2009 Pontiac G8 GXP

This isn't your grandfather's Wide-Track Pontiac Ventura. It's far from your older brother's Widely Cladded Bonneville GXP. The only exterior visuals betraying the Corvette 6.2-liter, 402-horsepower LS3 V-8 under its hood are the new front fascia with big foglamps, 19-inch wheels, new rear diffuser, two badges on the side, and one on the decklid. Pontiac considered a kid-racer rear wing and replaced it with the GT's lip spoiler at the last minute. Who had the good taste to make that change?

"Bob Lutz," says Brian Shipman, G8 product manager.

"I agree with his approach," Shipman continues, as if he'd have a choice. "He wanted a more refined approach, and he said, 'How many BMWs do you see driving around with a wing spoiler?'"

Before GM vice chairman and car guru Lutz arrived, the "Excitement Division" measured said excitement by how much cladding and "performance" spoilers it could trowel onto a car. Lutz ordered all that stuff stripped off and worked on making Pontiac the poor man's BMW. It hasn't been smooth going. Lutz earnestly compared the handling of some sporty front-drive Pontiacs with BMW's best. His first Pontiac-Holden hybrid was the quick but crude 2004 rear-drive GTO. And even now, the 2008 G6 GXP suffers some residual big-hair cheesiness. The front-drive G6's styling comes off as a bit common, Shipman thinks, so "we had to do something to maybe bring that out a little more. When you look at the G8 styling, the profile, the whole stance of the vehicle is unique. So we don't need to do the same thing to make this car stand out."

Like Teddy Roosevelt, or the sublime M3, it walks softly and carries a big stick. Pontiac estimates the LS3 will scoot from standstill to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, 0.6 second quicker than the G8 GT (which was 0.2 second quicker than the Dodge Charger R/T, as tested in our April issue). We have to bench-race the GXP for now. A 4.7-second 0-to-60-mph time would trump the Charger SRT8's 5.0 flat. Thanks to better handling and much better refinement, that 425-horsepower Charger won a two-car battle over the GTO in our December 2005 comparison, despite the LS2-powered Pontiac's quicker 0-to-60 sprint of-wait for it-4.7 seconds.

How will Pontiac do it with a larger, heavier sedan? With precious little modification to the C6's 436-horsepower, 428-pound-foot LS3. There are a different water pump and exhaust manifold, and a slightly modified intake, mostly for packaging. "The Corvette is optimized for airflow," Shipman says. "This car isn't quite as optimized." As in the Corvette, the LS3 trumps the 6.0-liter LS2 with high-flow L92-style cylinder heads, unique camshaft and camshaft timing, a tweaked valvetrain with offset intake rocker arms, high-flow intake and fuel injectors. The extra 12 cubic inches is the result of a bigger bore, with larger-diameter cylinder heads and pistons for high-rpm performance.

GXPs with the 6L80 six-speed Hydra-Matic automatic get a 3.27:1 final-drive ratio, and a Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual-this is the only G8 offered with a stick-comes with a 3.70:1 final drive. Pontiac rates both 402 horsepower at 6000 rpm. The automatic makes 402 pound-feet and the stick makes 400 at 4400 (all pending SAE certification). Shipman expects half of GXP buyers to choose the stick, which seems old-school-enthusiast optimistic to us. Hope he's right.