not to redesign the car. Holden could have easily done more, even through HSV.
Then why GM didn't spend more to make the GTO more agressive looking??? The volume didn't justify spending the extra money. With only 18,000 slated per year it didn't make financial sense (still need to make a good profit here).
There will be some "slight visual changes" for 2005. Not much, but it is a nod to some GTO critics. ;)
The whole effort of intergrating some of Holden's products for Buick, Pontiac, and Chevrolet stalled because of a combination of GM-NA's internal politics, the "Not-Invented-Here" mentality, and GM's focus on trucks. The whole thing was publically disguised behind the story of engineering difficulties of making Holden's V-chassis conform to US standards.
What changed things was Cadillac & Bob Lutz.
Cadillac's devotion to returning to RWD and (of all people) Ron Zarella running blocker for them, layed the basis for the new "Sigma" & soon to be out "Zeta" RWD chassis.
New arrival Bob Lutz recieved a forwarded e-mail from one of the people GM-NA sent to Holden to work on the Buick project about how he felt the Monaro would make a great GTO for Pontiac, and he took a trip to Holden to see for himself. Before he left, he was sold on the UTE as El Camino, the Statesman as the Park Avenue, and the whole stalled program got a new boost. If Lutz wasn't a vice chairman, able to overule much of GM-NAs politics and hand ringing, the whole project would still be stalled.
So when we get our Camaro back, be sure to thank:
*Buick Motor division-for thinking enough of RWD at one time to convince GM-NA to send people to Holden to try & make it happen.
*Cadillac Motor division (and Ron Zarella)- for basically ramming the Sigma through a GM that wasn't quite sold on RWD or Cadillac competing with the worlds best.
*Pontiac Motor division, & Lynn Myers (with high powered help from Bob Lutz)- for most certainally ramming the GTO down the throats of GM's excuse-makers from engineering to product people.
*Also add GM-Holden of Australia (of course) by disproving the contention of some at GM-NA that it would be expensive to prepare the car for the US (it actually was relatively dirt cheap) and that a small company like Holden couldn't expand production to meet the numbers the US would need.
As in any business, it's all about money, and money's all it's about. When GM-NA actually took a look at how cheaply Holden could operate, and their expertise in building a multitude of products from the same chassis for pennies of how GM-NA operated (the reason why engineers & product people here were hostile to the idea of bring over Holdens in the 1st place?), Holden ended up not just recieving money to replace the V cars, but got the assignment to create a modular RWD chassis that could be used worldwide, including here in the US.
This new chassis "Zeta" is a modular chassis. It essentially is a chassis that has various components that can be simply welded in for different lengths, widths, and body configurations, much like a Lego block set. An example would be say the rear footwell section. That could be stamped for a short coupe, a large sedan, or a UTE. On the assembly line where the floorpan is assembled, whatever piece is needed is welded in, depending on the model. This way, a large variety of vehicles can be made on the assembly line from the same group of parts. This is Holden's specialty, and why they got the assignment.
Another example of what Zeta is, think of the Ford's Fox chassis. That was a extremely advanced chassis when it came out. Most cars built on it was bigger & lighter than it's predecessors. Fox was the basis of everything from budget Fairmonts to top level Lincolns, and plenty of cars in between. It was made in different lengths, widths, and carried everything from base 70 horse 4 cylinder engines to the current 420 horse blown Cobra.
As far as the Zeta suspension & driveline components, that will come out soon enough. Keep in mind that outside of Corvette-XLR, GM is going to have only one set of components for their RWD cars. If you take a good look at the Kappa & Sigma components, you pretty much have seen some pieces of Zeta.
In short, "Zeta" is more a structure than a new set of components, which like the Solstice, will be primarily off the shelf with new parts developed only where necessary.
BTW, to bring another GTO story to light: Holden did exactly what GM-NA directed by drafting a Pontiac nose to the Monaro, tuning the exhaust, and making it meet US standards. GM-NA directed nothing more than that be done: the point was to get it to market for the time being, not to redesign the car. Holden could have easily done more, even through HSV.
Then why GM didn't spend more to make the GTO more agressive looking??? The volume didn't justify spending the extra money. With only 18,000 slated per year it didn't make financial sense (still need to make a good profit here).
There will be some "slight visual changes" for 2005. Not much, but it is a nod to some GTO critics. ;)