Jan 24: Hey, you look familiar!

 Recognize this? I'm sure that there are a few technical types reading this blog who can instantly name its source. Pretty well known, dare I say famous underpinnings to a very well known, you could say iconic, car. Stop guessing, it's the chassis for the current Camaro. I asked if you recognized it, because it is found in quite a few places these days, although not one of them (other than the Camaro) is sold in Canada.

Remember the very well thought of 2008 Pontiac G8 GT? Did you know that it was really another car, but with a slightly changed front fascia?

This was the first time, that we saw this very competent platform, but it didn't start out as a Pontiac. That definitely wasn't where it originated. Let's take a trip to Aussie land and check out their Holden line up of cars. At the very top is this one.......

......the VF Commodore SS V - quite the moniker ("Hey, what do you drive?"). In the land of kangaroos, they designed and built a wicked supercar based on their up market Commodore series. Good enough to be put under our current Camaro. And the same car as the G8.

Where might we see this same car again, but under a different name, with an ever so slightly modified front end?

This requires a shorter trip than the last one, which we took down under, as we only have to cross the Atlantic to England. There they sell the Vauxhall VXR8, again basically the Holden re-badged. Why? Simple. The Australian market is quite small and that makes it very tough to sustain a local car industry, featuring a car that is only available there and only sold in small quantities. So the question arises, how can we re-use the chassis or even the same car somewhere else?

Hey, you look familiar. One more example of this very good car showing up in another market in another country, although with a much simpler name.......

Yup, it's the 2014 Chevy SS. A re-boot of the Commodore, the G8 and the Vauxhall. Got that? Hard to keep a good car down (under).

So when you think a car looks familiar, it may well be, depending on where you live or visit. Such is today's global village. One car, four names. Any guesses where it might show up next?

Until next time.......