Pontiac has been pushing itself as a performance brand for years while peddling not much more than plastic ribs and dual-nostril snouts pasted onto underwhelming Chevrolets. Woo hoo. The 400-hp, rear-wheel-drive GTO was a good start, but looked like everything else on the road all rolled into one large, formless blob. It foundered, died, and may or may not return, depending on whom you ask.

Then Pontiac rolled out the Solstice, a delightfully tossable little treat with oh-my-god good looks and performance to match. We started to pay attention to Pontiac. After all these years, is Pontiac going to try to capture our attention with product, rather than marketing? At the Chicago Auto Show this week, the Poncho crew is doing just that with the G8 GT.

A little extra show for Chicago, but still exciting in the showroom

The G8 GT Pontiac showed in Chicago is not, in fact, exactly what the G8 GT is going to look like when it hits showrooms early in 2008. This car is dolled up with a few SEMA-style tweaks that will not make it into production. For example, if you like the 20-inch wheels, tough nuggets. They won’t make the cut. Ditto for the ride height (production will be about a half-inch higher), the paint color, the hi-po brakes and painted calipers, and most tragically of all, the lovely two-tone leather interior. An available sport package will include alloy pedals and a leather-trimmed steering wheel and shifter, but the leather-wrapped dash is a show-car one-off. So sorry.

On the other hand, take a look at what will make it into production: a 6.0-liter V-8 delivering a 362-horsepower and 391 lb-ft whack to unwitting passengers; a choice between six-speed automatic or six-speed manual transmissions—the manual not available until shortly after launch—and prairie-fire smoke billowing off the rear tires. Some semblance of environmental responsibility will be maintained with cylinder deactivation in low-load situations. The V-8 will headline the G8 GT, while base G8s will get the General’s DOHC 3.6-liter V-6 making 261 hp and 250 lb-ft twisting a five-speed automatic. We figure the GT’s combo ought to be good for 0-to-60 runs in less than 5.5 seconds, with the quarter passing in the low 14s at right around 100 mph. Braking duties will be handled by 12.6-inch rotors clamped by two-piston calipers up front, with single-piston calipers in the rear pinching 12.8-inch rotors. Rotors on base G8s will be about an inch smaller at each end. ABS is standard on all models.

Prices for this rear drive Grand Prix replacement should start just under $25,000 for a base V-6 model, about $27,000 for a bare-bones GT, and into the mid-$30,000 region for a loaded GT.

Based on serious architecture to take down serious opponents

Just as the cost-saving but soul-sapping front-drive architecture is gone, Pontiac is cutting no corners with the G8’s suspension, either. Each wheel of the G8 will be independently suspended, the front end riding on struts and the rear on a four-link setup, with anti-roll bars both front and rear. V-6 models will come with 18-inch wheels, while the GT gets 19s and stiffer suspension tuning. Actually, Pontiac shouldn’t get all the credit, or even much credit at all. Holden, GM’s Australian arm, designed and built both the platform the G8 is built on and the G8 itself. This is the first North American look at the platform formerly known as Zeta—now Global Rear-Wheel Drive—that will eventually underpin the production Camaro as well as the next-generation Impala and possibly a GTO replacement.


A full-size, rear-wheel-drive, V-8–powered sedan from an American company? Who’s thinking Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger? GM is. Both inside and out, the G8’s measurements are similar, if not a smidge bigger, to the DaimlerChrysler twins in all critical dimensions. The G8’s length (196.1 inches), width (74.8 inches), and height (57.7 inches) are all within an inch of the Chrysler 300’s measurements. On paper, the 300 has a slightly roomier back seat, but the G8’s 17.5-cubic-foot trunk trumps the DCX boys by more than a cube.

On paper it’s a good match-up, but does it have the looks to go after the segment’s pretty boys?

Dimensionally, the G8 is locked onto the Chrysler and the Dodge, but stylistically it takes a much different approach. Whereas the DCX cars are characterized by high waistlines, tight greenhouses, and bold faces, the G8 gets the more conservative styling of the Holden Commodore sedan upon which it is based. There are no muscular fender bulges, just a flared stamping around the wheel well. An upright greenhouse doesn’t look as menacing as the 300’s broad shoulders, but will provide excellent visibility lacking in the Chrysler and is actually lower by a fraction of an inch.

The most exciting aspect of the G8’s styling is its divisive front end, which endows the otherwise characterless nose of the Commodore with a trio of split intakes stacked atop one another and bisected by a common tapered line. It is distinctively Pontiac, but not particularly attractive. More than one staffer here has drawn a comparison to the Dodge Caliber, particularly in SRT4 guise. Even so, this appears to be another competitive performance machine from Pontiac, and the company’s most exciting sedan in decades. We’ll just have to wait and see what the Poncho will do about those SRT8 cars.