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During our drive of the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible, we chatted with one engineer about GM’s Zeta platform, which underpins rear-drive full size cars. Among remarking how much we adored the Pontiac G8 sedan and how we longed for a revival of the car, the engineer broke into a broad grin and said “well, these things have a way of happening.”

Cut to Saturday, where GM’s Mark Reuss announced the debut of a vehicle based on the Camaro platform at the Chicago Auto Show. The only other car built on the platform is the Holden Commodore, which formerly underpinned the G8 and is the basis for the Chevrolet Caprice PPV, a model only sold to law enforcement agencies for police duty.

In recent weeks, photos of the Caprice have emerged that show it looking very ready for civilian duty (seen above). Gone are the steel wheels, push bars and flashing lights, and to the untrained eye, the car could be any other full-size American sedan.

There’s a strong chance the car will be a new variant of the Caprice, although a high-performance Camaro Z28 is also rumored to bow in Chicago. With Chrysler’s new 300 sedan (and Dodge’s Charger) being the only rear drive full size car on the market (and receiving rave reviews), Chevrolet will certainly want to capitalize on this and smash the 300′s monopoly. The only question is whether the vehicle will be the long-wheelbase police version (based on the Holden Statesman) or the standard length Commodore based car that was previously given to Pontiac as the G8. Engine choices will likely be the familiar 3.6L V6 making 300 horsepower or more, and a small-block V8 of indeterminate output.

[Source: Detroit News]

See AutoGuide’s complete 2011 Chicago Auto Show Preview here, with coverage starting Wednesday, February 9th.

Matt Farah, host of The Smoking Tire and an AutoGuide contributor, has been tapped to host a new SPEED channel show featuring comedian and car buff Adam Carolla, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dan Neil and former NBA player John Salley.

Carolla, who was once tapped to host a stillborn version of Top Gear USA, will head up the show, produced by Mandt Bros. Productions. The structure of the show will be more like a cable sports show, where hosts discuss car related topics, with pre-shot features interspersed with the discussions.

When pressed for details, Farah was tight-lipped, but told AutoGuide that “We feel that there is room in the market for a fun car show with a uniquely American flavor. While the gold standard of Top Gear is out there for everyone to compare to, we want to try something different, something a little less scripted and a little more on the fly, with well-known automotive personalities. I’m really happy to be a part of this project, and really excited for viewers to see it when it’s done.”

Several weeks back, while at Mosport International Raceway, we had the opportunity for a ride-along in one of the World Challenge race cars. The series provided a lineup of different models, including a race-prepped Acura TSX, a Dodge Viper and a Volvo S60. Under most circumstances, we’d choose the Viper – but not this time. You see, while the TSX runs in the mid-level GTS class, the Volvo is a serious track monster, competing in the top-level GT Class alongside the Viper and other high-powered machines.

The term “competing” is a bit misleading, however, with series veteran Randy Pobst driving the K-Pax Racing Volvo to victory two and a half seconds head of the Viper in race one of the weekend. Pobst then managed a second place finish in race number two, succumbing to the faultless skills of Ron Fellows, a man who’s won so many international championships for Corvette Racing that they named a car after him. Oh, and did we mention this is Fellows’ home track? They don’t call him the Mayor of Mosport for nothing.

And as excited to get a ride in the Volvo S60 as we were, the decision was made that much easier when we found out the Pobst himself would be driving.

Now at these sorts of ride-alongs the pace is usually set at 6/10ths or 7/10ths, as much for legal reasons as to not scare the participating journalists too much. Having met Randy before and with close ties with both the series and the K-Pax team we made a special request for an all-out hot lap on what is easily one of the world’s fastest race tracks.

Randy said he’d oblige.

See the video of AutoGuide editor Colum Wood getting his skull slapped around like a bobble-head after the jump and give us your thoughts:

GALLERY: K-Pax Volvo S60 Race Cars

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AutoGuide.com has just launched the AutoGuide Facebook fan page, which joins our News blog and Twitter feed as the latest social networking tool to help bring our writers and you, the reader, together. Become a fan of AutoGuide.com today and enter to win a free set of tires by filling out the Discount Tire survey.

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Despite the fact that the last news article regarding the PT Cruiser on Chrysler media site is titled “PT Cruiser Continues to Shine in 2009,” Chrysler president Tom LaSorda has announced that in an effort to save money the company will cease production of the retro van, car, truck, thing. The news comes after a record low sales year for the PT, which suffered a 49 percent drop in sales in 2008.

While the PT Cruiser certainly had its group of dedicated fans, AutoGuide wasn’t one of them – nor we beleive was anyone who loved cars or had a sence of aesthetic decency.

The PT Cruiser is the seventh model to be dropped from the Chrysler lineup since Cerberus Capital Management LP bought Chrysler in 2007. The other models that have recently met their demise are the Dodge Magnum, Dodge Durango,  Chrysler Crossfire, Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible, Chrysler Aspen and Chrysler Pacifica.

Once production of the PT Cruiser ceases at the Toluca, Mexico plant this summer the only vehicles to wear the Chrysler badge will be the Town & Country minivan and Sebring and 300C sedans. (We’d wager the Sebring is about to join the history books too).

[Source: Bloomberg]

While in past years we might have handed out praise for the “Best Display” at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, a “Worst Display” nod seems only appropriate for the 2009 show.

And so, without further adieux, the AutoGuide “Worst Display” award goes to Mitsubishi. Why, you might ask? Well, there are several reasons. For starters, the enormous black wall behind the company’s display was barren of any mention of the company and created a somewhat bleak – if not downright ominous – feel to the booth.

Secondly, having had the opportunity to walk past the booth what must have been 100 times, we only noticed a staff member at the information table twice. The rest of the time the space was void of not only Mitsubishi representatives but also of any interested media.

Finally, the small information pillar located at the booth never had any pamphlets in it.

Apparently the display was not the doing of Mitsubishi Corporate, however, but created by a local dealership. With the limited resources of a dealership, it wasn’t bad, but hardly on par with the competition.

This year’s Detroit Auto Show saw several major manufacturers drop out and considering the lackluster appearance of the Mitsubishi stand, it would have been better if they had. Nissan was a no-show in Detroit and according to our sources when local Detroit dealerships requested permission from Nissan Corporate to create their own display (like the Mitsubishi dealership did) they were asked not to.

Runner’s up include Lotus, which really just had some carpet, velvet ropes and stanchions, and Jeep, which was actually just disappointing because in past year’s the display was so impressive. In Lotus’s defense, however, they are a tiny company and haven’t had a display at Detroit as long as we can remember.