Top Rank Cars: Pontiac

Showing posts with label Pontiac. Show all posts

The Inspirational Archer without Arms Changes Pontiac Brakes with Feet

Matt Stutzsman is one truly gifted and talented individual whose attitude should be an inspiration to all. You see, Stutzsman was born without arms. And yet, despite all the challenges, he managed to adapt and do everything on his own using his legs and feet.

The 29-year old man from Iowa, whose birth parents gave him up for adoption when he has was just four months old because they couldn’t deal with the idea of raising a child with special needs (or so they thought), just recently qualified from the U.S. Olympic team in archery!

In the world of engine swaps, anything goes but it’s always nice to see people experimenting with different kind of builds. For Car Lounge forum member ‘Phlow’, the patient was a Pontiac Solstice roadster with a weak heart - or so to say.

While most physicians would prescribe a local LS V8 transplant, this doctor went for something more exotic, to be precise a 2JZ, which is a code name for the Toyota Supra’s twin-turbocharged inline-six.

From the creators of the Murcielago LP-640 Roadster wannabe we showed you back in 2009, comes a new Lamborghini doppelganger with fresh looks but the same Pontiac Solstice underpinnings.

This time, the car is supposed to resemble a Gallardo Spyder in a Superleggera outfit. The Lambo replica is finished in the usual for this type of conversions canary yellow and while the builders ditched the scissor door solution, they did add power controlled doors and a hood, which automatically open at the touch of a button – you know, just in case some of your friends weren’t already impressed […].

There are some three million former Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer customers in the United States, all of whom will unlikely ever have the pleasure of buying a newer model of their current make again. These are some of America’s defunct brands, all gone the same way as Plymouth, DeSoto, Packard and many others. These latest additions were culled following General Motors bankruptcy reorganisation in 2009. And Mercury owners are in the same boat.

Now, Ford and GM are desperately trying to hold onto these “brand-less” customers. Accoriding to a report from the Wall Street Journal, in this year alone, 70% Pontiac owners, 71% of Saturn owners and 65% of Mercury owners who traded in their vehicles left with something other than a Ford or GM product.

The makers of the fire-breathing Phoenix T/A that we saw at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas are back with yet another proposal for a Pontiac model based on the latest iteration of Chevy’s Camaro pony car. This time the people over at Trans Am Depot will give birth to a modern day interpretation of Pontiac’s famed 1969 GTO Judge. The tuner named its creation “The GT9 Goat”.

The teaser renderings and photos of the faux-Pontiac reveal a bespoke front end with a split grille and a revised hood with air scoops, while at the back we find new tail lamp and bumper designs as well as a restyled trunk sporting a prominent wing. The characteristic profile side stripes, quad tail pipes and the newly styled alloy wheel options round off the exterior changes. There’s no word yet if there will be any kind of upgrades to the interior and the mechanical hardware of the Camaro.

It’s a poorly kept secret that many Americans are quite fond of the Australian-made and Commodore-derived, Holden Ute, which we recently drove in Queensland. It’s big, brutish and comfortable with a bevy of engine and equipment options to suit virtually any budget or taste - so long as those tastes only extend to, “Big, brutish V6 or V8 engined utes”.

Before the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, the subsequent bankruptcy GM and the disillusion of the Pontiac brand, as many as half of the Holden Commodores built in Australia were destined for the U.S. and the world in the form of the Pontiac G8. A thinly disguised Holden Ute even made a showing at the 2008 New York Auto Show as the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck.

Our man Tristan has snagged the keys to a Holden Ute Series II SS V8 model for a first drive in Queensland, Australia this week, and just to make it a bit more interesting, he’ll be driving the Down Under-flavored El Camino to a classic car gathering in Brisbane.

Blurring the line between cars and trucks, the Holden Commodore-based sport pickup comes from a long line of Utes dating back to the middle of the previous century. The Ute almost made it to North America when Pontiac revealed the G8 Sport Truck at the 2008 New York Auto Show, but GM’s growing financial troubles at the time put a stop to that plan, and eventually the brand itself which was discontinued in 2009, and finally shut down in 2010.

You can find one at every car event – you know, the show off type that ends up getting more attention than he bargained for. At the Houston Coffee and Cars event that took place on April 2, that special someone was the owner of a red Pontiac GTO (the Holden Monaro based model). The GTO driver tried to make a cool exit out of the corner but lost control of the Goat hopping over a curb and into a tree. No word if the killer shoe heel is a suspect for this latest mishap…. Watch the crash and the aftermath in the videos after the jump. Read more »

It Came from eBay Hell: The Porsche “Carriero GT”

I swear the Fiero Owner’s Club of America is not paying my salary, it just appears that way. Here we have yet another stunning replica based on that most prestigious of U.S. motoring icons: the Pontiac Fiero. GM’s indefatigable plastic-bodied, mid-engined two seater has gone on to become the underpinning of many a dodgy European thoroughbred imitator. Today’s target is the Porsche Carrera GT, perhaps one of the greatest cars to come out of Germany in recent years.

Our seller’s “Carriero GT” features a rebuilt engine and transmission (never a good sign in this sort of car) with the car said to have covered 6,900 miles since then.

The seller will have more than enough once he sells this beautiful and quality replica for the low, low price of US$21,500. Don’t believe me? The seller himself says, “THE PICTURES SHOW THE BEAUTY AND THE QUALITY BUILT INTO THIS REPLICA.” And you can really see it too, from the awkward body mouldings, botched-together interior and Costco brand fog lights.

A new survey from RL Polk & Co. suggests that most Pontiac owners who bought a new car in 2010 chose a product from General Motors. More specifically, of the 57,641 Pontiac customers looking to replace their car, GM was able to recapture 53.3% of them, with 33.5% being a Chevrolet vehicle, 11.7% a GMC, 6.7% a Buick, and 1.5% a Cadillac model.

A significant percentage of buyers defected to the Ford brand, which ranked 3rd overall with 10.5%, while the Chrysler Corporation saw the Dodge brand ranked 9th, capturing 3.2%. Jeep and Chrysler together were able to capture the interest of 1.7% of Pontiac owners looking for a new vehicle in 2010.