Chicago-Lutz-Pontiac.jpgIt's all the government's fault we can't have hoonage here in the land of the stars n' stripes. Or at least that's the argument "Maximum" Bob Lutz makes to Jim Mateja of the Chicago Tribune today for why the General's looking to suspend — err, "pause" — development of RWD platforms. Lutz claims

"It's too late to stop Camaro, but anything after that is questionable or on the bubble," said Lutz, noting that also means Camaro derivatives — along with a big Impala sedan, "if we call it Impala."
Ooh, sorry — what was that about the Impala not being called the Impala? Interesting, but we digress. What it...

...comes down to is

"We don't know how to get 30 percent better mileage from RWD cars."
Got it, so — what's it going to take to get 'er done for all of us out there looking for the rear-wheel action?
"We'll decide on our rear-drive cars when the government decides on CO(-2) levels and CAFE regulations...Carbon dioxide is a natural byproduct of burning gas and directly proportional to the amount of fuel burned. If we legislate CO(-2) from cars, why not legislate we take one less breath per minute since humans release capricious amounts of CO(-2) each time they exhale?"
Wait a second — is "Maximum" Bob advocating breathing less? But no Bob, you can't do that — then we'd lose out on all of these priceless quotes. – Ray Wert

GM puts brake on rear-drive vehicles [Chicago Tribune via Winding Road]

Related:
Frankenstein Continues To Go Greek: GM's New RWD Platform To Be Named Alpha, Get Pieces Of Kappa And Zeta [internal]