Maybe the back should be spruced up a bit. I can't imagine the havoc that would be caused if the person who just got whipped with one sees what appears to be a single exhaust system sticking out the back.

 

I guess a higher HP engine makes sense for the car, but man the LS6 is really getting pimped out to other cars. I cant see GM giving a pony-type car a 55 hp higher rating that a base Corvette.

 

The old Grand Prix DIDN'T have any cladding!!!!!! and the new one is 260HP not 240HP. I wish they would get people that know what they are talking about when they right these articles

 

I know. It's funny that because the Aztek had the controversial plastic cladding, everyone assumes all Pontiacs had it.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by guionM
[B][B]Pontiac tries pizzazz

"We've got a lot of work to do," Meyers said. "We have to rebuild our credential as a performance division."


Not really - Along with the new GTO offer a new mid-engine v6/v8.
This would show many people that performance is back at Pontiac instead of offering us the hot selling Aztek. (Note: it is such a marketing success, most people misspell the name Aztec, great brand awareness).

With all the focus GM is putting on cars, they should make it a priority to develop cars that are in demand and had a huge following previously. I dont know that many people that are just dying to have a Solstice (besides Bob Lutz). Grand National would be another example which Buick should resurrect. On the car side of things too many core products were dumped in the past , which meant GM almost became GT (General Trucks).

 

Originally posted by Z28Wilson
"Disagree. This isn't "revisionist" at all. Chevy has a great performance history I agree, but in the past 20 years how many Chevys have been real performers? Camaro and Corvette."

How many have Pontiac had?? 1. No matter what, Chevy has a better performance image and history.

"Think about it for a sec. Pontiac had Firebird. The Firebird got the turbo motor in '89 but Camaro did not. Pontiac also got Fiero, invented the muscle car concept with GTO and had supercharged W-bodies long before Chevy got one, which was also long before Bob Lutz ever came aboard."

Yeah Pontiac got the TTA, but regular production Firebirds were slower than Camaros (TPI) which had a better intake making them almost always run faster and always rated higher in power. So maybe they deserved it. Also, the Camaro was the car considered for that 92 Anniversary car that never got made, not the Firebird.

 

Actually, Pontiac's performance history is in fact arguably greater than Chevrolet's. Beyond GTO and Trans Ams, pretty much all Pontiacs had it's roots in performance from Bonneville & Catalinias to Grand Prix, and even Tempest. Chevrolet was cheap performance, but as a general rule in GM's hiarchy was generally slower than Pontiacs. Most of Chevy's true performance history is recent.

Here's some history on Pontiac performance :
http://www.pontiacserver.com/ap1.html
http://www.autoswalk.com/pontiacgto.html
http://www.ranrich.com/gp1962.htm

Trivia: The 1961-1963 Pontiac Tempest (the predecessor of GTO's donor car the 1964 Tempest) came with:
1) An overhead cam inline 6 cylinder engine!!
2) 4 wheel independent suspension!!
3) A flexible driveshaft!!
4) A rear transaxle...just like the current C5!!
(imagine if GTO came out a year earlier. )

It was made in a more conventional way in 1964 by GM to cut costs. The Oldsmobile version had a turbocharged V8!!

 

Here's some history on Pontiac performance :

Smokey and the Bandit
Smokey and the Bandit II
Knight Rider

 

You're way off on this one. Firebirds had TPI availability (on Formula and Trans AM; mandatory on GTA) just like Camaros did (on Z28 and IROC-Z), and the performance difference between a similarly equipped TPI Firebird and Camaro of the same year is .. negligible, at best. I'm sure you're a member of thirdgen.org so you already know where I'm coming from. Don't let brand loyalty be a blinding factor here.

In fact I'll take it one step further. A Firebird Formula's mission is to have the performance of a Trans am with significant weight reduction. A TPI Formula will usually be lighter in weight than any TPI Camaro you can come up with from the same model year. Either 305 or 350, but same motor in both. Also it's a well-documented fact that thirdgen Firebird has superior aerodynamics to thirdgen Camaro. There you go.. same exact drivetrain, lighter Firebird has the advantage, more aerodynamic Firebird has the advantage. In the real world I'd expect the Formula to come out on top of the Z28 more than half the time.

guionM is right about PMD history too.

gt

 

XXX and XXX2

a 69 Yenko 427 Camaro will be in fast and fureous 2

 

The MacGyver episode "Collision Course" was thirdgen-central They showed the canadian GM Player's Challenge cars pretty much nonstop in the episode and even crashed one. MacGyver drove an 86 Trans Am, of course I recommend it to any thirdgen fan.

and yeah Knight Rider, who could forget that.. for better or worse. The amount of jumps, posi burnouts and 180-flips in that show is insane. Awesome show, but it unfortunately started a feeding frenzy on 82 T/A's, which are all but extinct today, at least in good original shape. I still watch it every day on Sci-fi channel but it's about to be over with.

gt

 

Ill go out on a limb here and say that Pontiac and Chevy have just about the same amount of heritage. Take the middle road!

Although we all know Caddy's history dwarfs every other manufacturer out there, right?

 

Well, I guess we're all gonna have our own opinion here.

 

Let's also not forget that Pontiac was carrying the performance flag with the T/A in the mid-70's when Z28 went the way of the dodo. And which brand was it that continued to use the monster 400 motors in their pony cars at a time when everyone else was giving up on performance, including Chevy?

I'm a Chevy guy too IZ28 but it isn't wise to disrespect the heritage that Pontiac has as well.

 

I'm not, its just that Chevy has a better performance history. Which is what made them, their engines, and their musclecars so popular with enthusiats, maybe the most popular divison of American cars ever among performance people. I mean you can find every other brand of musclecar with Chevy engines swapped in, but trying to find a Chevy with another brands' engine is incredibly difficult. When I go to car shows, its usually mostly Chevys. Chevy is also the most winningest brand in racing history. There are probably more desirable performance cars/cars in Chevrolets history than any other.