New GTO coming

[Jaguar D-Type]

General Motors plans a follow-up to today’s GTO, and a high Australian dollar means it will likely be built in North America

autoweek.com

3-2-2006

The Pontiac GTO lives! It will be replaced in late 2008 by an all-new model underpinned by General Motors’ latest rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform, with a strong likelihood of it being built on the same production line as the Chevrolet Camaro in North America.

That’s the message from General Motors vice president for global product development, Bob Lutz, at this week’s Geneva motor show.

The replacement for today’s slowish-selling GTO was canceled last year when General Motors announced it was reorganizing its North American operations and was set to focus its efforts on creating a new line of sport/utility vehicles, pickups and crossovers.

But Lutz has told AutoWeek that reports of the rear-wheel-drive coupe’s death were premature and the next-generation GTO’s development program was only really placed on hold, and—after some internal reorganization to ensure profitability targets can be met—it is now back on.

“The reason we said it was canceled is because that way our people would put their pencils down,” Lutz said. “In GM if you say something is deferred, then people keep working on it. We really needed to get that message through to everybody.” GM’s 74-year-old product guru said the program into which the GTO is incorporated was ‘getting out of control’ and running up costs that would have made it unworkable.

“It was my fault that it got out of control in the first place,” he added. “It was going to be the world’s greatest car and apparently cost nothing to make. So we’ve started over now. The program is back on and it’s going full tilt.”

Lutz confirmed that the GTO was “only ever off for two months, but that break has enabled us to get a more feasible program up.” The program he points to is General Motors’ Zeta rear-wheel-drive platform, which is being developed by Holden in Australia and set to underpin the new-generation Commodore due to be launched in August.

Besides Camaro and GTO, other models set to be based on the Zeta platform are upcoming replacements for the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, and a new car called the Buick Statesman, according to Lutz.

Contrary to rumors, however, Lutz said General Motors is not planning to revive the Pontiac Firebird. “No, that’s not something we are planning. We are not going to do that car,” he said.

When pushed on whether GM was thinking about bringing back the El Camino off the Zeta platform, Lutz beamed with enthusiasm. “The kids in the company, myself included, would love to do another El Camino, but the grown-ups amongst us don’t share that way of thinking,” he said. “It would be fairly simple. We’d only have to put a Chevrolet face on the Holden Ute [a car-like pickup sold in Australia]. The building blocks are there.”

Less sophisticated than the existing rear-wheel-drive Sigma platform found beneath the Cadillac STS and other high-end GM models, the Zeta architecture is said to be considerably cheaper to produce, owing to a simplified rear-suspension arrangement and other features.

Lutz suggests the individual character of GM models would not be compromised by basing them around one platform. “We have developed different dash-to-front-axle lengths for various models,” he said. “It [the Zeta platform] is a really flexible platform.”

Along with Australia and North America, Zeta-based rear-wheel-drive models are also being developed for sale in the Middle East and China. Details remain scarce, though GM’s business case for the new GTO is rumored to be based around sales of between 15,000 and 20,000 per year in North America. After a promising start, today’s model has failed to live up to initial estimates recording 13,569 sales in 2004 and just 11,590 in 2005.

Lutz confirmed that GM’s Australian subsidiary, Holden, would play a leading role in the engineering of the GTO [where it is sold as the Monaro] and its sister car, the Camaro. “Holden is responsible for the large rear-drive architecture that these cars are based on. If it happens, Holden will do the development on the Camaro as well as the GTO,” he told AutoWeek.

Despite being developed in Australia, however, there are strong indications the next GTO will be built in North America. “Whether the GTO will be built in Australia [as the current Pontiac GTO is] will largely depend on the [U.S. vs. Australian dollar] exchange rate at the time,” said Lutz. He added, “With the current strength of the Australian dollar and the recent Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the U.S., it would be more feasible to build the GTO in North America. This raises the possibility of both the new-generation GTO and Camaro being imported to Australia in right-hand-drive guise.

Production of today’s Pontiac GTO is planned to end in September, leaving GM with two years before the new Zeta-based model arrives in North American showrooms. As with the recently unveiled Chevrolet Camaro, it is expected to carry a more retro-inspired design [not what Michael Simcoe has said] with cues from earlier GTO models. Today’s model started life as the Holden Monaro and was never envisaged to carry the GTO badge, leading to complaints from North American buyers that it lacks any visual connection with the original.

[zx2guy]

but can they make it affordable?.... its all well and good what they are doing but the mustang is running at sub 20 grand (thats totally base model though) they put it into the low 20's like 22-25 thats better then this 32 grand ive seen on some gto's. it needs to be affordable power. with a wider arrangment of options.... for instance if they used the lemans name plate for say a 3.4 and 3.8 v6 on the platform... then have the ls2 in the gto package. but this lack of options makes it sad.

[rzkz8k]

If I read this right, it sounds as if the Camaro and the GTO will share the same platform. In the old days, a Camaro was a small car and the GTO was a mid-sized car.

[zx2guy]

this is true.... but ive noticed that they really arent going for the "past muscle car era timeline" they are trying to set a new look and as long as they differenciate it better then what they did with the bird and comaro, and the cavilier and the sunfire.... ill be happy.

[bocoogto]

I hope this happens. The small block LS1/2 in the 2004-2006 GTO's is awesome. They perform better than any of the original GTO's did. My 2004 runs high 13 second et's dead stock with street tires. My '64 GTO ran low 14's with slicks until I modified the engine. Then it ran 13.29.

The same thing is happening with the Mustang that happened in the '60's. Most of them are NOT high performance vehicles. If you opt for an engine competitive with the GTO, cost is equal. When you see a GTO, you KNOW it has a high performance engine. Over 90% of the new Mustangs would be left FAR behind a GTO of any year in a drag race.
s

[american_muscle]

as long as they keep the color coordinated leather and guage faces. They also need to make the instrument lights the same color as the car as well.

[timguyli]

I saw on Tv that they Discontinued the GTO

[96Civ]

They need to slap an LS7 onto a frame... power nothing, for under $20k. Cheap interrior, no radio or A/C. No power windows or automatic door locks... cheap pannels made of cardboard for the interrior. Bucket seats with a 5 point harness. Bring back the simple 5 bolt steelie tire rims. No accessories!!! Give a man a shift lever and a gas pedal and nothing else for crying out loud.

Car makers these days do nothing to keep it simple.

[wafrederick]

There is no new GTO coming out,being discontinued.I read this in the newspaper.GM did have to delay the first coming out of the 2004 GTO,it had to be detuned.It was outrunning Corvettes and GM did not like that.

[Jaguar D-Type]

Originally Posted by wafrederick

There is no new GTO coming out,being discontinued.I read this in the newspaper.GM did have to delay the first coming out of the 2004 GTO,it had to be detuned.It was outrunning Corvettes and GM did not like that.

Direct from the source:

http://autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...=7324015571202

Show proof that 2004 GTOs were outrunning Corvettes.

[Jaguar D-Type]

Originally Posted by 96Civ

They need to slap an LS7 onto a frame... power nothing, for under $20k. Cheap interrior, no radio or A/C. No power windows or automatic door locks... cheap pannels made of cardboard for the interrior. Bucket seats with a 5 point harness. Bring back the simple 5 bolt steelie tire rims. No accessories!!! Give a man a shift lever and a gas pedal and nothing else for crying out loud.

Car makers these days do nothing to keep it simple.

The new LS7 is built by hand. It has dry-sump liubrication ($$$) and it does not come cheap.

Al Tomich assembling an LS7



Why not just buy a tractor and modify it for speed?

Cars have to be built to many regulations today.

[BlueFusion6851]

Read in the May 2006 issue of motor trend... GM is axeing the GTO/Monaro

[Jaguar D-Type]

A new federal regulatory standard for the airbags is what is killing the GTO/Monaro. Holden is developing a new rwd car anyway that will debut this summer.

Also, direct from the source of North American automobile news comes this: New Camaro to be built in Canada.

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../1003&refsect=

[|WYG|SS]

yeah in the store i seen the amotor treng mag. with the Go i seen that they were makeing it in 08 and it did lookk like the comero but tat was like 1 year ago . so they must just be shiping over the plans and we build it here. like u say i hope it does come cheep casue it is at alot of money right now.

[RACER D12]

My biggest question is will it still handle well? Hate on the current GTO as much as you want but that car handles freaking awesome and is very well balanced. Even Top Gear said they "loved it". And that’s something you don’t usually see in a muscle car unless it’s a vett.