DETROIT - There's a bit of confusion following Automotive News' report Wednesday that General Motors has shut down its High Performance Vehicle Operations. HPVO's 60 engineers have been moved to other projects, mostly alternative fuel/powerplant vehicles and getting better fuel mileage out of conventional internal combustion engines, for example.

GM will continue to produce low-volume performance cars that have been designed, including the Cadillac CTS-v sedan, Chevrolet Cobalt SS and HHR SS and, of course, the Australian-sourced Pontiac G8 GXP. Spokesman Vince Muniga likens it to Ford's shutdown of its Special Vehicle Team about three years ago. Ford has just unveiled SVT versions of the F-150 (Raptor) and 2010 Taurus (SHO).

And because the CTS-v sedan has been on sale for several months, there's a good chance you'll be able to buy a CTS-v coupe some time in 2011, following the 3.6-liter V-6-powered coupe's planned launch in late 2010.

Corvette engineering and design were never part of HPVO, so ZR-1, Z06 and even Camaro SS production are not affected. We've reported, however, that Chevrolet's Z/28 version of the Camaro, which would have used the CTS-v's engine/tuning, is on indefinite hold.

So what does this "hiatus" affect? Mostly future product that would have gone through the HPVO pipeline. Frankly, that makes this almost a non-story, as cash-strapped GM has put much of its future product on hold in order to get the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and Cruze on the market (the new Opel Insignia, just launched in Europe, too). You were expecting, maybe, a Volt SS or Cruze SS?

Indeed, the future of GM's performance division relies as much on what emissions and fuel economy standards the government imposes on the auto industry as it does on whether the automakers get any more federal money.
I Hope this Helps with ALL THE BS.

 

Thank you SO much for clearing that up!!! awesome!!!!!!!!!!

 

ur welcome

 

This actually is fairly obvious if people would really just read articles and not headlines. Thanks for clearing it up for all the confuzzled people out there though. Good find.

 

Bump, awsome post!

 

I agree, but I suppose not everyone has decent reading comprehension skills

 

reading at work when your supposed to be working on other stuff = missing some of this lol

 

Isn't that the quote of the year!

 

so i would assume that these 2 pics on the front page might need to be removed?
i m glad to read that theres still hope for the car enthusiast!

 

Why, there aren't going to be any NEW SS or V designs for the foreseeable future, ergo they are CANCELED. But, I don't see why anyone would think that would affect already designed models...

 

Amen to that

 

good post, that'll help clear up things for quite a few people

 

There, maybe people might be able to read it.

 

Makes me not too worried about losing the GM stage kit.

I think everyone needs to take a breathe and relax. It's not the end of the world.

 

exactly... same thing with the saturn thing thats going around .. bunch of misconceptions lol becaus epeople cant read full articles lol

 

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.drivers-republic.com/firs...057ad1a7447794

 

Very nice find. Should clear many misconceptions about this.

Basically what GM is doing is indefinitely holding future performance products such as the a Cruze SS or the Z28, but I'm glad to see that the CTS-V coupe could possibly still be safe...

But yeah with the G8 GXP just coming out and 2nd gem CTS-V, ZR1, and most notably the Camaro SS, GM's performance division isn't 100% being disbanded it's just being down scaled a little bit.

 

Pontiac has been canned......

 

Several links were posted, but people on this site can't ******* read...

Fail. No they have not.

 

I suppose whatever it takes to get them back on their feet...its nice it isnt as abysmal as originally portrayed...but its still an upsetting turn nonetheless

 

"You were expecting, maybe, a Volt SS ... ?"

I wouldn't say that I was "expecting" one, but I would have been open to the idea

 

"GM said it now plans to phase out its Hummer brand this year and Saturn in 2011 if no alternatives arise. Earlier, it said it was trying to sell Hummer and was re-evaluating the future of Saturn. The company also is scaling back Pontiac and trying to sell Saab, its Swedish brand."...and that is straight from the Wall Street Journal...so Pontiac may have a chance...I doubt they will live much longer though.

Link to the WSJ article-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123489494750801713.html

 

Yeah my uncle works for saturn they told them that if business doesn't pick up by 2011 they are gone. So i guess they have a chance. In my opinion I think saturn would go before pontiac.

 

i see that to street legal there's no chance of a turbo or ss on the 2.2 l61 '07 engine? what can i do to give it more hp. any thing would help. wheres the best way to start

how can i go faster????

 

alot of the pontiac vehicles are gonna be scaled down to prevent overlapping of the exact same models with differen't badging a few examples would be the uplander/montana, cobalt/g5, aveo/wave. those are just a few examples. i also heard that GM wants to keep only performance vehicles with pontiac and get rid of all the other ones but thats just here say for now