Dusting off an old, storied nameplate to affix it to a new thing almost never works out well. When Pontiac re-badged the Holden Monaro, a potent rear-drive coupe with a V8 and a six-speed, into the Pontiac GTO the fan base went insane. Too plain, too foreign, not enough GTO. When Dodge decided to debut a four-door, Hemi-powered sedan that looked properly pissed off and would be a killer replacement for a Camry in driveways across America, the Mopar faithful started lighting their torches and picking up their pitchforks…though they didn’t show anywhere near as much disdain over the Magnum wagon. Well, if you think the Pontiac faithful have resigned themselves to silence now that the brand has been dead for a decade, just wait until you get a load of this.
One of the new engines that will come in the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra is the L3B, a 2.7L turbo-four that will be fitted with cylinder deactivation, two different valve lift profiles, stop/start and continually various valve timing. The numbers are 310 horsepower and 348 ft/lbs of torque, which isn’t bad for a four banger at all, but it’s the fact that they are going into the full-size trucks that has some people nervous. Well, that’s all fine and good, but now the L3B has a name: “Tripower”. Yep, same name that Pontiac laid out to describe their hot triple-carb setups in the late 1950s and 1960s is now being applied to a turbocharged four-cylinder truck motor that will make all of it’s power below 4,000 RPM.
A 1965 GTO and a four-cylinder Silverado share nothing in common except a parent company. But “Tripower” it is.
I wonder why they didn’t go with one of the “turbo” or “jet” names. Seems like a missed opportunity by the marketing department.
The 250 straight six was called the “Turbo-Thrift” – that would be perfect for this engine. In fact, since the 250 was naturally aspirated, the name would make even more sense here.
I had been hoping that the “tri-power” might have meant two turbos and a supercharger, but no. Another missed opportunity.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Would be even better with a plaid valve cover!
just bring back pontiac
Judging by how the latest KFC commercials are desecrating their legendary founder, seems like the GM marketing morons are jumping on that bandwagon too now. Total disrespect.
Rick said it best.
I believe now that GM is run by a bunch of morons.
And yes bring back Pontiac.
That name will confuse the masses and you will hear all kinds of wrong things when people describe it.
Will anyone swap a new Tripower into an old Pontiac?
Did BS call GM tonget an explanatuon of why they named this engine Tri-Power? This ebgine has zero facts to show why it would get this name. One can only guess that some twit in GMs marketing dept thought it was cool sounding. GM must like getting bad press. This idea is about as idiotic as GM trying to douse the use the name Chevy.
Well this is just stupid! Further proof the GM marketing doesn’t know what the hell they are doing.
Tripower because it runs on 3 cylinders until full throttle! Probably better off if it was electric
I agree the Holden GTO was too plain, that leftover 90s styling didn’t work well in the 2000s.
But too foreign? Not really mate! The Australians are just like us!
Lower the belt line a foot and I might be interested.