[Shotimes] Pontiac unveils SHO successor?

[Donald Mallinson]

Carl,

Notice the ? in the subject line?

No it doesn't have a manual tranny, as a fan of enthusiast 
cars, I would have hoped they would put one in, but that 
isn't a realistic hope with almost all American autos.

No the new GP V8 isn't a real V6 SHO successor, and it 
probably won't handle near as well as the V8.  But one thing 
I have come to realize, is that since we could not have the 
V6 MTX SHO anymore, the V8 SHO is a better FWD "sporty" 
sedan than anything in its price class at the time, or even 
today.

As for a limited slip in the new GP, I doubt it, but it 
probably will have some form of traction control, at least I 
would hope it would.

Cadillac managed to control torque steer really well in the 
275/300 hp big cars they made and still make.  The former 
FWD STS and Current FWD Deville are really very good driving 
cars that don't reveal their FWD genes until you drive them 
well beyond their intended limits.  For 99.9% of highway 
driving, even very spirited driving, they are extremely well 
behaved.

Maybe they put some of those good traits into the new GP?

I am in favor of neat new cars, even FWD ones.

As for the GM FWD heritage.  At the time GM led the parade 
to FWD, all the press was blasting GM for not being "Modern" 
and forward looking like the europeons and japanese and 
going to FWD.  SO GM rushed in some stopgap FWD cars and 
then changed everything to try to keep up and keep market 
share.

I think a lot of us (but not me) have forgotten how anti-RWD 
most of the country was at that point.  It has only been the 
last 4-5 years that RWD has started getting some acceptance 
among the general population, and only because of better 
traction control systems.  Some of you may have forgotten 
how truly awful and dangerous RWD is in the snow if you 
don't have the right winter traction devices (snow/ice 
tires) and how great FWD is in comparison.  FWD is not going 
to go away, personally I do NOT want to go back to the main 
part of the population driving around in small light hard to 
control RWD cars.  Note also that most fans of RWD 
enthusiast cars have a FWD or AWD "winter" car for those 
that live where snow flies at ALL during the winter.

Don Mallinson

Carl Prochilo wrote:
> Does it have a manual transmission?  Otherwise it can't be a successor. 
> You know better Don.