New unit under Mark Reuss will bolster muscle cars and develop concept vehicles
WARREN -- General Motors Corp. has pulled together all of its high-performance vehicle projects under one roof in a bid to strengthen storied muscle car brands such as Chevrolet's SS and engineer a new performance lineup for Cadillac.
The new GM Performance Division -- a team of about 200 engineers, designers and technicians headed by executive director Mark Reuss -- will also develop and build all future GM concept cars and trucks for future auto shows.
The division's goal is to create concept vehicles and performance variants of existing cars and trucks that GM can easily and quickly put on the market. "We ought to have this dialed in where we're having show cars that we can put into production at a much different level than we've been doing," Reuss said.
Once famous for its high-performance cars, GM over the years let brands such as Chevy's SS (for Super Sport) fade as budgets were crunched and the company moved almost entirely to front-wheel-drive cars.
Meanwhile, competitors have grabbed market share in the performance arena with popular brands such as Ford Motor Co.'s SVT (for Special Vehicle Team) and BMW AG's M series.
"Other than some of the Camaros and Corvettes, we really haven't done a strong job in putting performance with those brands in recent history, although we did a great job of it in the 1960s," said Reuss, a 38-year-old engineer and son of former GM President Lloyd Reuss.
Under a continuing reorganization of GM's design and development group by Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz, Reuss is emerging as one of GM's top vehicle development executives.
A year ago, Reuss was the head of development for the Pontiac Aztek and Buick Rendezvous. Today, Reuss oversees more than 1,000 people at GM's Technical Center in Warren charged with doing the early engineering and development work for all future GM vehicles.
But the most visible part of Reuss' job will be the Performance Division. For the division, Reuss has surrounded himself with fellow car enthusiasts including chief designer Kip Wasenko, who designed the Cadillac Evoq concept roadster; Jon Moss, the man behind the 1994 Chevy Impala SS; and John Heinricy, a GM engineer and race car driver.
Earlier, people like Moss were spread across the giant company, trying to develop performance cars with limited resources and little contact with the other parts of GM.
Reuss believes the new setup will help GM bring out revved-up versions of existing vehicles faster and cheaper. One of the division's first projects is developing a performance lineup for Cadillac, including a turbo-charged version of the new Cadillac CTS.
"The way we were set up, there was no way we could have accomplished that," Reuss said. "It was a bunch of different groups doing different things with different budgets and different priorities."
By Joe Miller
The Detroit News
Could be hope yet
WARREN -- General Motors Corp. has pulled together all of its high-performance vehicle projects under one roof in a bid to strengthen storied muscle car brands such as Chevrolet's SS and engineer a new performance lineup for Cadillac.
The new GM Performance Division -- a team of about 200 engineers, designers and technicians headed by executive director Mark Reuss -- will also develop and build all future GM concept cars and trucks for future auto shows.
The division's goal is to create concept vehicles and performance variants of existing cars and trucks that GM can easily and quickly put on the market. "We ought to have this dialed in where we're having show cars that we can put into production at a much different level than we've been doing," Reuss said.
Once famous for its high-performance cars, GM over the years let brands such as Chevy's SS (for Super Sport) fade as budgets were crunched and the company moved almost entirely to front-wheel-drive cars.
Meanwhile, competitors have grabbed market share in the performance arena with popular brands such as Ford Motor Co.'s SVT (for Special Vehicle Team) and BMW AG's M series.
"Other than some of the Camaros and Corvettes, we really haven't done a strong job in putting performance with those brands in recent history, although we did a great job of it in the 1960s," said Reuss, a 38-year-old engineer and son of former GM President Lloyd Reuss.
Under a continuing reorganization of GM's design and development group by Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz, Reuss is emerging as one of GM's top vehicle development executives.
A year ago, Reuss was the head of development for the Pontiac Aztek and Buick Rendezvous. Today, Reuss oversees more than 1,000 people at GM's Technical Center in Warren charged with doing the early engineering and development work for all future GM vehicles.
But the most visible part of Reuss' job will be the Performance Division. For the division, Reuss has surrounded himself with fellow car enthusiasts including chief designer Kip Wasenko, who designed the Cadillac Evoq concept roadster; Jon Moss, the man behind the 1994 Chevy Impala SS; and John Heinricy, a GM engineer and race car driver.
Earlier, people like Moss were spread across the giant company, trying to develop performance cars with limited resources and little contact with the other parts of GM.
Reuss believes the new setup will help GM bring out revved-up versions of existing vehicles faster and cheaper. One of the division's first projects is developing a performance lineup for Cadillac, including a turbo-charged version of the new Cadillac CTS.
"The way we were set up, there was no way we could have accomplished that," Reuss said. "It was a bunch of different groups doing different things with different budgets and different priorities."
By Joe Miller
The Detroit News
Could be hope yet
That was beautiful. And tell the yuppie, blue collar hating folks out there that this college degreed BSEE owns and drives three Chevys. 
