The Pontiac G8 Has High Power in a Rear Wheel Drive

On April 27, 2009, GM announced they were ending the Pontiac brand. Often an also-ran in GM's lineup, the brand's lineup was built on rebadged vehicles from GM's other nameplates. Their swan song was a high power rear wheel drive sedan hearkening back to the Bonneville and Le Mans models that battled with many other makes for supremacy in the muscle car era. Ironically, this modern rendition is also a rebadged vehicle: Australia's Holden Commodore.

While NASCAR has gone from modified street cars to race-spec vehicles, Australia's V8 Supercars race series has remained close to the stock cars they're based on, adding race engines, roll cages, and minor aerodynamic tweeks. Like rally racing, the Supercars series' homologation rules require Holden to offer a certain number of road-legal vehicles for sale to the public. While the World Rally Championship has brought us Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru Impreza STi's, Holden Special Vehicle (HSV) builds the Clubsport models for this purpose. The end result is a modern rear wheel drive car powered by GM's legendary small block V8.

Seeking to return to the brand's performance roots, GM sold the Commodore in the states: first in coupe form as the GTO, and later as the four-door G8. The top-of-the-line GXP is powered by a LS3 6.2l V8, the same engine used in the current Corvette. It produces 415hp and can reach 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, but only manages an EPA-estimated 15 city/20 highway mpg, a far cry from the Corvette. The regular G8 was offered with an Australian version of the 2006 Corvette's LS2, managing 15 city/24 highway mpg, only slightly less than the base V6.

The gamble wasn't a success, which may be a good thing for buyers. This rather ordinary-looking vehicle is a performance bargain thanks to massive discounts from the dead brand, putting it in the price range of a regular family sedan. It may not be the end for the Americanized Commodore, as there are rumors it will be brought back as a Chevrolet, but only as a police car.

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