GM Performance... a thing of the past

[Rago]

I know this is a month behind, but I haven't seen it posted yet.

GM Shuts Down High-Performance Vehicle Unit
By Steve Mertl, Canadian Press Writer
Manufacturing.Net - March 04, 2009
VANCOUVER (CP) -- The brief news release was sandwiched between the rest of the bad news: General Motors, bleeding cash, was shutting down its High Performance Vehicle Operations department.
The closure is temporary, GM insists, and the unit's 60 engineers will be reassigned to work on "core, volume products."
"They're a very talented group, a very passionate group of engineers," says Vince Muniga, a GM spokesman in Detroit. "They're going to take their knowledge and they're going to spread it across the various vehicle lines."
Clearly, an in-house shop that does nothing but think up ways of hot-rodding GM products is a luxury when what was once the world's largest automaker is slashing production, laying off thousands and begging government for money to avoid bankruptcy.
But High Performance Vehicle Operations, and its counterparts in other automakers, have an impact on the troubled automaker's image out of proportion with its size.
People who follow the car business see its closure as a sign that performance is headed for automotive limbo, comparable to the 1970s when high fuel prices and new emission standards killed the golden age of muscle cars.
Performance cars may be niche products but they burnish a company's reputation with auto enthusiasts and the publications they read. Car buffs are considered opinion leaders, often influencing the purchase decisions of relatives, friends and neighbors.
Now car enthusiasts worry the renaissance of high performance that began in the 1990s is ending as companies rethink their lower-volume offerings. Honda has shelved a second-generation Acura NSX and Toyota is cancelling the Lexus LF-A.
High Performance Vehicle Operations, part of its larger Performance Division, was set up in 2001 and headed by GM executive and veteran racer John Heinricy until he retired last fall. It was the automaker's department of "what if we ..."
Brainstorming engineers loaded up regular production models with outsized motors and other performance goodies, then turned them over to auto-enthusiast magazines to wring out.
It also developed concept cars for the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) annual trade exhibition in Las Vegas, which is highly influential in setting trends in design and performance.
Some SEMA cars make it to production, like the Cadillac CTS-V, a 556-horsepower sedan that Heinricy drove to a record-setting lap time for production cars around Germany's challenging Nurburgring north circuit.
It also spawned the Cobalt SS, which gave Chevrolet's econobox rental-fleet favorite surprising performance cred.
But while they gave often mundane product lines a welcome halo, these low-volume models weren't hugely profitable.
Muniga says engineers came into the unit and typically stayed three years to learn how high-performance applications could be used in production vehicles and componentry. As well, they'd learn to work with exotic materials like carbon fiber.
Automotive websites and blogs were quickly revved up by GM's announcement late last month. Opinions ranged from pragmatic resignation to hand-wringing laments about another nail in Detroit's coffin and the death of performance.
Muniga says existing performance models, such as the Corvette-engined CTS-V, will remain in production but no future projects are planned.

Bombshell! GM Performance Dead (For Now) By Brian Lohnes Posted 02/18/09

Automotive News is reporting that General Motors has killed off the GM Performance Division. This is crushing news to fans of domestic performance vehicles and the decision appears to have been made in order to appease the government.

Quoting directly from the AN piece by Jamie LaReau, “All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," GM spokesman Vince Muniga said. "The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs."

Outside of the obvious implications regarding the desirability of the GM product line, we think that this means no SS Camaro. This truly is a shocking and frightening development for everyone involved in the automotive hobby, whether you are a GM fan or not.

Again, quoting from the story in Automotive News, “Muniga said there are no plans for high-performance versions of upcoming cars.The move is in the spirit of GM's viability plan delivered to the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. In the plan, GM said its future-product focus is on fuel- efficient cars and crossovers. It also pledged to increase its current offering of six hybrids to 14 by 2012 and to 26 by 2014. GM also boosted its request for federal aid by as much as $16.6 billion.”

‘The High Performance Vehicle Operations unit could be reinstated once GM regains its financial health, GM's Muniga said.’

Temporary my @$$. So who wants to buy a new 4 cylinder Camaro?
I think we'll see a lot of Aveos & Volts in GM dealerships in the very near future. Any thoughts?

[bradrhale]

maybe someone will start that Yenko fad again. take the new 4 and 6 cyl engines out and dump in a large displacement small block in them.

[silverhairdeere]

back in my day , before most of you were even thought of , we used to build sleeper cars , go to the local burger joint and call the suckers out , when that combo got to hot we would dump the engine in another body , ah the good old days .

shd

[leolkfrm]

You are right SHD, 400 ci in chevelles' that people thought were SB and they were a BB400, talk about torque!

[silverhairdeere]

we always run 396 or 427 454 were to new and not cheap , on the out side it either said 327 or 350 . one of my favorite one was a 1966 full size chevy Biscayne , man the ****** could fly .

shd

[bradrhale]

chevelles also came with the 396. a 327 never did a chevelle any justice.

[silverhairdeere]

well , we ran against one 327 chevelle , that almost kicked our but big time , come to find out later it was a 327 but it was the fi 375 hp with 513 gears , ours was a 396 with 456 gears . yes the 375 was never offered in a chevelle , but he found a way to do it . it almost cost me my cherry .

shd

[gmctrucks]

My big brother worked at the Pontiac assembly plant for two years saving money for college he said that he remembers building GTO's and Judges and driving them off the assembly line to park them I wish I could have done that. I once raced this like around 68 Nova with my 70 GTO I tell you that car looked all stock like mine but it gave me a run for the money the last time I seen my speedo I was at 122 and that's when I punched it I don't know how fast I was going. Oh I remember the good old days.