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Marton Pettendy10 Oct 2015
NEWS

Confirmed: VFII will be last Aussie Commodore

No more powertrain upgrades for Holden's homegrown Commodore, but brace for limited-editions

Holden has confirmed the VFII released this week will be the final mechanical upgrade for the Australian-made Commodore before an imported model supersedes it by 2018.

However, it says there will be further updates to keep the last locally-built Commodore fresh until it's retired at the end of 2017, in the form of cosmetically enhanced limited-editions – the first of which emerged this week in the form of the Reserve Edition available only to current and former Holden staff.

Holden will not reveal details of the other Commodore specials it is planning to release over the next two years, and nor will it comment on reports HSV is planning the mother of all send-offs for the last homegrown Commodore.

motoring.com.au has been told HSV is plotting "something big" based on its GTS flagship, which is already Australia's most powerful locally-built car at 430kW/740Nm, and potentially powered by the 476kW/819Nm supercharged 6.2-litre LS9 V8 from the discontinued Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. It's understood HSV won't be reviving the GTS-R name.

Any Holden limited-editions based on the VFII Commodore will be far tamer, given Holden chief engineer Andrew Holmes has confirmed to motoring.com.au there will be no further powertrain upgrades for GM's final homegrown large car.

"We're committed to manufacturing until the end of 2017. We have a few tricks up our sleeve," was all Holden's director of communications Sean Poppitt would say on the matter.

"We'll continue to ensure Commodore reaches its sales targets," said Holden executive director of sales, Peter Keley. "We're not going to let it go stale."

As we've reported, Holden expects V8s to account for as much as half of all Commodore sales by the time Adelaide production ends in 2017 – up from the record 30 per cent they already command.

Strongest demand is likely to be for the final 2017-plate models and Holden is expected to stockpile the most popular models for sale well into 2018.

Holden says it will have full and free supplies of the Mexico-sourced 6.2-litre LS3 V8, which was previously reserved for HSV and North America's Australian-made Chevrolet SS, for its upgraded VFII SS models.

They will be the last GM vehicles to employ the Gen 4 V8 when the fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro – based on the same Zeta platform as the VE-VF Commodore – is replaced by the Gen 5 V8-powered Mk6 Camaro at the end of this year.

Reflecting demand, most of the $20 million VFII development budget was devoted to V8 models, of which the most expensive (and most profitable) SSV Redline scored the most upgrades.

Full details can be found here, but while most MY16 Commodore models get minor design, equipment and price changes, all V8s score a larger, more powerful 304kW/570Nm 6.2 LS3 – the first new Commodore V8 since the 2006 VE.

Replacing the 6.0-litre L77 V8 that made 260kW/517Nm as an auto and 270kW/530Nm as a manual, the bigger 6162cc pushrod V8 features higher 10.7:1 compression ratio and higher 6600rpm redline.

Matched to shorter final drive ratios (3.27:1 auto, 3.70:1 manual), the V8 is therefore claimed to accelerate SS models to 100km/h in just 4.9 seconds (manual) and five seconds (auto).

However, only top-shelf Redline models score Brembo rear brakes and revised FE3 suspension, and the Caprice misses out on the HSV-style bi-modal exhaust and 'mechanical sound enhancer' fitted to SS models.

What's more, Active Fuel Management cylinder-deactivation technology does not feature in the LS3 V8, which burns a litre more fuel at 12.8L/100km (manual) and 12.9L/100km (auto).

And, following the axing of E85 ethanol 'flex-fuel' capability with the VF in 2013, Holden has now also discontinued all LPG versions of the Commodore.

Lead development engineer Amelinda Watt said her brief for the VFII was to deliver a power output for SS models starting with a '3' and a 0-100km/h number starting with a '4'.

"The focus on this program was performance. The customers are telling us they want more go, more noise and we think we've delivered the car they wanted."

While Holden has promised to eventually release a V8 sports car widely tipped to be the next-generation Corvette, it has confirmed the end of the line for the traditional Australian-made rear-wheel drive V8 Commodore, which is expected to be replaced by a front/all-wheel drive, four/six-cylinder imported model based on Opel's next-generation Insignia and imported from Germany by 2018.

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