ActionJack

I wonder how things would have turned out if GM produced a GTO in the late 80s/ early 90s based on their 88' Concept GTO.

Link to page from High Perf Pontiac





This was happening when GM and Ford were considering and planning FWD for the pony cars. And the V8 cars were to have AWD so the story now goes.

Back in 1988 (according to our author at HPP) the Firebird/Camaro almost went FWD for the V6 version and the V8 would be AWD. They were to be built on the Beretta/Corsica floorpan.

The 88' concept was based on this floorplan and the FWD and AWD premise. Rumor has it GM abandoned the project when there was a "consumer backlash" to the FWD and AWD prosoal and so they started on the 4th Gen F-Body.

Article from the June 2005 High Performance Pontiac.

Shinkaze

Great find!
I've seen pics of the FWD "Firebird GM80", but never this GTO concept. Here is some interesting facts. The 4th Gen was sort of a last minute decisions after the GM80 project got canceled, and because of that is was more evolutionary than revolutionary over the third gen. (Indeed the rear suspension is almost identicle). There was a planned IRS for the Trans Am that got ditched at the last second (Would have been nice) but it was ditched due to cost. I have to wonder (given the import craze) if a FWD Firebird/Camaro with a high reving FWD small displacement motor would not have been more of a sales success. HArd to say, especailly since the probe envetually failed.

Speaking of the Ford Probe, here is another interesting factoid. The original Ford Probe was going to be the replacement for the Fox Body Mustang. Ford too thought that the era of the RWD V8 Coupe was gone and that they needed to move the Mustang to a FWD coupe platform. Since their experience in this space was limited, they went to Mazda to design the next generation Mustang. With less than a year before launch the outrage of the Mustang faithful became too large (Especially at the thought of having a Japanese firm design the American Pony Car) and at the last moment Ford canceled plans to call it a Mustang. However it was too late int he process, so they renamed the car "Probe" and launched it anyway.

anthonycds

body lines similar to that of camaro/firebird, even the rear hatch.

bruddah_man_matt

Man that is one ugly mothereffing car. Too bad GM wasted resources on this concept that probably could have went to better engineering on the 4th gen F-Bodies.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

It has those sweet Beretta Z26/Lumina APV wheels. Bleh.

Shinkaze

Oh, she parked in a no parking zone, what a rebel. She must be one of those bad girls my mother warned me about...

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Listen here , GM executives, if you EVER put a former musclecar badge on a FWD, the members of LS1tech WILL come to your house, kick your pansy ***, and force you to drive a Geo Metro for the rest of your natural life. We don't want to do that sort of thing but utter stupidity will bring consequences of a harmful nature to your person. Do the right thing and build us a RWD V8 , AFFORDABLE car and we might forgive you for ceasing production of the F-body. But only if it isn't the SS concept. Do I need to say more?

sunsetz28

iTrader: (1)

I think it looks kinda cool. AWD would have been killer also. FWD sucks monkey nuts though.

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

Looks like the first version of the Dodge Intrepid.

TriShield

That's a radical looking design by the standards of it's era. Remember most cars were brick shaped back then and just switching to curves due the runaway success of the first gen. Taurus.

TriShield

It's also better than the hideous 1999 concept.

transamman400

iTrader: (1)

Look at that design and tell me that at least half of it wasn't the inspiration for the 4th gen Firebird styling. It's got the exact same lines!! It's so plain as day it smacks me in the face. Don't look at the exact things, just look at the profile. If you click the link you can really see it too. The hood, bumper, sideview mirrows...compare those to the front of an LT1 Formula and it's amazing the similarity. When you look at the lower picture, imagine the hatch coming down a little further ahead then where the gas cap is. To me, it's just amazing how similar those things are. Amazing the car so many loathe as the replacement of the Firebird was actually the inspiration of it's greatest generation.

ActionJack

Muffracing

To think, Gm almost didn't build the car we love so much! In the HPP artical they do compare the '88 GTO a 4th gen. and a dodge stealth. I think it looks a lot like a Sunfire. The whole time I was reading the artical I was thinking we could all be driving Sunfires thinking we had some awsome looking Firebirds. Kinda crazy. I really like the '67 Firebird 400 convertible a couple pages befor that.

qwikz28

iTrader: (12)

can we say, dodge stealth?

YsoFast

That shape is alot like the dodge Stealth and 3000gt.

transamman400

iTrader: (1)

The Sunfire comment reminds me...

Was GM trying to mimic the looks of the F-bods with their economy cars? Compare a Sunfire coupe (1st generation) to Firebird (93-97 especially) and a Cavalier coupe (last body style) to a Camaro. Maybe it's just me but I see a resemblance. Even the Sunfire's spoiler and the Cavalier's look like their cousins. Anybody got any info about this, or notice this?

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

Cool pic, Action. Its clearly a case of (future) Z26 meets Z28 in my book...

ActionJack

Thanks.

Here is another Pic:

StoleIt

iTrader: (3)

hello ugly *** sunfire