Pontiac

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Pontiac teams on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series tour generally have had a tough time this season.Among drivers Kyle Petty, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip and Wally Dallenbach Jr., there have been only three top 10 finishes. Two were by Petty -- a fifth in the Pontiac 400 at Richmond and an eighth place in the Goodwrench 500 at Rockingham. The other was by Waltrip, fifth Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Raceway.However, help appears on the way.A few days ago Pontiac officials treated racing team members to a tour of the General Motors Design Center in Warren, Mich.

A Pontiac sedan that "suddenly burst into flames" while parked in Dorchester County on Saturday afternoon injured three people inside, authorities said. The woman in the back seat, 31-year-old Lakita Bolden, had burns over 60 percent of her body and was flown to the Johns Hopkins Burn Center in Baltimore. Two siblings in the front seat, Yashica Pinder, 24, and Aaron Pinder, 26, were also taken to the burn center with less serious injuries. Authorities said deputy state fire marshals were investigating how the car's interior caught flame at a parking lot in the 6200 block of Mission Hill Road around 3:30 p.m. The Pinder siblings and Bolden escaped before a propane tank in the trunk exploded, according to the fire marshals.

The 1992 Pontiac Grand Am 4-door test car I drove was a nice surprise even though it exhibited a couple of glitches.The Grand Am has been around since 1984, a family of front-drive cars powered by four-cylinder engines and priced so that it is not necessary to be a millionaire to own one. For those who care about such trivia, the Grand Am is Pontiac division's N-car, N being GM's internal designation for the platform.This year, the Grand Am offers a choice of four-cylinder engines -- the plain vanilla 2.3-liter Quad 4 with single overhead cam; a double-overhead-cam 16-valve version of the 2.3; the high-output horsepower)

General Motors Co. is offering deep discounts on its remaining Saturn and Pontiac vehicles as it looks to move the leftover inventory of the soon-to-be-dead brands, according to a published report. The automaker will pay dealers $7,000 for every new Saturn or Pontiac left on their lot if the vehicle is moved to dealer-operated rental or service fleets, according to The Wall Street Journal. This allows the dealers to sell the cars and trucks to consumers at a discount, although the vehicles would be labeled as used because the dealer would technically be the first owner.

This month, beleaguered General Motors announced that after 83 years, it was finally eliminating its Pontiac division in hopes of averting bankruptcy. This news catapulted me back to another time, when Pontiacs were Kings of the Road. I was also awash in Pontiac nostalgia because the first family car I really remember was a Pontiac. With the outbreak of World War II, automakers ceased production. With the return of peace, Americans were eager to take to the highways once again . The pent-up desire was fueled by cheap gas, big postwar salaries, and a desire to drive the fastest and most stylish models Detroit could provide.

The news at Pontiac for 1991 is mostly about starting and stopping, engines and brakes.On the surface, Pontiac's lineup looks little changed except for the new face on the Firebird -- a sharper, lower beak -- and a highly photogenic new British racing green paint option.Under the hood, though, Pontiac has made several changes. Dropping turbos, it is instead using GM's new 24-valve V-6 engine -- the 3.4-liter, 210-horsepower Twin Dual Cam -- on the Grand Prix GTP.The GTP, Pontiac's Grand Prix image model, should be priced as much as $3,000 less than the Grand Prix Turbo it replaces.

RICHMOND, Va. -- The conditions couldn't have been worse, and when Tony Stewart left Richmond International Speedway on Saturday night after just 66 laps of the Pontiac Excitement 400, his spirits were low. His car wasn't working. The new sealer used to resurface the three-quarter-mile racetrack had made it uncharacteristically slick and meant passing would be difficult. And, because his team had to change his Home Depot Pontiac's engine before the start of the race, he had to give up his third-place qualifying position and move to the back of the field.

POLICE LOG* Owen Brown: 9300 block of Rustling Leaf: The driver's-side window of a blue 1985 Pontiac 600 was broken Thursday or Friday, police said.

POLICE LOG* Dorsey's Search: 4900 block of Columbia Road: Someone attempted to steal a 1987 Pontiac by putting paper clips in its ignition Tuesday, police said.

Police logHarper's Choice: 12100 block of Little Patuxent Parkway: A gray 1984 Pontiac 6000 with Maryland tags CPE-017 was stolen Tuesday or early yesterday, police said.

This month, beleaguered General Motors announced that after 83 years, it was finally eliminating its Pontiac division in hopes of averting bankruptcy. This news catapulted me back to another time, when Pontiacs were Kings of the Road. I was also awash in Pontiac nostalgia because the first family car I really remember was a Pontiac. With the outbreak of World War II, automakers ceased production. With the return of peace, Americans were eager to take to the highways once again . The pent-up desire was fueled by cheap gas, big postwar salaries, and a desire to drive the fastest and most stylish models Detroit could provide.

Before I headed to my first real - i.e., paying - newspaper job years ago, my parents bought me a used car. I can still remember getting behind the wheel, giddy and exhilarated to be on the road and starting the life I always envisioned for myself as a big-city reporter. It was a Pontiac, and I was driving to Detroit. I thought about that car this week for the first time in years, when the news came that the once-mighty and now-faltering General Motors was killing its Pontiac line, unloading it along with thousands of employees and hundreds of dealerships in a desperate attempt to stave off bankruptcy.

3 men shot, one fatally, on West Preston Street Three men were shot last night, one fatally, in the 500 block of W. Preston St. by an unknown gunman, Baltimore police said. All three victims were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said. A man who was shot in the head died shortly after arriving at the hospital, while another man was in critical condition late last night, police said. The third victim was in good condition and was expected to survive. About 9:30 p.m., police said, the men were walking along a footpath between Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School and an apartment building when they were approached by someone who opened fire and ran. Police do not have any suspects.

April is a propulsive force in the north. Snow melts and the flotsam of spring appears: a child's mitten in the mud, a soap bubble ring; the lilac bushes bud, a light haze of green shows in the tops of trees. The cry of the lawn mower is heard. Mating begins, females ruffling their tail feathers, young males biting the alpha male in the rump to drive him off. And soon, suddenly, all of nature will open up, leaf out, burgeon, thrive and prosper. And then in the midst of it comes the anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech, with "survivors" talking on NPR about their pain and the healing process and how vulnerable they feel and how their lives have been affected.

An Ellicott City man has been charged with numerous traffic violations stemming from a three-car collision in Baltimore County on Thanksgiving night that killed a 62-year-old woman, police said. Rakhmat Shuhrat Yusupov, 26, was driving a 1999 BMW on Reisterstown Road about 10:05 p.m., said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman. The BMW, heading south, rear-ended a 1994 Crown Victoria that had just made a right onto Reisterstown Road from Greenspring Valley Road, Toohey said. The Victoria spun counterclockwise into the path of a Pontiac Bonneville heading north.

New Year's parties at 2 public libraries The Abingdon and Joppa branches of Harford County Public Library will have parties Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for middle and high school students to celebrate the new year. Activities will include flashlight limbo, board games, and Beat the Clock. At the Abingdon branch, teens can watch a movie; at the Joppa branch, the library's Xbox game system will be available. Snacks will be provided. To register: Abingdon, 410- 638-3990; Joppa, 410-612-1660.

POLICE LOG* Savage: 8100 block of Sheffield Court: A green 1981 Pontiac two-door with Maryland tags AWL760 was stolen Saturday morning, police said.

POLICE LOG* Kings Contrivance: 6600 block of Seneca Farm Road: Police Monday recovered a 1983 Pontiac that had been reported stolen from Prince George's County.

DETROIT - Facing its worst financial outlook in more than a decade, General Motors outlined a new product development and sales strategy this week, saying that from now on Chevrolet and Cadillac would be the company's only brands to offer a full lineup of vehicles. That means GM's other six brands in the United States will focus on a narrower selection of segments. GMC and Hummer will continue to sell trucks while Pontiac, Saab and Saturn will focus mostly on cars and smaller SUVs, with Buick offering some of both.