ls6?

[timmay334]

hi guys, i had a quick question.l When you here people talking about ls6 or l51 or whatever kinda code for a engine, does that code have real meaning
? like why is the ls6 named the ls6? and also, is there any other engine names that i sho0uld be aware of if they were really good enigines?

[timmay334]

oh also, i know that chevy camaro and the firebird were both f-boy's, but is there an a, b, c, d, e and so on bodies as well, if so, what cars did they go with and if thats too long too list which were the most famous?

[Chad82]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_LS_engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:GM_platforms

[98BlackTransAm]

the only ones i kno off the top of my head are that grand ams and aleros are N-bodies, and the corvette is a Y-body. and then of course there's mr. P-body.

[MrPbody]

Uh huh.... The "P-Body" is the little Pontiac Fiero...

"L" has been the first letter in GM engine "designation" for many years. "LS" seems to be aimed at "performance" engines, but who knows... The current LS-6 has no similarities to the "old" LS-6 (450 HP 454 Chevy, '70, '71).

Jim

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by MrPbody

Uh huh.... The "P-Body" is the little Pontiac Fiero...

[MrPbody]

WUT........??? It IS, REALLY! Purest form of Pontiac built since the '30s... No other GM car on the platform. (:-

Jim

[MagicRat]

Personally, I love the Fiero, I owned an '84, 4 cyl (bad clutch), and I looked around a lot for a decent V6 version, (but an '84 Supra fell into my lap first)

[MrPbody]

MR,

I had an '85 4-cyl car many years ago. Liked it okay. Got an '86 SE with 6 cyls, and man, what a different car! Did a 3.1 for it, with a few mods. Ran 14s, still got 24 MPG. Drove like a "muscle car", with plenty of low-end torque.
That little car got destroyed. A kid in a Ford Exploder pulled out right in front of me. I t-boned him GOOD. Bent the Ford so bad, he had to kick a rear door open to get out. The doors in the P-Body were still fine. The "space frame" did it's job!

Now, I have an '88 GT. No comparison. It really does handle, unlike the previous years. No "skate", no "hop". Plant it in a corner and it sticks! I'll probably do another 3.1 for that one, if and when the original engine gives up (175K on it now...).

We (a friend and I) recently bought an '86 6-cyl car with a 4-speed. We're gonna put a twin cam 3.4 in it, with a fabricated intake and Holley 390, and an HEI distributor from an '80 2.8. We picked the 4-speed for more attractive gearing for 1/4 mile racing. We'd like to go 12s with it. We shall see!

Jim

[MagicRat]

I had read the '88's were much better, with dedicated suspension designs instead of Chevette / X-car parts bin components. Too bad GM just got it right in time to kill it off.

However, decent '88s go for $8++ k around here, too much for my wife-approved sports car budget.

Still, your project sounds very interesting!

[MrPbody]

MR,

Yup. '88s had a Lotus Engineering-designed suspension. I had some pics of the '89 version. Too bad they didn't produce it. The early '90s MR-2 looks almost EXACTLY like the '89 Fiero prototypes. And there was to be a turbocharged 3.1 for the '89. You can bet, Chevy had something to do with killing it. A turboed 6 in it would have made it nearly as quick as Corvette. Can't have that!

Jim

[MagicRat]

I would agree. The Fiero cancellation made little sense, otherwise.

The Solstice (which is Latin for "Fiero".......... ) proves the validity of the compact sports car concept for GM's product line.

If developing a sporty car is good enough for cash strapped GM today, it certainly was good enough for GM back then when they were flush with money after the record 1988 sales season. GM could have easily developed an MR2-beater.

GM's killing of the Fiero did not make much sense. Other cars like the Miata and the second generation MR2 proved the market was there.
GM blamed low sales for the cancellation of the Fiero, but their '88 sales were in approx. 55,000 cars. GM has happily made lower volume car models for years. Why was it not good enough for the Fiero?

The plastic body panels on a space frame is a successful concept, as proven by the Saturn cars. Why not continue to use the Fiero to contine this development?

I suspect another reason was lack of platform sharing. GM always was notorious for sharing platforms among divisions to cut costs. The Fiero platform was obviously unique, so little of the R&D could be directly used elsewhere in the product line, making the Fiero relatively expensive to develop, (without the high prices like that of the Corvette to soften the blow).
The Fiero, however, couild have helped GM with a problem they had. Platform sharing became so bad it affected the image and sales of the more profitable luxury brands, like Cadillac, and, to a lesser extent, Buick.
Why spend all the extra money for a Fleetwood when a Chevy Caprice can be optioned out to match, for half the price?
For that matter, how can GM distinguish a Cimarron from a V6 Cavalier, when they are, for all practical purposes, the same car?
A unique P-car could have fought this blurring of GM's brand images.

[MrPbody]

Soltice is selling like hotcakes, too! But the truth is, Pontiac didn't intend to build the 2nd gen from the start. And the original wasn't nearly as expensive to develope as you might think. For the '73 model (that never was produced), Corvette had a $1B budget. The car was a year late. Fiero was a mere 10% of that once all the dust cleared.
They (GM management) toyed with the odea of continuing production, but thought it would interfere with Saturn's development. MR-2 and Fiat Bertone also discontinued production at the same time. The thinking WAS the 2-seat market wanted only high performance cars. As the owner of an '88 GT, I'm "glad" they didn't continue...

Jim

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by MrPbody

Soltice is selling like hotcakes, too!

They (GM management) toyed with the odea of continuing production, but thought it would interfere with Saturn's development. MR-2 and Fiat Bertone also discontinued production at the same time.

Respectfully, the Fiero sold very well in it's first year too, but obviously that could not save it in the long run.

Also, the MR2 remained in production long after '88. It was not discontinued until years later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_MR2, which shows the marketplace had lots of life in it.

I especially like this Wikipedia quote:

When said in French, the name MR2 sounds like est merdeux (fr: is terrible, shit and hell).

The Bertone was an outdated Fiat X1/9 retread that was too dated to survive in the marketplace.I don't think it's loss was due to the same forces which killed the Fiero.

[Brocephus]

“Solstice” in Latin means “the sun standing still"; not Fiero.