October 2006 Hot Rod magazine, p. 33:

"PONTIAC GIVES FRONT-DRIVE THE AX

GM's excitement division is hurting big-time in the sales department.
Fortunately, the General's solution is a good one:  positioning Pontiac
as a brand of rear-drive-only performance vehicles much like BMW.
Rumors indicate that the proposed plan calls for phasing out all
front-drive Ponitiacs like the Grand Prix within five years.  GM wil be
unveiling an all-new rear-drive sedan at the '07 Detroit auto show that
could hint at things to come, and a GTO replacement could easily be
spun off of the next-generation Camaro platform.  The most likely
source for a large rear-drive platform is the Holden Commodore sedan,
due for an overhaul in the Austrialian market later this year.  "We
haven't made any bones about the fact that Pontiac needs a
rear-wheeel-drive performance vehicle," says Ponitiac spokesman Jim
Hopson."

That 4000 pound '08 Dodge Challenger is now officially irrelevant
before it turns a wheel.  GM's LS2 heads, flowing 300 cfm @ 0.500 out
of the box (that's a BIG number for those who don't already know),
can't NOT make 400 hp out of 5.7 liters.  The 7.0 liter LS7 in the '07
Vette is, what, 525 hp?  (Hot Rod mag and GM engineers recently put one
of these in a 3000 lb Pontiac Solstice.  Yikes!)  The only thing that
can restrain Pontiac from releasing an entire range of 12-second, 165
mph rear-drivers will be the glass ceiling imposed by the Cadillac
CTS-V and the Vette itself. The Challenger with its 340 hp 5.7 and 425
hp 6.1 "hemis" locked in a perpetual death grip with its ridiculous
two-ton mass, and the Crapmaro with its user-unfriendly, love it or
hate it styling, will have their niches.  But as it was with the late
model GTO, those who aren't "compensating" will be headed to the
Pontiac store.

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