The GXP should have won this competition hands down, but it was practically a tie. The G8 is slightly faster in the acceleration times, but the Charger has a faster top speed. The G8 has the advantage of shorter gearing, one more gear ratio in the transmission, a larger engine with a higher compression ratio & VVT, the weighs less, GM had about 3 years to benchmark and excel beyond and this is the best they could come up with? The only advantage the Charger had was the fact that the engine is a Hemi and produced slightly more hp & tq. If this is a sign that things may not be as slanted in the Camaros favor as one might think. Agreed Cuda340, it was a good comparison.
Is the Pontiac G8 built on the same platform as the New GTO was?
(Just wondering)
Even in a best-case scenario, stricter CAFE demands will put the squeeze on the Hemi.
(Yes, I think the days are numbered for the HEMI if CAFE standards continue to go the way they are going.....)
No, the G8 is on the Zeta platform. The platform that the new GTO was on was called the GM V platform. The Zeta platform replaced the V-platform, that is one of the reasons why the GTO had such a short run since they were planning on dropping the platform.
I'm not going to worry about the CAFE standards. The only companies that have ever had to pay those from what I've heard for not achieving the numbers where foreign brands.