The rear-wheel-drive car's weight distribution is an almost perfectly balanced 50/50 front/rear (our measurements, on a full tank, yielded 52/48), the result of tucking the engine down low and toward the back section of the engine cradle, mounting the battery in the trunk and placing the steering rack farther forward than normal, ahead of the front axle centerline. Pontiac says this last attribute helps give the G8 GT's steering a more direct feel; as a driver, I did get good feedback at all times from the front wheels.

In normal or even fairly spirited driving, once again we had nothing but positive comments about the way the G8 GT's chassis performed, especially its silky, smooth ride with just the right touch of firmness. "The suspension is set up for an excellent balance of on-road comfort, smooth enough for pleasant daily driving yet firm enough for good grip in fast cornering," said Bryant.

But while a solid handler up to around the 7/10ths mark, our experience during more aggressive track testing like the slalom and the skidpad tells a different tale. While the suspension eats up the relatively light loading on city streets and freeway onramps, harder loading gives all four corners compliance indigestion. The slalom and skidpad numbers are respectable at 64.3 mph and 0.85g, but they are not as good as we expected. Plus, we had to work the car pretty hard in these exercises to achieve these numbers.

Areas of improvement? Not many, honestly — especially when factoring in vehicle price. Making the hard-driving handling capability better is the main one. "The balance is already there, ditto good tires; the G8 GT is only a different set of springs and shocks away from being outstanding in hard driving," says Assistant Road Test Editor Calvin Kim.