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A valiant effort
"What do we do now?", says one of the big heads around the table, pulling out the few hairs he has left on his noggin. "Well, we have no rear-wheel drive mid-sizers in the pipeline!", says another, frantically pumping his Player's Light. "Darn merger with the Germans!", shouts another as takes his third shot of scotch from the conference room minibar. Then, a small and hesitant voice is heard; "W-Well, we could sh-shove a small-block V8 in a Grand Prix and see w-w-what happens?", says the young assistant in the corner taking notes, his voice trembling with fear and his knees shaking. The big heads turn to the young guy, look at him with one raised eyebrow each, and all agree that he deserves a promotion and a shot of scotch. The idea seemed to have convinced the heads at the table. The GXP is GM's reply to the mighty Hemi-powered DCX triplets. But that assistant didn't get his promotion for his idea, though, because he forgot to refill the minibar. I think the V8 implant in the Grand Prix caused a lot of headaches for GM, though. Looking at the spec sheet, you notice that not only has the front track been increased by almost 2 inches, but the front tires are actually
The real Achille's heel however is obviously torque steer. The 5.3-litre V8 develops 303 horsepower and 323 pound-feet of torque and upsets the front wheels quite a bit during hard acceleration. The front end of the Grand Prix darts left and right, but settles once it is under way. Under normal driving conditions, this problem is minimal, and the traction control is there to make sure things don't get out of control. The V8 engine is mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission with Pontiac's TapShift manual mode. The transmission's shifts are
Stepping out of the Grand Prix and into a Dodge Charger, you feel that DaimlerChrysler's steed is a better handler. The difference isn't that noticeable if you're not driving these two sedans back to back, however. Recent Articles
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