Finally, GM Shows Its Muscle

By PAUL DEAN

April 4, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

General Motors was a little slow out of the chute--two years behind Ford and Dodge--in joining America’s quiet return to building red-blooded muscle sedans.

But with its brand-new ultra-quick, high-powered and thoroughly rude-sounding 24-valve V6 engine, GM is back in the race. It may even be poised to set a new pace.

Three years ago, Ford stirred lusts left over from Plymouth’s Hemi Cudas of the ‘60s with its Yamaha-powered Taurus SHO. The power and prestige of performance car designer Carrol Shelby had moved from Mustangs to the turbocharged Dodge Daytona. General Motors, meanwhile, was offering little beyond relatively wimpy cars that only sounded dashing: Grand Am, Grand Prix, Cutlass.

Then, for 1990, Pontiac introduced its Grand Prix Turbo Coupe, powered by an ordinary GM V-6 that the McLaren racing people had tweaked and turbocharged into producing a purposeful 205-horsepower.

The engine was exclusive to GM’s Pontiac Division. It also was a stopgap used to create that Detroit odium known as the limited edition car; something to maintain a presence in the marketplace while panicked managers culled the bull pen.

Owing to the high cost of this short-run, semi-custom engine, the Turbo Coupe came with a pair of built-in negatives: It was more expensive (by about $4,000) than the Taurus SHO and the supercharged Thunderbird, and it didn’t perform as well.

But now, GM’s new V-6 is on line. Four-valves per cylinder and double overhead cams exact maximum efficiency and smoother, higher power from the engine.

Chevrolet will use it in the 1991 Lumina Z34. It will be an option on the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Pontiac has reserved the new 3.4-liter motor (developing 210 horsepower when mated to a manual five-speed transmission) for the top of its four-door line, the Grand Prix STE.

In Pontiac’s livery, the power-plant replaces last year’s turbocharged expedient. And thanks to the simple economy of spreading engine development and production costs across the entire GM line, this year’s Grand Prix STE sells for $21,649, which is almost $3,000 less than last year’s Turbo Grand Prix.

Pontiac has supplied the national stock car circuit with three dozen Grand Prix STE’s (Special Touring Edition) for pace and officials’ cars. Given a roll cage, the right driver and a couple of Mello Yello decals, an STE pace car could well fall back in the pack, play with the rookies and maybe even finish in the money.

The STE with a five-speed manual transmission scurries from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 7 seconds. Top speed exceeds 135 m.p.h. Either passage is well up to the demands of rush hour on the Golden State Freeway.

An automatic transmission drops that initial dash to a wink over 9 seconds. The automatic also develops a noticeable sag in what should be an uninterrupted power curve when the car is passing through 40 m.p.h. and the engine is touching 6,000 r.p.m. That, however, is the standard pain of preordained shifting in just about all but the most expensive four-speed automatics.

As compensation, the car’s acceleration from 40 m.p.h. through freeway limits is a firm, unbroken and wonderful surge of healthy power. With that pace comes an engine and exhaust note roaring from four yawning tailpipes that give the STE the basso growl of a velvet stock car.

Performance, however, is more than a matter of traveling in straight lines with a frightened expression. Yet in those other matters--braking, steering and suspension--the STE shows equally enormous proficiency.

“Sport Y99 rally-tuned suspension” is standard on the STE. Whatever that means (we suspect that rally-tuned suspensions are companions in euphemism to continental cooking) it translates to a predictable, flat ride. It is neither eider-downy or race car concrete. Even in hard cornering, the STE shows only moderate roll, and that’s a vast improvement over last year’s suspension setup.

Gone too is that dreadful castering steering action on the 1990 Grand Prix Turbo, where the strain came close to inducing wrist cramps. Torque steer--and serious skitters might be expected from any front driver with 200 horsepower dumped on the steering wheels--has been damped to a gentle sway.

An anti-lock brake system is available as a $925 option, but even without it, the STE’s big discs are positive and efficient. Under emergency conditions that invoke much smoking and screeching from warm rubber, the car comes to rest in a safe and predictable straight line. A portion of that credit must also be given to the STE’s broad, grabby Goodyear Eagle GT tires on 16-inch wheels.

The car’s styling is largely unchanged from earlier Grand Prix years. That look is heavily European, quite pleasant, but still marred by decorator grilles and gimmicky light assemblies. These Sport Appearance and Aero Performance Packages are styling shams that will forever keep Detroit cars barred from the more serious design exhibitions.

Last year, the Turbo Grand Prix wore gorgeous, gold-lace Alcoa wheels. This year, they have been changed to some nondescript shape in cast alloy. Let’s go back to last year.

To summate: General Motors has developed a first-class engine for its new line of performance sedans. The efficacy of suspension, steering and brakes demonstrates new and solid technology. The quality of mechanicals and materials is high and the STE’s fit and finish are closing fast on imports in this price range.

Yet the car falls a few measures short of being really good. So a design ombudsman is indicated--an inspector general, a devil’s advocate, one man or a department with free rein to remove the frills and fatuity that Detroit insists on adding to its cars in the belief that different is better.

Pontiac’s Grand Prix line will undergo a major redesign for 1993. Several attachments and accouterments should go:

* Lights and wiper controls. They stick out from each side of the instrument hood like chimp ears. If stalks and knobs are good enough for everyone else, why does GM continue to argue with tradition?

* Rear light lenses. They carry a black lattice pattern for the look of faux stone guards. They should depart the way of dummy air scoops and sport appearance packages.

* Parking brake. The STE offers a foot pedal that must be pumped two or three times before it is fully engaged. It is reminiscent of a method found on armored cars used by the Turkish army during World War I.

* Dash compass and warning display. Anyone who needs a compass to find a sign that says San Diego Freeway-South should not be driving in Southern California. And why an electronic display that advises, “OIL CK 2300 . . . OIL FILT 2300 . . . ROT TIRE 6800 . . . TUNEUP 29,300,” when an owner’s manual will do the same job for a lot less?

* Auxiliary radio controls. They are in the center of the steering wheel. A novel, convenient mounting. But where does Pontiac plan to put the air bag?

* Power seat controls. They are mounted in the center console arm rest. It is easy to activate these controls with an elbow--which makes for some interesting seat movements while driving.

* Inside door handles. Why do they look less like door handles than like stirrups?

* Keys. There is a Hall of Fame opening for the first Detroit manufacturer to produce ignition, door and trunk keys and locks that work smoothly and softly and don’t represent society’s most aggravating fumble since button flys.

* Seat belts. Transfer the mounting from window frame to center post. That method allows height adjustments and reduces fatalities from accidental garrotings.

It is not an extensive list, at worst only a collection of minor carps.

It also is encouraging to note that once picked, these nits are about the only shortfalls separating many domestics from the imported horde.

1991 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX STE COST:

* Base $19,994

* As tested $21,649 (including performance engine, automatic transmission, articulated power seats, air conditioning, 8-speaker sound system)

ENGINE:

* 24-valve, 3.4-liter, double overhead cam V-6 developing 200 horsepower with automatic, 210 horsepower with manual.

TYPE :

* Front-drive, four-door performance sedan.

PERFORMANCE:

* 0-60 m.p.h., as tested with automatic, 9.5 seconds.

* Top speed, estimated, 135 m.p.h.