<VV> Interesting GM cars

[N. Joseph Potts]

A bean counter AND ivory-tower academician (accounting professor) I know is
of the opinion that GM will soon go bankrupt. When that happens, will you
blame the bean counters for THAT, too? Would it be because they stopped the
Corvair, Fiero, Allante, Reatta, etc. too soon, or too late? Bankrupt
companies make no cars at all, interesting or otherwise.

Joe Potts, CPA
Miami, Florida USA
1966 Corsa coupe 140hp 4-speed with A/C

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org]On Behalf Of Padgett
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 6:09 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Interesting GM cars



>  And even though on paper the GM  cars seemed better to me,

My experience was that GM did build better cars, you just had to know which
options to tick off (and they made it hard). Back when I was seriously
autocrossing a 67 Camaro ( http://padgett.ws/files/camaro2.jpg ) they
always underrated the really interesting engines below the mass production
ones. For instance the only way to tell a 67 Z-28 was by the lack of
insignia and in the brochures it was rated at 290 hp while the SS-350 was
295.

As far as I know they never advertised the 78 Sunbird V-8 (if equiped with
manual transmission, a/c was not available - made it hard to order one in
South Florida) but never met a solo II Mustang it could not beat. (
http://padgett.ws/files/sbird.jpg ).

Fiero, Allante, Reatta, all two-seaters, all suffered from bean counters,
and all lasted only a few years. Any could have been great if developed
(e.g. the many L-67 Fieros).

So, yes, at first glance the Mustang has always had a performance image and
the current somewhat retro look is brilliant, but GM has always had
interesting cars, it just seems that they have never known how to promote
them (probably the fastest muscle car ever was the 1970 Buick GS-455 stage
II. At the time no one believed it).

Padgett