Autoblog

Since Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealers are in the process of consolidating their showrooms, many were likely hoping for a halo product that could draw customers into the showroom. Hey, wouldn't a version of the upcoming Chevy Camaro badged as a Pontiac Trans Am revival do the trick? Maybe, but at the NADA conference this week, GM told these dealers that a Pontiac Trans Am is not going to happen. Blame the new, more stringent federal fuel economy regulations for killing off this cool idea. In fact, the new regs also mean that the automaker will be scaling back on transforming Pontiac into a rear-wheel-drive performance division. Though GM assured dealers that Pontiac will remain a car-only brand, the assurance that a debacle like the Aztec won't happen a second time is little comfort to those who were hoping Pontiac would once again be the brand that builds excitement. And who says performance has to be totally sacrificed for fuel economy? New powertrains are being developed that make the most of the internal combustion engine's efficiency, and a twin-turbo, direct-inject four-cylinder can make gobs of power while being much more efficient than an equally powerful V6 or even V8.

GM did inform Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealers that they would be getting 12 new or special-edition vehicles over the next 20 months. A special-edition GMC Sierra pickup called Pro Grade was mentioned, for instance. Still, the quashing of any hope for a new Trans Am means that the number of vehicles slated to share the Camaro's rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform in the U.S. is dwindling. Only the Pontiac G8 and G8 ST car-based truck are confirmed, with Zeta-based rear-wheel-drive sedans for Buick and Chevy still up in the air. This means that without the ability to spread out costs across a number of new vehicles, the price of producing these vehicles will likely be high and passed on to the performance-minded consumer.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd, Photo: Winding Road]

What do the 1980 Chevy Monza and the 1973 VW Microbus have in common? They are among Car Talk hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi's Top 10 Scariest Cars list. Of the Monza they say, " Whenever one of these beauties reared its ugly grille in front of the garage, every mechanic with more than six weeks' experience would go running for the men's room and lock the door." Another car on the list, the 1987 Ford Festiva, gets this derision from the brothers: "We once got in trouble for saying this car came right from the factory with a funeral wreath on the grille."

If these cars aren't scary enough, submit your own nomination.

The whole list after the jump.


[Source: cartalk.com]

General Motors recently gave Aaron Robinson, a junior at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design in Philadelphia, an unforgettable gift. The creative 17-year-old has a love for designing automobiles, so in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish foundation GM designers transformed his sketches of a Pontiac Trans Am design into a virtual 5-foot-by-10-foot computer projection model. Robinson's life has been marked by a battle with leukemia, and he is fortunately now in remission.

The design, of which The Detroit News appears to have no pictures (the one above we believe is another sketch of a future Corvette C16 done by Robinson and reinterpreted by GM designers), shows a model that takes design cues from the 1953 Chevy Corvette, as well as a one-headlight grille inspired by the 1945 Tucker. Amaury Diaz, creative designer for the Rear-Wheel Drive High Performance Studio at GM, said about the experience of interpreting the young man's design, "That is as much fun as I'll have this week."

It was refreshing that we didn't find news of GM's giving nature in its own list of press releases, as something like this shouldn't be treated as a marketing opportunity. Although we do hope GM will release some more pics so we can view Robinson's works from some additional angles.

[Source: The Detroit News]