Aussie Performance Cars

Mirage77 said:

Thanks for enlightening us about Aussie cars monster... I really appreciate it.

I feel they have a certain appeal to them, like how the SRT-8 300C would appeal to me. It's just raw power, RWD and the winding road.

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monster said:

o yeah forgotten to mention about prices. Just for comparison, a basic BMW 320i cost $50000 AUD here, all you get is 4 wheels, some seats and a shell.
Holden SS = $45000 AUD
Holden SS-V = $52000 AUD (the v has 19 inch wheels, leather interior, satnav)

All HSV has the same 307kw 6.0L V8 engine but with different equipment and trim levels

HSV Clubsport R8 = $62000 AUD
HSV GTS = $74000 AUD
HSV Senator = $76000 AUD

The Ford Falcon GT cost between $62000 to mid $70000 AUD while the Typhoon starts at $59000 AUD.

Personally the Typhoon is my favouriate. It accelerates just as quickly as the V8 cars. 0-100km/h in mid 5 secs, better overtaking ability, and it handles better because the engine is lighter.

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Test Date 06 June 2007 Price When New £35,105

For :Meaty V8, surprising chassis balance, low price, grip, space

Against:Still a little rough around the edges, suspension judder under heavy braking

Background

The VXR8 is familiar in parts, and all-new in others. Costing £35,105, it is still about performance for peanuts, but this time there’s the added practicality of four doors compared to the old Monaro. Does this diminish the ultimate Vauxhall’s appeal? Not one bit: fast saloons have always been cooler than their two-door counterparts, and with genuine room for four the VXR8 has all the makings of a cut-price M5 or RS4 alternative.

Based on Holden’s latest VE series Commodore, the VXR8 benefits from improved weight distribution (51/49 per cent front/rear), a five-link rear suspension, a stiffer bodyshell and quicker-witted steering.

Turning the workaday Holden saloon – where even the entry model gets a 3.6 V6 – into a super-saloon falls to Holden Special Vehicles, which upgrades the brakes, engine and suspension and fits the aggressive bumpers and indiscreet boot spoiler.

Vauxhall claims the first UK buyers are coming from Imprezas and Evos – entirely understandable when you see the VXR8 in profile. There’s no question that it comes from the ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it’ school of styling. Large 19-inch alloys are standard, with 20-inch rims a £2500 option. The standard exhaust finishes with four tailpipes, replaced on our test car with the £1100 sports exhaust.

The significant carryover from the Monaro is the powertrain: the same 6.0-litre LS2 V8 that powers the current Corvette, but with electrical tweakery nudging power up to 411bhp, mated to the same six-speed manual ’box as before (with a shorter final drive ratio) or, for the first time in a VXR product, an optional automatic, also with six speeds.

Yet for all the talk of new-generation Commodores and multi-link suspension, the VXR8 remains a steel-bodied car powered by an engine producing just 69bhp per litre. Effective and characterful, perhaps, but hardly cutting-edge.

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Home on the Grange
Holden Special Vehicles, the hot-shop joint venture founded in 1987 between Holden and Tom Walkinshaw, likes to get jiggy with the long-wheelbase cars, too. Its Grange is the most expensive Holden-based product on the market; at AU$82,990, it's some AU$13,000 more than its donor Caprice.

HSV prefers to think of it as AU$137,000-$190,000 less than "comparable" long-wheelbase performance limos like the Audi A8L, BMW 750Li and Mercedes-Benz S500L. Where the standard Caprice V8 does very well (like, 13.9-second quarters well) with GM's 360-horsepower/391-pound-feet, 6.0-liter L98 mill, the HSV package gains an LS2 6.0-liter instead. Grunt grows to 412 hp/406 lb-ft, driving through the same GM 6L80E six-speed auto.

HSV doesn't quote performance figures on the Grange, but its short-wheelbase sister, the Senator Signature, manages a 13.6-second quarter-mile — and is 198 pounds lighter.

At 202.8 inches long, the Grange is only 2 inches longer than the present Impala and the Mopar, so it's the perfect size for the U.S. market. At 118.5 inches, the Holden's wheelbase is 8 inches longer than an Impala's, but 1.5 inches shorter than the Dodge Charger's. Still, it's enough to deliver limolike rear legroom in a bench sculpted for two. It appears to be more space than grace, too, as the Grange doesn't add a great deal besides unique napa leather and suede upholstery to the Caprice's admittedly lengthy luxo-list.

Outside, where HSV's short-wheelbase models go to the extent of modified sheet metal panels and new taillamp clusters, the Grange gets only a new front clip and subtly stuck-on rear spoiler and diffuser to distinguish it from the Caprice. The 19-inch wheel/tire package and AP brakes with four-piston calipers, though, hint at where the money really has been spent.

It's stashed underneath in the Magnetic Ride Control (MRC) suspension, an HSV USP (unique selling proposition) that's not available in any standard Holden product.

Worthy of the SS Name
HSV's reputation rides on this being a driver's car as much as a passenger's, and MRC is one of its two magic wands. A console switch alters damping settings between Luxury and Performance settings, the former delightfully absorbent in its ride quality (yep, even on 19-inch wheels) while still showcasing the unexpected lightness and precision of this chassis' steering and suspension control. A lardy land yacht it ain't.

In Performance mode, the ride becomes more pattery, the rear end busier when cornering or accelerating over corrugations. Cabin isolation falls short of its European aspirations as, ultimately, does body control, but not $100,000 short. Despite the Grange's 4,266-pound curb weight, braking power is mighty, albeit without a lot of pedal communication.

The other magic wand is the engine — a juicy, smooth, 72-ounce top sirloin of surge, with a dual personality of cruising sophistication and muscle-car mumbo. The six-speed GM transmission can get momentarily flustered by sudden stomps on the electronically operated loud pedal, and is more decisive with the console button left in Sport mode. The Australian average city/highway fuel consumption of 16.6 mpg (on recommended 98-octane) is roughly on par with any of Holden's standard V8 range.


The engine and suspension are the defining points of the Grange: apparent blacksmith tech like a pushrod V8 and competent, though not cutting-edge, front strut and rear multilink suspensions, artfully engineered or accessorized to a truly international standard. But the Grange also serves to highlight the strengths of Holden's standard Caprice.

Go Ahead, Stretch Your Legs
From the driver seat, the Grange is a good luxury-performance car. Comparisons with top-line Teutons just don't hold with its haunting of hard-feel plastics, dog-nose-textured vinyl and subtly mismatched colors between different materials. Admittedly, the hard-feel plastics are in less frequently fondled areas, and aside from some flashing around the front seats' plastic bases, the quality of finish and assembly is utterly admirable.

The seating is superb, front or rear, with abundant headroom up front and lots of adjustability: electric for the seat, manual for the steering column. Instrumentation, again, is almost too clear and concise for this kind of money, with simple analog gauges complemented by a center console LCD monitor. Front, side and curtain airbags are all included, the latter adding vision-obscuring thickness to the remarkably shallow-raked A-pillars.

Rear passengers will note the low H-point, placing them virtually at eye level with the scuttle ahead. A DVD entertainment system, with an individual monitor in each front headrest, is standard. Its overhead control unit also houses the rear cabin's A/C functions.

Just What Chevy Needs
With an all-new front-wheel-drive Chevy Malibu hitting this fall, and rumors flying that Ford is finally doing a rear-wheel-drive sedan for the U.S. based on the Australian Falcon, a rear-wheel-drive Impala is just what Chevy needs. The rear-wheel-drive Dodge Charger has proven there's a market out there and now Ford and GM want their share.

Just don't expect the 2010 Impala to look much like this Holden. As much as we like the understated yet sporty look of the Grange (dig those fender vents and dual exhaust), GM's stylists are sure to spend the next couple of years messing with it, giving it a horizontally split grille and other signature Chevy cues.

But the hardware beneath that sheet metal is expected to stick around. Now that we've driven it, we know it's something to look forward to.

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