Zeta light? GM looking for ways to build high-performance, rear-drive models in near future
JASON STEIN | Automotive News
Posted Date: 4/18/05

DETROIT -- General Motors is scouring its shelves to find an architecture for its next generation of rear-wheel-drive vehicles.

One option under consideration is something GM executives are calling "Zeta light," a lower-cost version of the Zeta architecture that was supposed to be the basis for a new generation of premium rwd vehicles in North America.

In March, GM put several 2008 vehicle programs in limbo, including a production version of the Buick Velite concept and replacements for the Pontiac GTO and Buick Park Avenue.

GM insiders say Zeta light is one of many rwd proposals floating around the company that use existing platforms and components. Other possibilities include Sigma, the rwd architecture used by Cadillac's sedans and sport wagons; and Kappa, GM's small, sporty rwd car architecture debuting this year with the Pontiac Solstice.

No direction is clear.

The bottom line: GM insiders say they want rwd vehicles, including one in the mold of the Camaro muscle car, which was discontinued in 2002.

"It's something everybody wants to do," one GM insiders says. "We just have to do it right."

Last week GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz told the SAE World Congress in Detroit: "We're going to take another look at high-performance rear-wheel drive. But it's going to be something I call Zeta light."

Jim Hall, an auto analyst for Auto-Pacific Inc. in Southfield, Mich., and a former GM employee, says there is an appetite for high-image, moderately priced vehicles inside GM. But there's a problem.
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"The margin is very low on those vehicles," Hall says. "That's not what GM needs right now. What they need is a high-margin home run."

In a recent interview with Automotive News, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said Sigma could be another option for rwd.

Wagoner said GM could decide to use either a Sigma derivative or a cheaper version of Zeta.

Wagoner said the economics of the derailed Zeta program didn't add up. It was "too expensive for what we wanted to do with it," he said. "This needs to cover a range of price-sensitive segments. The initial designs we saw of Zeta were not what we wanted, so that's where the costs began to come apart."

Wagoner also said rwd cars are "not a massive profit-driver decision in the near term." He added: "We need to do it right. In the scheme of things of what's going to drive the business over the next three or four years, this isn't the most critical item we're looking at."

GM spokesman Pat Morrissey says anything is possible: "We have different, flexible architectures on the shelf that we can look at other options. We're not starting from ground zero."

 

One can only speculate at what this means. Are they further along than what they say? Or are we going to wait 3 to 4 years for GM to get out from behind the 8 ball financially for a new rwd V8 performance coupe?

 

Some have said that work stopped in NA a year before the the Zeta cut decision became public. If that is true then 'Zeta lite' could be further along than we thought.

 

Don't know about the rest of the line, but according to those I know, the Zeta sedans here in North America were initially to share sheetmetal with Holden. If GM-NA decided to do different exterior skin, then that would drive up the cost of the project. But what confuses me is that GM is going to pay for the skin on a chassis anyway, so what was the problem?

Let me add that Rick Wagoner was president of GM-NA when the B-body was pulled and the decision was made to kill off (or at least completely end funding) for the Camaro. I feel he's changed that view somewhat today.

As I was told back in February, wait till the dust settles before making judgements.

 

It doesn't sound like they are that worried about it. They would like to, but they don't need to. I can kinda see that. They aren't banking on the Camaro or any other new rwd car to turn them around, so why not focus on something that will get them out of this hole they have been digging.

 

One thing is fer sure man, they better kick this in gear in a big hurry or the date is going to be pushed out a long way.

 

I do get the sense there is almost a panic going on with GM's product people to get a performance coupe out within a couple of years.

I'm still on the 2008MY bandwagon.

 

I did a little web research on the Colorado rear axle and couldn't find much. They are too new to have them sourced out at salvage yards, etc.

But judging from the available rear gear ratios, I have this very bad feeling its the same glass jaw 10 bolt from the S10/Fbody. Why wouldn't it be? Its more than strong enough for the I5 in the Colorado, so why reinvent the wheel?

But it would be a major mistake to put that back under the Fbody. I'm comfortable with live axle if that's what we get but it needs to be updated and improved.

 

The LS2 or the 5.3 will be in the Colorado SS. So I doubt it is the same rear axle. Also the majority of the truck is Isuzu so I would be shocked if they used an old GM 10 bolt.

 

Hope springs eternal.

 

Wasnt GM bragging about how they could get a car from conception to the roads in 2 years with the help of all their super computers the bought to do testing on and what not in the computers to save time and money? whats the panic then? or were they bluffing (im not meaning to bash but be more constructive criticism that if they can do it like they said, then they should do it like that and not their slower more traditional approach.)

 

I hope you're right. That isn't too far off.

 

According to this 4 wheel article (only thing that had info on google), it's an 8" unit.

Quote: "out back, a solid AAM 8-inch rear axle rides on dual-stage leaf packs and gas shocks."

So unless they're wrong, it isn't the same axle as the old 7.5" 10bolt in the camaro. But i can't say how much stronger (if any) it is.

 

GM's problem isn't designing a car in 2 years. Their problem IMO is the decision process to get the car to market.

The feeling I get right now is that GM is tripping over themselves to get a performance coupe to market because they realize (via Mustang IMHO) that even though it doesn't make a whole lot of money, it has unquestionable benefits to the rest of the line.

If GM gets something approved soon, and there's alot of existing pieces involved it can still get out by 2008. I suspect GM knows the clock is running.

 

Yeesh. Yer an optimist.

Personally, I believe it can be done. GM once retooled a car in 6 months.

But... that was back when Fisher Body ran the body build show... and they retired everyone early from there who knew anything.