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[Cole]

Originally Posted by johan

nope. I was on the inside at GM on this when the platform was being developed in Europe.

Interesting as assembly was done in the US and the platform debuted as a Pontiac.

[Impureclient]

FRS going up in value, appreciating asset now!

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by johan

nope. I was on the inside at GM on this when the platform was being developed in Europe.

Ok, so it's pretty much impossible for both Tcoat and myself to be wrong about both our things in the same breath, because the Opel Speedster and the Opel GT are physically not the same car. The latter replaced the former, and neither really has much to do with the other beyond that.

But for my part of it at least, let's head on over to good ol' Wikipedia for some validation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_GT

From the above page:

"Opel marketed a second generation GT (2007-2009) as a rebadged variant of the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice two-seater convertible, manufactured in Wilmington, Delaware, USA."

As for the Kappa chassis of those cars, that has its origins in Corvette architecture (you can probably find more validation of that on Wikipedia again if you have doubts), so while it's entirely possible that some development of it occurred in Europe, it's not based on anything made by Opel, and it stems from GM on the U.S. end of things.

Let's step back to the Speedster, which, as you basically said, is a British creation thanks to Lotus dealing with GM and Toyota to help Lotus refresh the Elise. That does have truth to it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Speedster

However, even on here it outright says (emphasis mine):

"Production ended in July 2005, with no direct successor. It was not until February 2007, when GM Europe adopted the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky into the Opel GT, that GM Europe had a replacement sector product, with no RHD version for the United Kingdom."

Guess I don't know what I'm talking about, though.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by johan

bzzzz you're wrong lol.

I worked for GM in 2000 when Opel debuted the platform and they were talking about building the American versions off of it.

Edit: Oops didn't go far enough. What Over said.

Well lets just go to the internet for the facts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Kappa_platform - GM developed the Kappa platform in 2004. Very clear on that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Kappa_platform - Assembled in Delaware

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Solstice - Assembled in Delaware

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_GT#Modern_Opel_GT - Based on Solstice built in Germany on GM's Kappa platform

Not really sure where "built in England" even came from.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Cole

Interesting as assembly was done in the US and the platform debuted as a Pontiac.

I am even more shocked as I a spent a week there on a course and watched them build the damn things. The whole "Designed in America. Built in America". Display in the lobby must have just been propaganda.

[FR-S.13]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

The crossfire looks like a dog hunching to take a shit.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

The solstice looked horrible. At least the sky looked nice, and the redline had decent specs. The crossfire looks like a dog hunching to take a shit. It could be the best-handling car ever and someone would have to pay me to take one.

At first I could not figure out what you meant.





Then I saw this angle. Once seen...

[gramicci101]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

At first I could not figure out what you meant.

Then I saw this angle. Once seen...

Next time you see one driving down the road, just imagine a dog dragging its ass across the living room carpet.

[Yardjass]

I never really looked enough at the Crossfire to even give it any kind of a thorough evaluation. I understand they weren't cheap new and right now, that same 20 grand will buy you a (much better) C5Z so it never even came into consideration. I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes the Solstic and the Sky though.

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Not really sure where "built in England" even came from.

Think that was directed more toward the Speedster, being essentially a Lotus product from the lads in Hethel.

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

Next time you see one driving down the road, just imagine a dog dragging its ass across the living room carpet.

I hate you for this...

[Impureclient]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

The crossfire looks like a dog hunching to take a shit.
Next time you see one driving down the road, just imagine a dog dragging its ass across the living room carpet.

If we got paid for commenting and this was a job, you would have gotten a raise and got to go home early and take the rest of the day off with that.
That is one funny visual you came up with there. It's not often you actually "laugh out loud" for real but that did it for me.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Hmmm not the reaction I was expecting from the Japanese biased mob. They were indeed all good cars and many of the American complaints are the same we hear on the Triplets. They just could not compete with the muscle cars that people wanted them to be or the JDM/DDM Yo crowds.

Well, the Fiero was eventually a good car (once they upgraded the suspension and added a V6). The first model was a serious disappointment.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Yardjass

.. I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes the Solstic and the Sky though.

Add me to the list. The Sky Redline was on my short list when I bought the 86.