The ’05 goat sounds like a great car. I read the Car and Driver article too, and based on their impressions it sounds like a blast to drive.
I am not too crazy about GM’s new twin port hood. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t look bad. However, I do not think it really adds a whole lot to the design. I also don’t think its going to satisfy the purists who were upset with the design of this car to begin with.
The new bumper with the split tailpipes looks good! I never considered the clustered pipes of the ’04 anywhere close to a deal breaker, but it makes me wonder why they couldn’t have come up with this split pipe solution from the start. It could not have cost much, or taken too much extra engineering to design a cutout on either side of the bumper and route the pipes to each side under the car.