A Sneak Peak at Concepts Being Developed at GM

General Motors keeps giving sneak peeks at concepts rolling out of its studios, and the peeks are coming earlier as GM tries to boost excitement for its lineup.

GM is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding by stylist Harley Earl of the GM Art and Colour Section, now simply GM Design. It unveiled sketches last week at a product seminar in Santa Barbara of the four concept cars it will show at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January.

Though auto makers won’t say early on if their concepts will make it to production, GM has been batting about .500 in recent years. For the 2003 show, Chevrolet gets two concepts--a Super Sport sedan and a full-size pickup truck aimed at younger buyers--while Pontiac and Buick get one each.

GM calls the SS “a modern interpretation of Chevy’s Super Sport heritage.” It’s a four-door family sedan tuned to perform like a sports car, with rear-wheel drive, a small-block 5.8-liter V-8 engine, high-performance suspension and brakes, and 20-inch wheels. It has big, curvaceous front fenders, and the center console snakes up onto the dashboard. It sports paddle shifters on the steering wheel for changing gears.

The Chevy Cheyenne is a full-size pickup truck with lots of hidden storage space under the floor and in the pickup bed’s sidewalls. It has dual sunroofs and a tailgate that folds down or swings open like a door.

The swept-back look of the Cheyenne’s cab is reminiscent of the Alpha-T pickup Nissan showed a couple of years ago--a concept on which Nissan’s upcoming production pickup is based.

Pontiac’s new concept takes the brand’s recently adopted “edgy” direction forward (think Vibe and the coming GTO and this year’s Solstice concept--widely expected to get production go-ahead).

The G6 concept for ’03 is an agile two-door, four-passenger sports sedan with a five-speed manual transmission, supercharged V-6 engine and all-wheel drive.

For Buick, which GM promises that “the spirit is back,” the Centurion concept indicates where the brand is heading with a promised new crossover blending aspects of car and SUV.

Buick needs new spirit, as it had muddled along until GM gave it two trucks recently, the Rendezvous minivan-sport utility blend and the Rainier SUV.

The Centurion concept is a family hauler with three rows of seats and sporty touches to soften the “family” edge.