GM Inside News Forum - GMI Commentaries http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums GMI Staff and Columnists let it fly...caution, strong opinions inside. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:33:37 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/v2/misc/rss.jpg GM Inside News Forum - GMI Commentaries http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums Chevy; Build this and they will buy! http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f32/chevy-build-they-will-buy-85997/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:52:46 GMT Chevy; Build this and they will buy!



Op-Ed by MonaroSS
GMI Contributor – 10 November 2009

Chevrolet Caprice Twin Top
CLICK FOR LARGER VIEW



What currently is Chevrolet’s Flagship vehicle? It is either a big V8 powered sports car in the Corvette, or a gas guzzling SUV with the Suburban/Tahoe range. Neither is a good marketing image in this day and age. I believe that when GM starts to build the Holden derived Caprice Police Cruiser at Oshawa alongside Camaro that they also build a Twin-Top version of the Caprice for public consumption. Note that while I have chopped the current car, by time this happened it would be the updated version with fresh styling. But remember that this is not meant to appeal to young boy racers, that's what the Camaro is for. It would be targeted at self-made small business owners and well-off blue collar older professionals like plumbers and builders who don't want to be seen in a flashy import or Cadillac, think Buick is their grandfather's car, but want to show that they have made it. Working-man luxury with a bit of style and size; but without being a muscle car.

Between the Camaro Convertible and the Astra Twin Top the basic engineering for this vehicle already exists inside GM. Fitted with a version of the Chinese Park Avenue or an HSV interior, it will be able to command a very high price for a Chevy, lifting the public perception of the value of the brand as well. This can only aid higher transaction prices for all Chevy’s going forward. But it won’t sell in high enough numbers to adversely effect CAFÉ numbers and being a cruiser, not a sports vehicle, it can be offered with only a base DI 3.6 V6 with 6M/6A or the rage topping DI 3.6 V6 Two-Mode hybrid drive.




Now many have said that by using the Caprice as a police cruiser it will tarnish a civilian version, and that may be true of a civilian sedan. However, as is the case with the Astra Twin Top, people who buy it would never buy an ordinary Astra and with the huge price and prestige difference of a folding hardtop these customers are a completely different demographic. They will not care at all about there being a sedan version for police, other than it may give their Twin Top a bit of extra street cred.

And by keeping this civilian Caprice Twin Top version of Zeta a Chevy, it does not have to live up to what it would if it were a Cadillac. Nor will it compete with GM’s Buick or Cadillac as they offer nothing like it. Using the LWB Caprice allows good rear seat and trunk space even with the folding top mechanism. And then there are the export opportunities. It would be obvious to send a version to China as the Buick Twin Top to sell beside the Park Avenue, and an Opel Senator Twin Top would help move Opel/Vauxhall up-market in Europe. A handful would sell in Australia and it may just become a hit in the Middle East where style and image is very important. The fact is that all the affordable folding hardtop vehicles are too small for many customers and the large ones from the likes of Mercedes-Benz are hugely expensive.

Just as Camaro is selling so well into not just a pent up demand for a new Camaro, but a demand for a sports coupe with real styling flair, so too I believe there is a pent up demand for a large spacious personal luxury Coupe/Convertible. Just as many originally bought large SUV’s as a personal statement, it’s hard to stand out when everyone has one. The once huge personal Coupe market, now dead for half a generation, is I believe set for rebirth in the form of the large affordable folding hardtop coupe/convertible.

Well that is my view on how GM could use a Caprice Twin Top in DI 3.6 and DI 3.6 Two-Mode to change their Flagship vehicle from a gas guzzling SUV or sports car to a stylish Hybrid. What do you think?

EDIT: For those who want the styling refreshed a bit.....





;) ]]> GMI Commentaries MonaroSS http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f32/chevy-build-they-will-buy-85997/ Should Chevy Join The Chain Gang? http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f32/should-chevy-join-chain-gang-85381/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:39:22 GMT Should Chevy Join The Chain Gang?



Op-Ed by MonaroSS
GMI Contributor - 24 Oct 2009


As can be seen above, one of the oldest forms of sending power from an automobile's engine to the wheels is the Chain Drive. And today superbikes, sportbikes and racing motorcycles still use Chain Drives instead of the shaft drive because it is lighter and drains less energy.

Now we all know that we enthusiasts want RWD vehicles for their fun dynamic qualities and the accountants want FWD vehicles for their improved fuel efficiencies. And we have debated whether FWD is more fuel-efficient than RWD, but we do know this, that one of the energy consumers is turning power through 180 degrees via the pinion and ring gear in the rear differential. And if you have an AWD transverse engined car then you also lose power with a second pinion and ring gear at the front diff where the rear drive shaft takes off power for the rear wheels. That is why most AWD vehicles revert to FWD when cruising, so as to cut those power losses from the drive train to the rear. The other thing that the accountants have on their side is the economies of scale due to most small/medium vehicles today being transverse FWD, which means the component sets and the build costs are lower than RWD.

So here is my thought. What if you took a car like the Chevy Cruze and left it with it’s transverse engine/gearbox layout (for economy of scale) but you deleted the front diff and FWD drive shafts out to the front wheels? What if instead you replaced that front diff with a sprocket from which a Chain Drive took power back via a modern chain to a rear diff which had it’s ring gear replaced by a sprocket?

What you have is a RWD vehicle that does not lose power through trying to turn it 180 degrees a couple of times, and is as energy efficient as a FWD drive train. And which uses cheaper FWD engine/gearbox sets. The other thing you get is that now the front wheels are not driven so you get to push the front wheels further forward in the Cruze for less overhang and better weight distribution. Just as GM did with the Camaro platform, where they left the engine/gearbox of the Commodore/G8 where they were but lengthened the front frame and moved the wheels forward.

So I hear you ask, if this is so advantageous then why don’t carmakers already do it? Well in fact in a way they already have. Below (see pic) GM’s first FWD cars had Chain Drives, also many transverse gearboxes in recent times and today still use Chain Drives. They just don’t use ones as long as I’m suggesting.


Above - GM Chain Drive on Eldorado/Toronado. Below - GM Chain Drive on V6 Fiero

One downside of chains over shaft drive is lubrication and dirt and chain tensioning maintenance. So unlike motorbike chains these Chain Drives would need to be fully enclosed by a plastic chain cover box with oil scavenging and have an automatic chain tensioner. The other downside is more noise. That Fiero Chain Drive in the pic above is about the size of the chain that would be used on Cruze, it’s just that the chain would be extended over 10 feet instead of 1-2 feet. But it’s not the length of chain that makes the noise, it’s where the chain engages the sprockets that generates the sound. So a long Chain Drive on a Cruze would create no more noise than the short Chain Drive on the Fiero. If it were a problem though, mainly perhaps producing droning on freeways, then one solution would be to put microphones at each sprocket and use active sound suppression via the car's own sound system emitting the same sound from the microphones, but 180 degrees out of phase as developed by Lotus Engineering, which cancels the noise out.

But I don’t think sound will be an issue. Just as Camaro can be built on the same line as G8, so too Chain RWD Cruze would be built on the same lines as FWD Cruze and sold as a cheap non-executive RWD GT sports sedan (something that does not exist today). Buyers wanting quiet cruising would buy FWD Cruze and those wanting the RWD Cruze GT would be more interested in a louder sporting sound from the exhaust and don't mind some mechanical sounds.

So why create a RWD Cruze GT on Delta II when GM is going to be making a dedicated compact RWD platform on Alpha? The answer is price. A RWD Cruze GT would be very much cheaper than anything built on Alpha simply due to economies of scale. Delta II already has an AWD version that has the rear diff, rear drive axles and suspension. Yes it may need beefing up with parts bin bits from EPII’s AWD rear set-up, given all the drive power goes to the rear wheels. But even if you put the 2.0 DI Turbo with 300hp in the RWD Cruze GT you don’t need to strengthen the body like you would if it were mounted in-line. A powerful in-line engine applies a lot of twist to the body but a transverse powerful engine only applies it to it’s immediate engine mounting system and the rear diff/suspension mountings.

Even as out of the box as this concept may sound, the engineering changes would be less than what it takes to make a Camaro Coupe a Camaro Convertible. From a marketing point of view the RWD Cruze GT, and a Monza GT Coupe version of it (with the same front and rear ‘face’ of the bread and butter FWD Cruze sedans) would bring some serious ‘cool factor’ to small Chevy’s. Especially as they could be raced in the fastest growing motor sport of Drifting, which is very popular with younger buyers.

Chevy Cruze GT
- CLICK TO ENLARGE -


Chevy Monza GT
- CLICK TO ENLARGE -




The chain runs in an air, water and oil-tight industrial grade plastic box connecting between the gearbox and diff.
The front sprocket is sealed off from the gearbox oil but the chain shares the diff oil
and is auto-tensioned electro-hydraulically for low maintenance and noise.


Well that is my commentary on how GM could use a Chain Drive if they wanted to create some cheap but exciting compact RWD sports sedans and coupes. What do you think?


;) ]]> GMI Commentaries MonaroSS http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f32/should-chevy-join-chain-gang-85381/