It Gets Worse; GM cuts High Performance Unit

[McLaren]

A picture of GM's High Performance Vehicle Operations, which created vehicles such as the Chevrolet HHR SS, has been disbanded.
GM's High Performance Vehicle Operations, which created vehicles such as the Chevrolet HHR SS, has been disbanded.

General Motors, focusing on mainstream products in a battle to survive, has scrapped a unit that produced high-performance vehicles.

GM on Wednesday disbanded High Performance Vehicle Operations, which is based at the company's suburban Detroit technical center, and redeployed its engineers, spokesman Vince Muniga said.

"All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," Muniga said. "The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs."

The unit created low-volume vehicles for GM's divisions designed to appeal to enthusiasts and bolster the company's image. Products included V-series Cadillacs and the Chevrolet Cobalt SS, HHR SS and a V-8 version of the Colorado.

Muniga said there are no plans for high-performance versions of upcoming cars.

The move is in the spirit of GM's viability plan delivered to the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. In the plan, GM said its future-product focus is on fuel- efficient cars and crossovers. It also pledged to increase its current offering of six hybrids to 14 by 2012 and to 26 by 2014. GM also boosted its request for federal aid by as much as $16.6 billion.

The High Performance Vehicle Operations unit could be reinstated once GM regains its financial health, GM's Muniga said.

"These guys are pretty good at what they do," Muniga said, "They are moving into different areas to work on core products."

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http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090218/CARNEWS/902189973

So, looks like Chevy will be going out with a bang with the ZR1 & CTS-V. Sucks.

 

[Tornado]

I don't really think anything was in the pipeline anyways.

 

[Danoff]

"All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," Muniga said. "The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs."

I thought Pontiac was gone. Isn't that what the previous GM thread said?

 

[Keef]

No, Pontiac is staying. Caddy, Buick, Chevy, and Pontiac are staying, but Reventon hasn't updated the thread's title yet.

I think Toronado is pretty much right. I haven't heard of anything new coming from V or SS either. If the Cruze gets an SS version it would be a few years off in the future anyway, because that car isn't even out yet. Same with the new SRX. I'm not worried about this happening at all, especially since they haven't laid off any of the team so far. It's not quite the time to be designing new products anyway.

 

[Philly]

I don't really think anything was in the pipeline anyways.

And there isn't really anything coming that would be worth "SS"ing or "V"ing anyways.

 

[DaddyVDUB]

Heres a thought on what may be in the near future for the Corvette, this is not based on facts of any kind just my gut feeling.
The Vette is an icon make,a well recieved "Super Car" to most of the world.

Would it be that far out to see GM sell off the Corvette brand?

Or is Corvette a profitable make for GM? i Dont know facts on that but I would think that it is.
Can GM even sell off the Corvette to another company?

 

[Rotary Junkie]

They could sell the Corvette name and the tooling, it just wouldn't be a Chevrolet Corvette any more, rather an *insert brand* Corvette.

 

[Keef]

I really hope that the Corvette name is the last thing GM would ever consider losing. If there's one reason anyone in the world even knows what General Motors is it's because of Corvette.

 

[The Vanishing Boy]

-> Well, so much about the 560hp Camaro Z/28.

 

[buickgnx88]

If Chevy sold the Corvette name, it would be anarchy!

 

[YSSMAN]

Shelving the GMPD group isn't a huge surprise, but I think the key thing from the article that needs to be taken away is that the engineers have been integrated into regular product development programs. With that in mind, it seems somewhat likely that a Cruze "Sport" could be a decent successor to the Cobalt SS if necessary.

As far as what would have been "in the pipeline," the only real concern would have been the CTS-V Coupe (due out in 2010), or perhaps whatever kind of super-Camaro they would want to do. Of course, keep in mind as well that the Camaro SS was not worked on by GMPD, it is a regular production model car.

Its certainly a loss, but I think overall, if the engineers are still around, I see no reason why the SS, GXP, and V-series monikers would cease to exist. Instead, these will be brand-focused efforts much like how we saw things happen back in the '60s and '70s.

 

[Jim Prower]

Basically, this means that a lot of the insane crate engines GM's been putting out are gonna go by the wayside.

 

[TheCracker]

The Vette is an icon make,a well recieved "Super Car" to most of the world.

Would it be that far out to see GM sell off the Corvette brand?

Or is Corvette a profitable make for GM? i Dont know facts on that but I would think that it is.
Can GM even sell off the Corvette to another company?

Is the Corvette even sold outside of the US? - if it is i bet it's in tiny, tiny numbers. It's a car designed for the US market so it needs to have a US badge. I can't see any foreign company really wanting to take it up unless it was profitable. But if it was profitable why would GM let it go?

 

[Tornado]

Its sold in Britian and Japan as "Corvette," with no brand lineage. Which, to be honest, would be how I would handle the car if I was to purchase the model from Chevrolet.

 

[YSSMAN]

Basically, this means that a lot of the insane crate engines GM's been putting out are gonna go by the wayside.

The GM High Performance team still exists, but keep in mind that it is a separate entity from GMPD (GM Performance Division). So, don't worry. GM will still be happy to sell you a turn-key Fast Burn 383 for $7000, available at your local Chevrolet dealership. GMHP will still be designing aftermarket equipment for all of their models, as well as the various body kits, wheels, sticker packs, and all that other jazz that they push at SEMA. It just won't be the stuff that gets screwed together at Lordstown or Delta Township anymore...

 

[TheCracker]

Its sold in Britian and Japan as "Corvette," with no brand lineage. Which, to be honest, would be how I would handle the car if I was to purchase the model from Chevrolet.

They might be available in Europe and Japan but not many are actually sold. Of the 30,000 made a year less than 2000 of those are exported to all of Europe and Japan. It's hardly worth while pimping the 'Corvette' brand to companies outside of the US.

 

[Jim Prower]

The GM High Performance team still exists, but keep in mind that it is a separate entity from GMPD (GM Performance Division). So, don't worry. GM will still be happy to sell you a turn-key Fast Burn 383 for $7000, available at your local Chevrolet dealership. GMHP will still be designing aftermarket equipment for all of their models, as well as the various body kits, wheels, sticker packs, and all that other jazz that they push at SEMA. It just won't be the stuff that gets screwed together at Lordstown or Delta Township anymore...

Ah.

Personally, I think that splitting the Performance Division boys and assigning a few to each make may make things interesting. Instead of a company-wide focus, the people can have only a few models to deal with, thus making it easier to focus on the brand. I think Pontiac could benefit most. Instead of merely getting warmed-up Chevrolets or Holdens, they could make something a bit more unique...and not just the Solstice, either.

I mean, the G6... gawdawful car. It was nice when it came out, but now it's more or less the same as the Grand Am which it replaced. And around here, driven by the same clientelle - teenage girls.

 

[YSSMAN]

Well, the G6 GXP isn't exactly a "bad" car, but it certainly fell too far behind the Aura and Malibu in terms of quality. That, and I don't think the shape of the car has aged all that well.

Having a dedicated team of engineers at each brand, I believe, is going to be better than having the "normal" guys build a car... Pass it along to GMPD... and then have them return it to the "normal" guys, showing them how it works. Bake the performance engineering into the chassis design early on, its going to do wonders for the car overall.

My benchmark for what GM should do would be something like the Fiesta ST across the pond. Not necessarily balls-out high performance car, but enough of a change to make a worthwhile upgrade to the regular models. It would be greatly appreciated on the Orlando, Cruze and hell... Even the Volt!

 

[Jim Prower]

Y'know, I've been suggesting that sort of thing at a Chrysler forum for some time, now.The idea of a hothatch focused on handling rather than outright horsepower.

In fact, I'm wondering a bit why we haven't gotten more OPC/VXR models. We have the Astra...

 

[Philly]

Having a dedicated team of engineers at each brand, I believe, is going to be better than having the "normal" guys build a car... Pass it along to GMPD... and then have them return it to the "normal" guys, showing them how it works. Bake the performance engineering into the chassis design early on, its going to do wonders for the car overall.

This brings up the question of why GMHP is around now, at all. IIRC, GM erased their budget for product development in 2009 or 2010 and you'd think that GMHP would go with that... And if there is nothing really new being developed now, then the performance guys won't exactly have any new platforms to make more "sporty."

My benchmark for what GM should do would be something like the Fiesta ST across the pond. Not necessarily balls-out high performance car, but enough of a change to make a worthwhile upgrade to the regular models. It would be greatly appreciated on the Orlando, Cruze and hell... Even the Volt!

To make it into an sporty car that people will want to buy, you're going to have to start with a quality car. And on that front, GM doesn't really have anything that people would want a sporty version of that is quality enough to go head to head with other cars out there aside from maybe Chrysler. Maybe the Cruze will be good enough on the quality front to challenge others.

In fact, I'm wondering a bit why we haven't gotten more OPC/VXR models. We have the Astra...

Given the rate that sporty versions sell compared to regular versions of cars, and the number of Astras sold, I think GM would sell about 3.

 

[CodeRedR51]

FYI, for those who do not know, the current Cobalt/HHR SS, CTS-V, etc will continue to be produced until the end of their production cycle. The ZR-1 and Camaro SS were developed as regular production cars and will continue unharmed.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/19/2010-chevrolet-camaro-ss-safe-from-hpvo-shuttering/

 

[YSSMAN]

This brings up the question of why GMHP is around now, at all. IIRC, GM erased their budget for product development in 2009 or 2010 and you'd think that GMHP would go with that... And if there is nothing really new being developed now, then the performance guys won't exactly have any new platforms to make more "sporty."

GM High Performance makes most of their money selling crate engines and basic OEM High Performance parts for cars that go way back into the GM timeline, I haven't seen many post-2003 models with GMHP parts outside of a handfull of overworked Berger Chevrolet models.

 

[McLaren]

FYI, for those who do not know, the current Cobalt/HHR SS, CTS-V, etc will continue to be produced until the end of their production cycle. The ZR-1 and Camaro SS were developed as regular production cars and will continue unharmed.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/19/2010-chevrolet-camaro-ss-safe-from-hpvo-shuttering/

The Camaro SS, I believe. The ZR1, I doubt it, as to my knowledge, production was halted shortly before it was released.

If Chevrolet has to scale back again, I guarantee you the ZR1 will be the first to go. A low-volume, high cost production car usually always is.

 

[Tornado]

The ZR1, I doubt it, as to my knowledge, production was halted shortly before it was released.

Its production was part of general R&D for the Corvette. GMPD might have had to do with its actual development, but it isn't really a GMPD car.

 

[YSSMAN]

Team Corvette, as I understand it, operates independently from the rest of the GM folks as we know it... So regardless if it could have been a GMPD product or not, I really wasn't. That, and the car had been in development long before GMPD really was up and around anyway.

There was a story on GMI a few weeks back that seemed to indicate that Holden Special Vehicles may begin to play a larger role in the company overall. Perhaps they will be the ones to do a lot of the specialty equipment testing?

 

[McLaren]

Its production was part of general R&D for the Corvette. GMPD might have had to do with its actual development, but it isn't really a GMPD car.

I know that, but I highly doubt it'll continue to be produced unharmed regardless. If Chevy has to scale back again, it will be the first to go.