[eb110americana]

Possible reasons for the LS3 drop from 430/436 hp and 424/428 tq to 402 hp and 400 tq:

1) To clear the gas guzzler tax that people will not be willing to pay on a G8 GXP.

2) To align the torque curve of the LS3 with the additional 800+ Lbs. of the G8 over a Vette.

3) To decontent the Pontiac over a Corvette (same old GM).

4) This is the rating on 87 octane regular vs. the 93 octane optimized Chevy.

I'm okay with 1 and 2, but if it's reason #3, they need to stop deliberately handicapping their vehicles. GM needs to build the best car it possibly can for the price no matter what, not worry about internal politics over "who gets the better one."

Anyway, at least it's fast even though the SRT8 Chryslers/Dodges are more powerful with 425hp and 420tq. The front bumper looks even more generic than the standard model, and the rear "diffuser" is pretty weak. All can be forgiven if it's only $2K or less over the cost of a G8 GT. $32K would be quite reasonable, even $35K would, but not much more than that. The wheels are sweet though, and hooray for the manual 6 speed!

I'm not really their target demographic anymore though. While I probably would have gone for the G8 about 5-10 years ago, I'm now more interested in something smaller and more efficient. Namely Alpha. I could even go for a Kappa based small coupe/sedan. And this is coming from someone who drove a supercharged Bonneville SSEi and owns a Trans Am.