It killed entire brands, Pontiac included, and axed high-performance cars like the G8, a full-size, V8-powered sedan very similar to the new Chevy SS. It even went so far as to completely disband its long-standing High Performance Vehicle Operations unit, which had developed such fast, gas-guzzling cars as the Cadillac CTS-V and Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1.
Mr. Karzai forced one such unit, called the Critical Infrastructure Police, to disband in late 2011 after human-rights groups accused of it abuses, which it denied.