Supercharged Ws6 Firbird on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Junkyard Gem: 2000 Pontiac Sunfire coupe

In a few months, we'll reach the tenth anniversary of GM's axing of the venerable Pontiac brand. G6s, Vibes, and Matizes continued to be built until 2010, but I'm noticing a marked decrease in discarded Pontiacs lately, as I perform my junkyardy rituals. Here's a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire, photographed in a Colorado wrecking yard. The Sunfire was the near-identical sibling to the Chevrolet Cavalier, based on the long-running (1982-2005) J-Body platform. It was cheap and simple, looked pretty sporty (at least in coupe form), and every parts store in North America carried just about everything you'd need to keep one running. This coupe had to compete for sales not only with a vast and menacing array of imports but with GM's own Saturn SC2 (not to mention the Cavalier itself). Meanwhile, the J platform was showing its age more with each passing year. This car sports what must have been the complete line of Fatal Clothing bomber-nose-art/skate-punk/gang-tag-influenced decals, circa 2010. I actually photographed this car back in 2011, then misplaced the image files until last week. The stickers are very California-centric for a Colorado car, but then plenty of Californians — including me— move here. When you know you're a car's final owner, it's a lot easier to whip out the paint pens and redecorate the interior. Power came from the engine GM developed for the very first J-Bodies: the 2.2-liter 122 pushrod four-cylinder. 2002 was the last model year for 122-powered Sunfires and Cavaliers; the most affordable S-10/Sonoma/Hombre trucks got this engine through 2003. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. It even came with a remote, so bad Midwestern farmgirls could make quick getaways when caught in the act by enraged broom-wielding mothers. Featured Gallery Junked 2000 Pontiac Sunfire View 30 Photos Auto News Pontiac Automotive History

Florida man runs down bikers in traffic

A Florida biker and his passenger got a nasty surprise when a road rage incident turned ugly on Monday. According to WTSP, Joe Calderazzo was returning from a Veterans Memorial Day motorcycle rally around 5:30 pm with a group of fellow riders. During their ride, the group got entangled with an overly aggressive driver in a Pontiac. Abe Garcia of Tampa watched the silver Pontiac attempt to run the pack of bikers off the road, which started the altercation. The bikers caught up to the Pontiac in stopped traffic, and a shouting match ensued between the bikers and the Pontiac driver. At this point, Garcia pulled out his phone and started recording. The exchange escalated, and suddenly the Pontiac driver floored it, turned hard to the right, and ran over Calderazzo's Harley. The Pontiac mangled the Harley and knocked Calderazzo and his passenger to the ground. The Pontiac then fled the scene. WTSP spoke to Calderazzo as he was on his way to the hospital. "I thought the guy was trying to kill us obviously," said Calderazzo. "You know you don't know what's going through your mind. Is he going to put the car in reverse? Is he going to turn around? Is he going to stop and pull out a gun? You don't know what's going on." The Pontiac driver, a serial traffic offender named Robert Paul Vance, was picked up by police soon after the incident. He is charged with hit-and-run, a moving traffic violation, and aggravated battery. Related Video: News Source: WTSP Weird Car News Pontiac Driving Safety Motorcycle Videos Sedan Navy road rage pontiac g6 Memorial Day veterans Florida Man tampa

Junkyard Gem: 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP

John DeLorean began his career working on Packard's Ultramatic Twin transmission, but he made his greatest mark on the automotive industry during his 1956-1969 tenure at GM's Pontiac Division. There, he helped develop the first production car engine with a quiet timing belt instead of a noisy chain, among other engineering feats, but his real fame came from the development of two money-printing models based more on marketing than machinery: the GTO and the Grand Prix. While the GTO gets all the attention now, the Grand Prix set the standard for the big-selling personal luxury coupes that sold like mad for decades to come. Today's Junkyard Gem is an example of the most powerful Grand Prix available at the turn of the century, found in a Denver-area self-service yard during the summer. The Grand Prix got front-wheel-drive for 1988 and a sedan version for 1990, but then something very beneficial happened in the 1997 model year: supercharging! Various flavors of the venerable 3.8-liter Buick V6 engine (itself based on the early-1960s Buick 215 V8 and thus cousin to the Rover V8) received Eaton blowers, starting in the 1992 model year. The Grand Prix didn't get its introduction to forced induction until the 1997 model year, but it kept the boosted option until the final Grand Prix rolled off the line in 2008 (the final Pontiac followed within a couple of years). This one made 240 horsepower, making it King of Grand Prix engines until the 2005 model year (when the GXP and its 303-horse V8 engine showed up). The very last year for a Grand Prix with a manual transmission was 1993 (there had been a three-pedal Grand Prix drought from 1973 through 1988, just to put things in perspective), so this car has the mandatory four-speed automatic. The Grand Prix lived on GM's W platform for its last two decades, making it sibling to the Impala, Regal, and Intrigue in 2001. Until the 2004 model year, every W-Body Grand Prix was built at Fairfax Assembly in Kansas City (no, the other Kansas City). Production of the final generation of Grand Prix took place in Ontario. It seems fitting that this car's final pre-crusher parking spot would be between two other GM products of the same era: a Monte Carlo and a Vibe. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.