1992 Pontiac Sunbird Se Convertible 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Pontiac should come back as a performance division for GM

For decades the Pontiac brand was known as GM's performance brand. From the 1964 Pontiac GTO, to the 1967 Firebird, to the 1984 Fiero, to the 2006 Solstice Turbo, and 2009 G8 GXP, Pontiac had a reputation for building exciting cars, with bold styling and performance to back it up. When the Camaro was killed off in 2002, the Pontiac Firebird died off with it, and the last Pontiacs were built in early 2010. But with names like G3, G4, and G6, Pontiac's performance image had long faded from it's earlier glory days. My idea for Pontiac's revival would be to bring it back as a dedicated performance marque similar to Chevy's Super Sport (SS) line up of years past. First, and most obvious would be to bring back the Pontiac Firebird. Offering the entry-level model with the Camaro's 275HP turbo 4 cylinder engine, then having the Camaro SS's 455HP V8, but also offering a halo model Trans Am that is a revamped Camaro ZL-1 along with it's tire-shredding 650HP, supercharged V8 and race tuned suspension. Secondly, I would bring back the GTO. Which I would base on the current Chevy SS, but I would use the full 455-horsepower LS4 V8 (rather than the 415-hp setup that it has now). Furthermore, I would add the impressive 650-hp supercharged V8 to provide real competition to the Charger Hellcat. Importantly, I would make sure that the new GTO had bold, distinctive styling that really set it apart. I understand that purists would want any Pontiac GTO to be a two-door coupe, but I think that they could forgive that if the new GTO was an outstanding American performance car. Next, I would take the Buick Cascada convertible, add much bolder styling, swap in the Camaro's 275-hp turbo engine, and tune up the suspension to provide more performance than luxury (without being harsh). And finally I would round out the line up by using the new 2018 Traverse , but use the new, bold Pontiac design language to spice up the model's looks, tweak the engines for more power, and again provide a performance suspension that matches the model's new sporty looks. Obviously, having a high performance Pontiac model line up would steal away some sales from Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac models. But I think that it would more than make up for this by also stealing away sales from competing brands. Related Video: Image Credit: Copyright 2012 Drew Phillips / AOL Pontiac Classics brands open road

Junkyard Gem: 1988 Pontiac 6000 LE Safari Wagon

The Detroit station wagon was fast losing sales to minivans and trucks as the decade of the 1980s progressed, but Pontiac shoppers still had plenty of choices as late as the 1988 model year. A visit to a Pontiac dealership in 1988 would have presented you with three sizes of wagon, from the little Sunbird through the midsize 6000 and up to the mighty Parisienne-based Safari. Today's Junkyard Gem is a luxed-up 6000 LE, complete with "wood" paneling, found in a car graveyard in Fargo, North Dakota. Confusingly, the "Safari" name in 1988 was used by Pontiac to designate both a specific model — the wagon version of the Parisienne/Bonneville— and as the traditional Pontiac designation for a station wagon. That meant that the wagon we're looking at now was a Safari but not the Safari in the 1988 Pontiac universe. The 6000 lived on the GM A-Body platform, as the Pontiac-badged version of the Chevrolet Celebrity. Production ran from the 1982 through 1991 model years, with the A-Body Buick Century surviving all the way through 1996. The LE trim level came between the base 6000 and the gloriously complex 6000 STE (which wasn't available in wagon form, sadly). I visited this yard in Fargo after judging at the Minneapolis 500 24 Hours of Lemons in Brainerd, Minnesota, last fall. Up to that point, I had visited 47 of the Lower 48 United States, with just North Dakota remaining, so I made a point of doing a Fargo detour in order to check that state off my list. I'm pleased that I found such a good example of the 1982-1996 GM A-Body in this yard, because the most famous of all the A-Bodies is the 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera driven to Brainerd by the inept Fargo-based kidnappers in the film "Fargo." This Minnesota-plated 6000 had some rust, but just negligible levels by Upper Midwestern standards on a 31-year-old car. The interior looked very good, with the original owner's manual still inside. The 6000 LE boasted "redesigned contoured seats and London/Empress fabric," which sounds pretty swanky. Something less swanky lives under the hood: an Iron Duke 2.5-liter pushrod four-cylinder engine, known as the Tech 4 by 1988. The Iron Duke was, at heart, one cylinder bank of the not-quite-renowned Pontiac 301-cubic-inch V8; while fairly rugged, the Duke ran rough (typical of large-displacement straight-four engines) and made just 98 horsepower in this application. Pontiac offered a couple of optional V6s in the 6000 in 1988, but no Quad 4.

'We're not a hedge fund': Porsche plans to curtail speculators and flippers

A sizable number of speculators view cars as an investment. Rare or unusual models are quickly snapped up and either parked for years or flipped for a profit. Cars from automakers like Porsche and Ferrari are more prone than others, and at least some people behind these models are getting a bit tired of it. While it's difficult to police what goes on after you sell a car, Porsche has some plans that might curtail the problem before it starts. Andreas Preuninger, the head of GT road-car development and the man behind the new 911 GT3, spoke to Car and Driver at a recent event. "I personally like to see my cars being used," he said. "That's what we build them for. They are just too good to be left to stand and collect dust." One recent example of this rampant speculation is the 911 R. While the special manual-only model sold for $185,950 when new, used versions were selling for nearly $1.3 million just months after it went on sale. While the car is a masterpiece and an instant classic, a good number will be parked and simply used as art and not the rolling testaments to the man/machine interface they were intended to be. The concern over valuations has become so fierce that some owners are upset that Porsche is offering the new 911 GT3 with a manual transmission, fearing that it may hurt the value of the 911 R. "When I said we're not a hedge fund, I'm talking to those people who are yelling at us for offering the manual transmission similar to the R," Preuninger said. "But if there are people wanting to buy cars like that, then as a company we should try to fulfill that, to meet that demand." It seems Porsche is keeping a close eye on who is flipping cars. Since there is often far more demand than supply with certain models, the German automaker has a name for every car before it's built. Buyers with bad reputations might not even make the wait list. Related Video: