GM Muscle Car Revival?

Detroit's original musclecar formula was simple: Take one relatively light, midsize car platform, stuff in the largest, highest-compression mega-horsepower V-8 you could find in your parts bin, and burn rubber until you run out of gas.

Mechanically, the Pontiac GTO, Oldsmobile 4-4-2, and Buick GS 400/455 of the late '60s/early '70s were simply Le Mans, Cutlasses, and Skylarks that benefited from the above noted treatment. But they, and the rest of the musclecar greats from Ford, Chrysler, and even AMC, became the stuff of legends.

General Motors is trying to recapture some of that muscle magic with these three midsize concept cars from its mid-priced divisions. The Pontiac Grand Prix G8, Oldsmobile Intrigue OSV (Oldsmobile Special Vehicles), and Buick Regal GNX (named for the limited-edition, seriously fast '87 rear-drive midsize two-door version) look like the real deal-even if they're not pure rear-drivers, as the original musclecars were. All three were first seen at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas last November.

Pontiac's Grand Prix G8 is the most exciting pavement-scorcher of the group, and the only two-door coupe-the Buick and Olds are four-door sedans. With a Vette-derived 5.7L/350-hp LS-1 pushrod V-8 under its Ram Air induction hood, it's also the most pie-in-the-sky car of the bunch. The G8 handles that much power with the help of the Aztek's all-wheel-drive Versatrak system, which required Pontiac to reengineer the GP's rear frame structure to make it strong enough for the rear-drive module and independent suspension pieces. It has custom 151/48-in. exhaust headers, 3.0-in. exhaust piping, and performance-tuned dual mufflers. Pontiac estimates a 5.5-sec 0-60-mph time, though we have yet to test the G8 for ourselves. Wheels are custom designed and painted 19x9.0-inchers, shod with Goodyear 255/40ZR19 Eagle F1s. Chances for production? Not as strong as we'd like-but Pontiac has hinted that, if you react favorably, the powers that be might reconsider.

The latest Intrigue OSV apparently was the division's last chance to inject some excitement into the nameplate and had a pretty good chance for production-until GM announced it would phase out the Oldsmobile division. We drove this latest, and last, OSV iteration, which has a 315-hp Cadillac Northstar V-8 in place of the supercharged 3.5L/250-hp V-6 that powered last year's Intrigue OSV. The Northstar idles with a rumble that's pure '60s muscle. Open it up, and the twin-cam V-8 has a familiar low-rev hesitation before hitting its powerband at 3500 rpm or so. All it took to make room for the Northstar was for Olds OSV to bend the oil pickup bracket. The rest of the swap was quite straightforward. Other modifications include 36mm front and 17mm rear anti-roll bars, 13-in. cross-drilled Brembo front discs and 10.9-in. cross-drilled rear discs and a 3.73:1 axle ratio. Michelin 255/40ZR19s are mounted on Racing Hart C6 Evolution 19 x 8.0-in. aluminum wheels.

Buick's latest Regal GNX has a supercharged 3800 V-6 that's good for 300 hp, same as the '87 GNX's turbocharged and intercooled 3.8L V-6. The new one has a custom intercooler, a cold-airbox induction system, custom headers, a Borla exhaust, and three working portholes on each side of its hood to suck in air for engine cooling. The porthole theme picks up again in the tail, where three polished stainless-steel tips exit the exhaust.

Buick lowered the Regal by 1.5 in. and mounted a set of 18-in. HRE wheels shod with low-profile 255/45ZR18 Michelins. What's its chance of production? Better than the Pontiac's, and perhaps now better than the Oldsmobile's, as well. It could be Buick's 100th birthday present to itself for 2003.

As with most such concepts, they're designed to garner some press and gauge consumer interest. These three semi-factory tuner toys are living proof that at least a few people at GM remember the good old days of the GTO, 4-4-2, and GS 455-and all those tires they helped destroy.