Zeta: The Best Thing Going
By BigAls87Z28
www.gminsidenews.com
September 22, 2006
January 9th, 2006 marked the start of GM’s Zeta revolution. Up until that point, there was talk, rumor and general hearsay about Zeta and RWD cars in America. The Chevrolet Camaro rolled out onto the turn table, 400 horsepower V8 engine burbling down "Main Street", is the first all new rear wheel drive car that GM has announced it will produce since the CTS. This car raised many more questions, but answered one major one that has been on our minds for years, "Is GM getting back into affordable rear wheel drive?" That answer is a resounding yes. This Zeta platform has been talked about more then any other platform in recent memory. It goes back to the first signs of one, the Opel Insigna concept car. From there, we saw the Buick Velite, and more and more rumors came out.
Opel Insigna Concept was first car mentioned to have this new affordable platform.
Affordable rear wheel drive, based off of Caddy's Sigma platform, will be shared with Holden's next generation of RWD sedans, all things we heard possible with this unnamed platform. Sigma-Lite, VE, VE-lite, and finally Zeta, all different variations of the same idea. Rumors of the Zeta program being shut down and canned for lack of funds destroyed many of our hopes, but as soon as it was put away, it felt as if it returned, back on top the lips of everyone, and seemingly being moved forward much faster. This chassis could be a key platform to develop several different vehicles, from sleek muscular coupes, to mid sized cross over sport vehicles.
Information is slowly starting to come out but from what we know, it will be a very flexible chassis allowing several different variables such as wheel base, track width, firewall height. Zeta will also be equipped for an all-wheel drive set up, probably co-developed with Holden and its VE platform. A big question is what cars, what division is getting what, from where? Zeta will underpin a future Impala, Camaro, as well as a Buick and possibly a Pontiac sedan. All Zeta's will be built at newly merged and retooled Oshawa, the highly rated plant that used to make the W body cars for almost 20 years. The plant will be just as flexible and be able to deal with all of what the future has for this great plant.
Chevy SS Concept was a test bed for many design and engineering ideas, and has the basic package we all want, 400hp V8 up front, spinning the rear wheels.
Right now, we know of one car confirmed for production, and that is the Chevy Camaro. But we as crazed GM enthusiasts know that GM just doesn’t tool up a plant like Oshawa, bring in this new Zeta platform for just a few lowly 100,000 Camaros. I know all of us have been paying attention, and we know that a rear wheel driven Impala is coming to market along side the Camaro. Rumor has it that the Impala will use Chevy's new design theme on top of adding some flair from classic Impala's of yore. This move to rear wheel drive will likely mean that the Chevy no longer expects Impala to be the sales leader it was, as the next generation Malibu moves up in size to better take on the mid size segment. News of a Buick will make its way out as the W and G body are phased out. With Oshawa moving to Zeta, the W bodied LaCrosse will be moving to the Epsilon platform along side the Malibu, G6, and Saturn Aura. There are talks of the LaCrosse using a longer wheel base to separate the Buick from a Chevy. Hamtramick is also on its way out the door with the demise of the Gbody FWD large luxury car platform. This now leaves a big empty spot for Buick to place a large luxury sedan. This also asks the question, would be wise to import Buick-ized Holden Caprice's to the US? This could give us a low production, high quality luxury sedan with many electrical additions and offer a great luxury sedan for the money. Ship 50,000 of them a year to the US, half with V8, half with the 3.6 V6, and that would make for a very nice ride.
Holden and GM North America team together to make better rear wheel drive sports sedans and coupes, for consumption in both markets.
Pontiac could develop a really killer looking Grand Prix replacement. Aggressive fenders, sculpted body lines, wheels pushed to the corners, sporty interior, and a suspension set up that is ready to take any turn. BMW should still be a target as far as offering a solid performing ride along with GM's usual fashion of adding a touch of horsepower. The cars will have available V6 and V8 power, of course, along with offering a manual transmission for both engines. This will give Pontiac a real sports sedan, and how about something with a coupe-ish look? The G6 has it, and the outgoing GP had it as well. I always bring it up, and have done several photo shops on it, but true 4 door sedan with rear suicide doors would be really killer
I have thought about several cars that could also be built off of it. A GTO coupe, yes, but...what about a Caddy? What if from Zeta we can upgrade it and get a Zeta-Lux and that could create a smaller entry level Caddy, BLS, using RWD, to really fight the 3/G35/C/A4 type cars. Price it a shade lower then the current CTS, and allow the CTS grow to more of a proper 5/3/A6 size, and with the 2nd gen STS to push up to the 7/S/A8 size. Zeta would offer a great chassis, still allowing the use of the high feature V6 engines, 5 and 6 speed autos, as well as having the ability to house the Gen IV V8 engine for V-Series use. Zeta is not old-tech, it will be a brand new platform. It could give us a sedan, coupe and convertible, just what is needed to go against the big players. Possible addition of aluminum parts to enhance its sophistication, and will also be spread to a Buick sedan to help lessen the cost. Zeta would give us a good low-cost RWD chassis to fight the 3 series.
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Zeta-Lux could replace Epsilon and Epsilon II as the basis for the BLS in both Europe and America, making a real 3 series fighter.
What about the prospects of a mid sized cross over vehicle that has a bit more sport then the Lambda/Theta group? While Theta and Lambda are great for design and space, the sport aspect is missing. Offering 5 seater, poor-mans FX for Pontiac could be a very cool thing, some thing to separate the Torrent from the ‘Nox. Or, this could even be upgraded further, use more of the Zeta BLS parts, and become this BRX we hear rumors about. This could offer a smaller cross over type vehicle, comparable to the X3 and FX in size and sport, again using the same parts bin stuff as the rest of the Zeta's, to keep costs down and profit up! The possibility of Zeta production growing overseas could also help improve the design and engineering of a next generation model.
Could Zeta-Lux provide a sporty five seat sports cross over? Lets hope so.
Zeta opens a lot of doors for GM, and it also raises a lot of questions still that have gone unanswered. How far can this platform really be stretched? How far is GM willing to take this platform? What can we really expect to get from this program? These and other questions will continue to go unanswered until the final engineering and development is done on these future vehicles. Zeta could supply GM with a very affordable and flexible platform to make some really awesome vehicles, and use this to push new vehicles to new limits, across the globe.
