Feel the Pontiac Excitement Tingle in SL - sometime this summer
by Tenshi Vielle - Fabulous Fashionista
Pontiac G8, as viewed in the psychedellic shadow box on the Pontiac sim
Tonight, at about 6pm SLT, Pontiac gave the SL world the very first look at their new car - the Pontiac G8.
The G8 is a rear wheel drive performance sedan assembled out of Australia. Available in early 2009, the Pontiac G8 won't hit RL eyes until tomorrow at 3pm in Chicago. This roarin' vehicle sports a V8 engine with over 360 horsepower, and a four wheel independent suspension. There will be two models : a base model with over 260 horsepower, and the GT model with 362 HP.
[Is it supposed to be crooked like that? Or did someone rent it to Gideon Television? He usually wraps rental cars around trees. Too bad the body shops never really fix the frame right. - the Editrix]
However, this is where we stop going on about the lovely new car and start getting down to the nitty gritty all of SL wants to hear about:
Tenshi Vielle: Winston, why do we have to wait so long to get the new Pontiac car in SL? Not until this summer? Come on... it isn't like there are unions to deal with here.
Winston Corleone: Tenshi - lol, hold on... let me think of a good answer.
Maximum Brynner: You'd be surprised at the power of the unions!
Winston Corleone: Tenshi - ok... the G8 is SO NEW! that we simply don't have enough to build it in SL, to really do it right.
Winston Corleone:It was actually embargoed from the press till midnight, but we here in SL get special favors, haha.
Pontiac Excitment gives Winston Corleone anime eyes
Tenshi Vielle:So why release in SL first?
Winston Corleone: We had to get special permission from the top brass at GM to do this sneek peek! We thought it would be fun to show the G8 IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD!
Winston Corleone: We were gunna have Bob Lutz, but he was busy, haha. We may have him do a press event later in the year...
Wendy Maslow from Adweek heard this and purred, "I'll call you top brass if you want me to." Nothing quite like a little seduction to kick an article up a notch. The evening ended with Durk Burroughs from Pontiac offering to let Wendy drive a car off the assembly line - or a condo in Florida. Ah, the perks of....
...nevermind.
The back of the Motorati Girl's Outfit, on sale soon by Callie Cline.
Oh, and in case you're wondering - the G8 will cost about $600L when it is released in-world.
[I'll stick to Kage's Elemental then - the Editrix]
hmmm, the G8 looks like it is trying to be an answer to my Subaru WRX STi. Who knows, maybe its a good answer. I'm not sure I like the rims. Are they a play on the pontiac symbol? Like the rear end of those Callie Cline outfits?
Posted by: Urizenus | February 07, 2007 at 01:36 AM
Wow that is butt-ugly. I am guessing it is based on the new Holden Commodore VE SS, which is an awesome car. I'm lucky enough to have one ;) Here's what they look like:
http://forum.avtoindex.com/foto/data/media/144/Commodore_SS_2006_22.jpg
Amazing how you yanks manage to mess up such a beautiful car. It has a series 4 350 Chev producing about 270 kW.
Uri, I had a standard WRX, MY00, and the differences are stark. The Commodore has very similar acceleration as a result of much more power but much greater weight. However, while the Commodore handles really well, it isn't a patch on the WRX. It doesn't convey that feeling of supreme confidence around corners that the Subies do. The WRX is still the best car I have driven.
Posted by: Vonn | February 07, 2007 at 06:13 AM
Pontiac were previewing their new G8 in SecondLife!
Posted by: JasonKazan | February 07, 2007 at 06:54 AM
Hey... I see car commercials every night when I watch TV. I don't need to read them in the Herald masquerading as news.
Posted by: Anon | February 07, 2007 at 08:40 AM
And they wanted me to build it.... pfft.
Posted by: Nacon | February 07, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Have we had a tad too much Pontiac lately? Do these guys even buy ads on the Herald?!
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | February 08, 2007 at 02:15 AM
"Hey... I see car commercials every night when I watch TV. I don't need to read them in the Herald masquerading as news."
What's new here is that an auto maker is unveiling a new product here before it was shown at the auto show. The event in SL happened at 3 p.m. EST. It was unveiled at the Chicago show at 4:15 EST (not Thursday, as the story here stated). Still, I do believe it's the first time a vehicle was shown online, to consumers, before it was shown to journalists at an auto show. These debuts are big deals. Automakers spend a lot of money on them to wow the crowd. I think it's remarkable that it gave SL a sneak peek (well, technically, the embargo on the images of the vehicle were lifted at 12:01 a.m. Weds.)
I like the look of the car - which is certainly not lopsided, as the above picture would have you believe ;-) I think Pontiac's been on a tear lately. If the Solstice isn't sex on wheels, I don't know what is. But then, I'm probably the world's only automotive writer to own a Pontiac Aztek - and *like* it =P
Posted by: Lorelei Patel | February 08, 2007 at 04:02 AM
Hrmmm. I looked at the timeline again. It looks like it could have been shown in SL the day before the Chicago show. The story says "tonight" and was posted on the 7th, but on closer look, it was posted early in the morning. So I guess it happened the evening of the 6th. Argh, sorry about the mix-up. OK, I guess it really did beat the unveling in Chicago by several hours - AND the press embargo - which makes it even more surprising. Interesting.
Posted by: Lorelei Patel | February 08, 2007 at 04:08 AM
lol - the US car industry must be desperate if it's resorting to selling digital cars for 2USD a time in SL.
BMW's approach is much more interesting - "No we're not selling cars in SL because we know enough to know that SL vehicles are pretty useless. Come and talk with us instead".
Posted by: hotlips Tornado | February 08, 2007 at 04:20 AM
"...because we know enough to know that SL vehicles are pretty useless."
No kidding.
Posted by: Nacon | February 09, 2007 at 08:25 AM