Car Throttle

I always make it out to Raleigh's Cars & Coffee event the first Saturday of every month. It's always worth it, even though I abhor waking up early, because there's always awesome stuff to see.  A lot of the same cars show up, so I won't show pictures of stuff you've already seen - for those you can check previous Cars & Coffee coverage here, here, and here. For starters, here is one of 337 Porsche 959's ever built, which was Porsche's rolling technical showcase that blew everything else out of the water in the 1980's, and set the standard for supercar performance.  None were ever imported to the US; it's likely this one has been fitted with the Canepa Design engine

Reporting on this story is really too bad. Remember the excitement around the Solstice Concept and the ensuing production vehicle? It really created a wave of goodwill for General Motors and the Pontiac brand. In production it proved to be no less successful, selling out quickly. Even as the initial excitement wore off, it overtook the Mazda MX-5 Miata in sales - no small feat. GM's Bob Lutz was one of the car's chief champions and it paid off. That's why it's sad to hear that production of the two vehicles based off the Kappa platform - the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice, has been stopped. There was some talk that possibly an independent buyer could come in and make a deal to GM for just the Solstice

The cutting of Pontiac and Saturn has a lot of implications for various models and plants that produced those models. Nowhere is that more apparent then in Wilmington, Delaware. The plant produces two models; the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky. Both are being cut and GM doesn't seem to have any plans for the plant in the future. If all goes to plan, this plant along with the jobs (and sales) that go with it will dissappear. GM CEO Fritz Henderson revealed on Monday something that - for once - is common sense! He said the company would be "very open" to a proposal on the plant and the tooling to produce the two roadsters. The Solstice and Sky have proved in their short lifetime to be successful