See other GTO thread

 

Merged.

 

that looks like a pontiac, without the logo. and it looks a lot better than a stock GTO. i think its mostly the headlights. i still prefer the australian version of the grille a lot more, tho

 

Werd.

I motion Holden replaces Pontiac altogether, or GM starts using Holden platforms for Pontiac cars

 

Yesterday, on my way back from looking at a house to buy, I was driving through that neighborhood when I had to stop and do a double take..... a red GTO was parked in the street. Naturally, I pulled off to take a look, and the gentleman came out, so we started talking about it. It was a pilot pre-production vehicle, and he was using it to check for last minute flaws. He asked if I wanted to drive it, and how could I pass up. Turns out he works at GM's R&D department in Detroit, and was home visiting his Mom.... he was originally from the area, grew up in Cleveland, and worked his way up from one of the assembly plants here to R&D in Detroit. So, enough of that..... now the car! It's unbelieveable! It's a blend between a BMW 330 and a Corvette (same LS1 engine, and six speed trans). My God this car is awesome! No shakes, no rattles, everything in it is good quality. The brakes are solid and linear, steering is precise and not sloppy at all, clutch is smooth -- as smooth as my Prelude! In fact, this car felt more solid and refined than my Prelude. In all aspects. I could not believe this is a GM vehicle (well, acutally an Australian vehicle, but close enough). He said MSRP for the stick should be 33k. I took it on the freeway, and sure it has balls. But the way it handles is really more German than American. It's ballanced. Feels lighter than it is. I could go on here, but I don't want to take up the whole thread. Feel free to ask qustions. I spent about an hour with the car, and asked him alot of questions. Bottom line, the GTO is American muscle meets import refinement and quality. I love it.

 

I envy you. The only GM car I really want. :drool:

 

sounds pretty nice.. but i still think its sad that they had to use another company's work to get a car like that - they couldn't do it themselves, even if they had all the designs already drawn up for them..

i'm guessing the suspension is most likely carried over from the monaro, or tweaked slightly for the new engine. either way, it should be the same setup. the chassis dynamics are obviously going to come from the austrailain design.

interior? is that carried over as well? do you know if the transmission/clutch are GM parts, or are they holden components?

 

Holden and Opel are part of GM, so technically they didn't get it from another company's work. And if you know about the original GTO, it was really worked from the Pontiac Tempest which was a mechnical clone of the Chevy Chevelle, Olds F85, and Buick Special.
The chasis is actually a German design from the Opel Omega. And the engine isn't techinically 'new'. It's the LS1 engine from the C5 Corvette.


The interior of the Monaro was updated for 2004, probably by order of Lutz because of the GTO coming to America. The GTO interior looks very nice for a GM. The grill in front is made from metal.

 

The LS1 and the six speed are from the Z06. The reason the GTO has 350 hp and the Z06 has 405 is different exhaust, computer program, and intake manifold. Other than that, it's the same drivetrain.

 

Oh, btw..... over the summer, he and his team took a handfull of GTO pilots on a durability run from LA to Detroit. He said they had them at 120 mph in the desert with the A/C on full blast with luggage and 4 people in the car and no problems, took them through the rocky mountains for altitude and extreme temperature changes, and still not a problem. The only thing that happened was that one of his crew blew an engine by missing a gear on downshift. He said they spent the whole month of July on this run. So it was more than just a direct drive.... they took time to put the cars through hell in the process. Sounds like they're serious about reliability.