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GM planned Pontiac GTO on Holden Commodore

GM had built a full-size clay model of the next GTO, based on the Pontiac G8 and VE Commodore.

If Pontiac brand had survived, we would have seen the Holden Commodore underpinning a rip-roaring GTO.  The plan was let slip in a column by Bob Lutz, a former senior exec at GM who was head of global product development at the time.

"We actually had a full-size clay model of what would have been the next GTO. It was essentially a two-door, four-passenger coupe that used the same architecture as the Pontiac G8 sedan," Lutz says in the Road & Track column.

That architecture, of course, was the VE Commodore, which Holden developed into the G8 for Pontiac -- just before the brand died in the GFC slump.

Following that, the G8 resurfaced here in Australia in the form of the  VE Commodore SS V-Series Special Edition sedan, wagon and ute -- unveiled at the 2009 Deni Ute Muster -- and featuring the Pontiac front fascia and other cosmetic touches.

This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

 

Karla Pincott is the former Editor of CarsGuide who has decades of experience in the automotive field. She is an all-round automotive expert who specialises in design, and has an...
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