In response to those who have asked what has Bob Lutz done for General Motors since he joined the automaker as vice chairman of product development in September, a trio of concepts has been rolled out that show his influence has been considerable–and quick.
The concepts are the Pontiac Solstice roadster, Chevrolet Bel Air coupe and Cadillac Cien roadster.
Cien was in the works before Lutz arrived, yet the heritage Bel Air (“don’t call it retro,” Lutz demands) has his fingerprints firmly planted bumper to bumper.
But it’s the Solstice roadster that shows the emotion and passion Lutz put into the Dodge Viper and Plymouth (now Chrysler) Prowler roadsters as president and vice chairman of Chrysler is still alive now that he calls GM home.
Here’s a rundown on the concept trio being unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show:
Pontiac Solstice
Funny how quickly things get done when the boss says, “I’ve got an idea.”
When Lutz joined GM in September, the 69-year-old retired Chrysler executive was given carte blanche to breathe life into the styling of GM vehicles that had gone comatose.
The first concept commissioned by Lutz was the Pontiac Solstice roadster. The fact that the two-seater is built on the next-generation GM small-car platform rather than simply a sporty body bolted to a soon-to-be-replaced platform, indicates Solstice is more than an exercise in keeping designers busy when the boss is looking.
Solstice began life as a response to Lutz telling the designers who now report to him that when coming up with vehicles, “Keep it simple, pure and beautiful, and it will be easy to love.”
By mid-October development was under way on the Solstice and in less than four months, the roadster moved from sketch to a driveable concept on display here, where the concept Viper and Prowler developed under Lutz at Chrysler also made their debuts before going quickly into production.
Solstice is a subcompact, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive convertible built on a modified next generation (’04) small-car platform that GM calls Delta. The wheelbase is 95 inches, overall length 153.1 inches.
One goal was to “capture the true essence of what Pontiac brand character has historically been about,” Lutz said, which has been performance excitement for young or youthful buyers. Of late Pontiac has lacked performance and excitement, the reason for Solstice.
Where the “Pontiac excitement” comes from is in the 2.2-liter, 240-horsepower, supercharged, dual-overhead cam 4-cylinder.
The goal was a roadster that would sell for about $20,000. To keep the price down, components were used from the GM system, such as the rack and pinion steering from the WRX at Subaru, GM’s alliance partner; suspension parts from the midsize Chevrolet TrailBlazer sport-utility vehicle; the supercharger from the GM Service Parts performance catalog; and the Borg-Warner 6-speed manual from the Chevy Corvette.
Lutz calls it, “orchestrating pieces from within our system that would make production possible.”
Also, with the “under $20,000” target in mind, Solstice has a hand-operated folding top that stows under a speedster-style hard cover, rather than a power top.
Other features include 19-inch performance radial tires upfront, 20-inch radials in the rear, saddle-brown leather interior with titanium console and dashboard accents and a simple (and low-cost) driver-oriented cockpit using a two-gauge cluster with tachometer and speedometer.
“This is youth marketing at its best and most elementary form–no matter how old the buyer is. Obviously, you can’t say it’s going to be produced before it’s had a chance to make the [auto show] rounds,” Lutz said.
But, he added: “The North American market is ripe for an affordable, pure roadster. You’ve got to feel good about a vehicle such as this, and clearly we’ve approached it with a mindset toward production. Like all the programs we want to pursue, the litmus test will be how passionately people tell us they absolutely have to have it. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”
Chevrolet Bel Air
Volkswagen brought back the Beetle, Ford the Thunderbird and now Chevy is considering bringing back the Bel Air, a modernized two-door convertible that blends the tradition of the 1955-’57 Chevy with today’s innovation and technology.
Lutz insists Bel Air is a heritage concept, not a retro machine.
“The Bel Air concept taps the interest in nostalgia that people of all ages share while creating a fun, uniquely American auto for a whole new generation of drivers. This concept plays to people discovering or rediscovering the fun and excitement of an open-air vehicle,” said Wayne Cherry, GM’s vice president for design.
“Bel Air is about embracing the essence of those mid-50s Chevys–the `tri-5s’–in a contemporary way. This car is the right size for America, just like the originals were in the 1950s.”
The rear-wheel-drive Bel Air concept has such styling cues from the ’50s as the Chevrolet bowtie logo in an egg-crate grille, steering column-mounted gearshift, gas-filler cap in the taillamp and body-colored fabric bench seats that slide forward for easier back-seat entry. To modernize the look, Bel Air adds five-spoke aluminum wheels with 18-inch radials.
The legacy also extends under the hood. The original small-block Chevrolet V-8 option in the 1955 used the latest advances in engine technology to obtain more horsepower out of a smaller displacement engine than the big block V-8s at the time, Cherry said.
“This new engine is just as significant as that V-8 was in the ’55,” said Cherry.
The Bel Air is powered by a 3.5-liter, turbocharged inline 5-cylinder concept engine based on the 4.2-liter inline 6 introduced in GM’s midsize sport-utility vehicles for ’02.
The all-aluminum engine delivers up to 315 h.p. and 315 foot-pounds of torque and is mated to an electronically controlled 4-speed automatic transmission.
A button on the steering wheel activates the engine control module to trigger a more aggressive spark and fueling calibration for maximum horsepower.
To provide the structure for a large convertible, the Bel Air concept uses a new interpretation of body-on-frame construction, employing the same hydroforming technology used in the frame rails of the Corvette and GM’s new midsize sport-utility vehicles to provide torsional rigidity and stiffness to maximize ride and handling.
Cadillac Cien
In keeping with Cadillac’s role as the technology flagship for GM and to call attention to Cadillac’s 100th anniversary in 2002, the Cien roadster offers a high-performance V-12 engine.
“With Cien, we strove to create, in performance terms, the ultimate expression of art and science. Using dynamic feature lines and clean curved surfaces, similar to those of the Evoq, Imaj and Vizon,” said lead designer Simon Cox, executive director of GM’s Advanced Design Studio for Cadillac in England.
The low stance and appearance of Cien (Spanish for 100) were inspired by the Stealth aircraft. Trapezoidal air inlets are milled into the front-end of the Cien to form its shield-like grille with centrally mounted Cadillac wreath and crest insignia. The air inlets, which feed the front-mounted radiators, are flanked by vertical headlamps.
The body and chassis are produced from lightweight carbon-fiber composite derived from race-car technology.
In the rear, Cien has fin-like vertical taillights, and a high-mounted stop lamp spans the rear deck. There’s also an active spoiler that adjusts automatically depending upon vehicle speed and a removable targa roof. Cien’s blue glass was inspired by sport-performance eyewear.
Telematics incorporated into Cien include Night Vision; OnStar emergency communication; StabiliTrak stability control; Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist; and Communiport, which integrates the car’s audio, computing, navigation and wireless communication through hands-free voice activation.
The high-tech interior also features a digital instrument display relaying all of the vehicle’s functions, including diagnostics and satellite navigation, to the driver. LCD screens display images from the rearview cameras. The interior also features a state-of-the-art entertainment system designed to match the car’s acoustic characteristics.
Cien is powered by a 7.5-liter, 750-h.p., dual-overhead cam V-12, a new concept engine derived from the Northstar V-8 that’s visible through the car’s rear window.
The Northstar XV-12 concept engine features Displacement on Demand technology, which allows the engine to run on 6 cylinders to maximize fuel economy.
Cien has a semi-automatic transmission, an automatic with the option of clutchless manual shifting, with column-mounted electronic paddle shift.
While Cadillac has the two-seat XLR roadster coming to market for ’03, Cien is an example of a super high-performance exotic sports car that would carry a six-figure window sticker.
“Cien is a most appropriate medium to celebrate Cadillac’s past, present and, above all, its future,” Cox said.
