Pontiac’s futuristic idea for a muscle car.
It was unique back then, and it’s still not available today. It’s also a strange-looking car, a V8-powered hatchback that has suicide doors and a drop down tailgate. On top is a very tacky fixed rearwing. It’s a funky looking car, but Pontiac should have produced it instead of the Aztek, which arrived just a few years later. Pontiac described the Rageous as a “fiery red sports car” and designed the performance hatch with practicality. He added a foldable front passenger chair to make it more practical. To make cleaning easy, the drop-down tailgate gave access to 49 cubic feet (1.387 liters), of cargo space. There were ten net pockets, as well as several U-shaped tie down hooks that could be used to secure the items being carried. Interior designer Tim Greig said that all these features opened up a ‘whole new world of functionality’ for a high-performance sports car. The cabin’s dashboard layout and finish are too fast for our taste, but it was probably popular with kids in the past.
It looked childish but the cabin had a few tricks up its sleeves. There was a head-up display and a trackball mouse at the wheel that allowed you to control many functions of the car. The four bucket seats were also not too bad. The Rageous, although unusual, is interesting in many ways. It tried to be the master of all trades and offered a high level practicality and serious performances. The 5.7-liter engine produced 315 horsepower (235 Kilowatts) as well as 335 pound-feet (454 Newton meters) of torque. This was sent to the rear wheels via a manual five-speed transmission. It was powerful enough to allow a 0-60 mph (0 -96 km/h) time of five and a quarter seconds.
The Pontiac Rageous didn’t make it to production. Even if it had, it wouldn’t have been sufficient to save the brand. The last car was produced in January 2010. Here are three of the most recent concepts in the series: Ferrari Rossa and Lincoln By Vignale.