I was reading yesterday,(can't remember if it was MT or R&T), that Buick has yet to decide whether it's new coupe/sedans will ride on Zeta or Sigma. The decision will be made in the first 6 months of 2005. The reasoning here, is that if Buick wants to compete with Lexus, it will need a sophisticated architecture like Sigma. Zeta may be too crude.

Which brings up a suspicion I've had for quite some time here. Zeta is not all new. In fact Zeta seems to be a carryover of Holden's V car. Replete with it's high firewall, Macpherson struts and outdated semi-trailing arm rear suspension.

I've mentioned previously, that the Opel Insignia concept from 2003 was actually a Sigma....from a donor CTS.....not Zeta, as we were told.
Journalists were not allowed to look underneath the Insignia because it was supposedly a "prototype chassis". But the truth is, GM didn't want them noticing that this was Sigma....and well, Zeta will not be.

Here's my take on this. Buick will end up rejecting Zeta and go with Sigma. Holden, Pontiac and Chevy will use Zeta/VE. It is my impression however, that GM is having just as hard of a time turning it's V-car/VE/Zeta, Chevy coupe into a Camaro...as it did in the mid-'90s, when it tried and decided against it.

Which leaves us with Camaro. If the Toranas' RWD architecture spawns a real car.....that would be Camaro's best chance. Otherwise...if I were calling the shots....I'd take another look at Sigma. It's more sophisticated than Zeta, seems to have much more design flexibility and it's costs are comparable.

Lest we forget.....

Remember afew years ago when we heard that Caddy modified Sigma and created a C-Series sized sedan and 3 series sized coupe. It is my understanding, that these cars had no engineering issues whatsoever...they were killed for other reasons.

 

Are you prepared to wait another 8-10 years for a Torana based Camaro?

I sure as hell am not.

 

Nor am I

I was under the impression this has all been finalized and now it's just a beaucratuic process......

 

Here we go jg...round and round again. First, 8-10 years...as you say...is a ridiculous time frame. 3 or 4 is more like it.

The real question however is this:

Are you willing to wait 3 to 3.5 years for a car which is not a Camaro and NOT CALLED CAMARO.... or wait afew months more, for a better Camaro which is called Camaro?

 

I remember a long time ago when we first got Sigma that it was suppsed to be shared with other divisions including Buick but Cadillac didn't want to share and all research on variants were dropped. This makes me wonder how long a possible Camaro based on Sigma would take. It all depends on that 3 series sized coupe and how far it progressed before it was scrapped. It would also depend on how willing Caddy was to share this car (you know that Caddy will want a coupe version of the CTS and it is supposed to be locked in when the replacement is due) with lowly divisions such as Pontiac/Chevrolet.

I'm not an Engineer so I honestly don't want to speculate on the differences with the VE and the SIGMA chassis but if someone can shed some light it would be appreciated.

 

Can't say that I know everything about it....but my impressions are that it was quite developed. And a pretty sweet car, too.

 

So Buick is supposed to get the first RWD car and then Chevy a year later and Buick hasnt even decided what architecture to use? This is getting ridiculous.

 

Well, it seems that Buick feels strongly enough, to take the heat over a switch to Sigma.

 

Am I the only person here uncomfortable with the idea of a Camaro having the same chassis as a luxury sedan? geeeez, this IS getting rediculous.

 

where did you hear this.. ?

the zeta has multi point IRS , a-arm front suspension...

where did you hear semi trailing arms, and mcpherson struts ?

zeta > sigma in design... but not in cost.

 

Yep UDE is correct same suspension as sigma...

 

Can GM make Caddy give up its kung-fu death grip on Sigma?

 

No way, Caddy cannot give up Sigma.
Zeta will be JUST fine. Look how great the V chassis have been for Holden as far as making great cars? Its not liek they are crude and falling apart? I think that Buick's Velite concept would not have happend if it wasnt on Zeta. I think it just comes down to time now. All the plans are set, and we are just waiting for things to get in order.

 

Don't worry about that TOO much... the new Mustang is based on the Licoln LS platform...

My biggest concern is that is can be "low-slung" enough, but from all the pics we have seen of what it is "supposed" to look like, any new Camaro is going to be more "2-door sedan-ish" than "low-slung sports car-ish"

Heck, that in and of itself makes it more like a GTO than size (which other have argued over and over again) , IMHO.

 

The Camaro isn't gonna be on Zeta it's too big, Kappa is too small, this Torana (Kappa Based) chassis is the best way, it's a good size and can handle the HP. I think it will be perfect.