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Marton Pettendy15 Oct 2014
NEWS

Bigger V8 for Holden's last SS

Commodore to bow out with a bang, but 6.2-litre SS will be Holden's last rear-drive V8 sports sedan

Holden is saving its best for last. Motoring.com.au can reveal General Motors' Australian arm will bless its final, MY16 Commodore with GM's bigger, more powerful 6.2-litre LS3 V8.

The official confirmation of the engine swap is a year away, but we understand the deal is done and dusted. As a result, Holden insiders expect V8s to comprise up to half of all Commodores sold before production of the big rear-drive Aussie ceases in 2017.

A Craig Lowndes limited-edition and steering wheel paddle shifters for the top-shelf SS V Redline (on which the Lowndes car is based) are the headline acts of the MY15 Commodore range released last week.

The paddles will soon be available as an option for other sports auto models.

Disappointingly for V8 fans, however, the outputs of Holden's 6.0-litre SS models have been unchanged since the 2006 VE — at 270kW/530Nm (manual) and 260kW/517Nm (auto).

That means Holden's popular SS models, which comprise almost a quarter of all Commodores sold this year, will be outpowered by Ford's born-again XR8 sedan from December — for the first time since September 2011, when the FG XR8 and its 290kW 5.4-litre V8 bowed out.

Indeed, while the final XR6 Turbo will continue with 'only' an SS-matching 270kW/533Nm, the most powerful version of Ford's last ever Falcon will embarrass its opposite number at Holden with a 335kW/570Nm supercharged 5.0-litre V8.

Of course, HSV's benchmark-setting 430kW/730Nm supercharged 6.2-litre GTS sedan ($96,990) will remain Australia's most powerful production car (on paper), topping the Blue Oval's limited-edition, discontinued 351kW/570Nm supercharged 5.0-litre FPV GT-F 351 ($77,990).

But at $52,490 plus ORCs, the 335kW 2014 XR8 will wear the exact same pricetag as Holden's sports range-topping Commodore SS V Redline, before it is axed for good along with the rest of the Falcon range in about two years.

Ford's reign over Holden will be relatively short-lived, however, with Holden planning a special send-off for its large-car stalwart in the form of the upgraded MY16 Commodore, before it too rides off into the sunset a year later at the end of 2017.

As Ford will with Falcon, Holden will stockpile Commodores and sell them well into the following year (2018).

Falcon's replacement has been confirmed as the new Mondeo. GM, on the other hand, is yet to decide whether to release Opel's next-generation large sedan and wagon here as the Holden Insignia in 2016 (when it becomes available from Germany), or wait until 2018 and attempt a transition between its homegrown VF II and the imported 'Commodore'.

The company faces a similar quandary with Cruze which, unlike Commodore, is plummeting in popularity. While Commodore sales (23,784 units) are 26.5 per cent up (September YTD) and now account for almost three-quarters of all mainstream large cars sold this year, Cruze is down more than 25 per cent at just 14,267 – less than half of the volume of Toyota's Corolla or the Mazda3.

Keeping the current Cruze on sale until 2017 will only continue that slide in Australia's largest sales segment, but replacing the locally built model before then with the second-generation Cruze already on sale in China has big ramifications for GM's South Australian plant.

Internally, Holden also has concerns about how its traditional customer base will embrace the European Insignia, a front- and all-wheel drive four- and six-cylinder model that will likely also replace the unloved Malibu sedan.

Either way, it's now almost certain Australians won't have access to a large, V8 rear-drive Holden sedan after the Australian-made Commodore is killed off.

Holden insiders indicated to motoring.com.au at last week's MY15 Commodore launch that GM has no plans to produce a replacement for the Commodore's US export twin, the Chevy SS. This is despite the fact the SS currently forms the basis of Chevrolet's NASCAR program in North America.

With the 'Zeta legacy' plan to continue producing V8 versions of the current Commodore (badged simply as the Holden SS) in Adelaide beyond 2017 now officially axed, it seems the same corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) issues that prevented the Chevy SS being shipped to the US in sustainable numbers will also prevent GM from developing a replacement.

It's unclear which model GM will field in North America's premier car racing category post-2017... Nor, if it chooses the Malibu to compete with the Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion (Mondeo), how it will publicly defend the axing of Chevrolet's first rear-drive V8 sedan in 17 years.

Asked why he believes an unprecedented 37 per cent of Commodore customers bought a V8 this year, GM Holden sales director Peter Keley said: "It's not V8 or rear-wheel drive per se, it's what the vehicle delivers as a package."

Keley would not confirm whether Holden will introduce the Camaro coupe here, where it would be a direct rival for next year's new Ford Mustang, but what's certain is that GM won't exit Australia's lucrative V8 market without a fight.

Which brings us full circle to the new 6.2...

In what will be a fitting swansong for the Commodore, Holden's final, MY16 model will feature GM's 6.2-litre LS3 V8 — effectively offering HSV performance in its own SS.

While that's exactly what Ford is doing with its FPV GT-engined XR8, the difference is that HSV will continue to sell Holden-based vehicles beyond 2017. Clearly, regardless of ownership and licensing arrangements, Holden regards HSV as a competitor for its profitable V8 models – perhaps as much as Ford's XR8.

"We need to be competitive," was all Keley would say on the subject.

But the Holden sales chief confirmed that a final Commodore upgrade was forthcoming and that V8s could grow to account for as much as half of all Commodore sales before production ceases.

GM Holden's Executive Director of Engineering Brett Vivian was only slightly less guarded at the MY15 Commodore launch, saying that Holden had to give its SS customers a reason to upgrade.

"We have to make out cars obsolete," he said, adding that the upgrade is technically feasible since the 6.2 LS3 V8 is already installed in the Commodore at Holden's Elizabeth plant for HSV models and the Chev SS.

While GM's Mexican-made fourth-generation small-block V8 replaced the 5.7-litre Gen III here in the 2006 VE Commodore, HSV replaced its 6.0-litre LS2 with the bigger-bore LS3 from the previous C6 Corvette in the upgraded E-Series range released in May 2008.

Although it has been reserved for HSV in Australia since then, the LS3 has already been superseded in the US by the LT1, GM's new fifth-generation 'Small Block Gen 5' 6.2-litre V8, with a 466kW/861Nm supercharged 'LT4' version powering the latest C7 Corvette Z06.

If Holden lifts the SV-enhanced 340kW/570Nm LS3 that's now standard for R8 models in HSV's upcoming MY15 line-up, the MY16 Commodore SS will match the XR8 for torque and out-power it by 5kW.

HSV's SV LS3 features a bi-modal air intake and Camaro-sourced high-flow inlet tube, high-flow bi-modal exhaust with high-flow headers and catalytic converters, and dual-mass flywheel.

Alternatively, Holden could settle for the 325kW/550Nm LS3 that previously powered R8 models and is now fitted to regular HSV ClubSports and Maloos. This engine would fall 10kW and 20Nm short of the XR8's blown Miami V8.

Or it could make do with HSV's previous base engine, the 317kW/550Nm LS3, which would make the MY16 SS 18kW less powerful than the XR8 but still at least 47kW/20Nm better than the 6.0-litre GM V8 that powers Holden's current SS Commodore.

Either way, HSV should still have scope to differentiate its mainstream MY16 range from Holden's 6.2-litre Commodores – and to continue to attract even more buyers to its epic supercharged GTS than it did to its outgoing ClubSport entry model.

Indeed, the GTS, SS and XR8 will be the finest examples of an Australian V8 sports sedan dynasty stretching back to 1969 in Holden's case and, for Ford, as early as 1966.

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