Americans always says that Canadians are “just like us.” They talk (almost) the same, look slightly paler, and they just happen to use those funny little kilometers per hour instead of the proper miles per hour. After much thought though, it’s the Australians that are most like Americans– especially when it comes down to the shared passion of muscle cars.
The Holden Commodore last made its appearance on our shores in 2009 as the Pontiac G8. It was a big, full-size, four door sedan, complete with an equally big Corvette-sourced V8 engine. What’s not to love about it?
Unfortunately for us, the G8 left our market with the demise of Pontiac in 2010 and we’ve been without our fair share of Australian cars since then. But alas some good news: according to GM Inside News, the Holden Commodore has been confirmed to return to the United States as a 2014 Chevrolet SS Sedan.
Even better news follows. GM Inside News also reports that General Motors is considering bringing the Holden Commodore Ute and Commodore SportWagon to our shores as well, as the Chevy El Camino and SportWagon. If these rumors hold any water, we’d expect to see the El Camino the same time we see the SS Sedan and the Sport Wagon released soon thereafter.
For the record, this isn’t the first time these rumors have popped up. Some of you may even remember that we were supposed to get the Commodore Ute back in 2009 as the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck before the economy tanked and it was cancelled. Also in July of the same year, Bob Lutz said that the G8 would be saved and become the Chevrolet Caprice. That also turned out to be untrue although the Commodore’s big brother, the Statesman went on to become the new Caprice PPV.
While there is hope for these awesome Aussies on our shores, we’ll have to wait to believe it when we see it.
Take a good first look at this car and you may just sit there for a few minutes with absolutely no words. Official Chevrolet Camaros come in the classic coupe and convertible forms, but unofficially things can get a little, shall we say, eccentric. For example, some tuners feel that a car should be taken to that next level just on the other side of normalcy. A coupe and convertible Camaro? Boring! How about a completely inappropriate muscle car turned truck? Apparently, that’s what Luke Bromidge from Victoria thinks is fitting of a vehicle tuned to look like a classic and beautiful Chevrolet Camaro and pick-up truck. All around the world muscle cars are weeping over their fallen brethren.
While we never imagined something like this was even possible, Luke Bromidge from Victoria has spent moths in customizing a front end that will transform any Holden VE Commodore into a Camaro. While we admit the VE Commodore owners will be very happy with the new and more aggressive look, we really can’t imagine what a Camaro owner will think when it sees something that is supposed to be a muscle car carrying all kinds of cargo in its newly opened rear trunk.
The worst part of this whole conversion is that it is extremely simple. All Bromidge has to do is take the front end kit, install it, and paint it. Ta-da! Did anyone order a Camaro pick-up?
Tom Walkinshaw of Walkinshaw Performance knows his Holden vehicles. In fact, Walkinshaw was the man behind Holden’s HSV performance division so the fact that he chose to take a tuning spin in the Holden Commodore Series II SS isn’t a bit surprising. The result of this rendezvous was the new tuning package unveiled at the 2010 Australian International Motor Show.
For this package, Walkinshaw has remade the 6.0 liter V8 engine found in the original vehicle and matched it up with an Edelbrock 230 supercharger taking the output to a challenging 617hp and 780 Nm of torque.
Next to the engine upgrade, the package also gets an all new front and rear brake package including six piston 378mm rotors at front and six piston 365mm rotors at the rear, an upgraded and recalibrated suspension package developed with Bilstein, and a specially commissioned audio upgrade package from Rockford Fosgate.
The Walkinshaw Performance Series II Commodore will be limited to only 23 units, all painted in Panorama Silver, which was the same color featured on the original ‘Walky’ when it debuted at the Sydney Motor Show 23 years ago. The package is priced at $99,990 (car included).
Press release after the jump.
Full story
After 14 years of history, Holden Commodore is entering the 2011 model year with new smart multimedia technology, improved fuel economy, and the capacity to run on environmentally friendly bio-ethanol.
The new Commodore Series II is powered by a choice of three engines: a 3.0-liter SIDI V6 engine, 3.6 liter SIDI V6, and Holden’s Gen IV V8 for the luxury and performance models. All engines offer the flex-fuel technology which is what allows them to be powered by bio-ethanol.
The biggest technology upgrade for the Commodore Series 2 is the Holden iQ. This system is comprised of music, telephone, and satellite navigation in the form of a fully integrated, 6.5-inch full color multifunction LCD touch screen, a touch screen keyboard and supports CDDA, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, and WMA playback. Take music right from your iPod, memory stick, CD, or your phone ti listen to all of your favorite jams in your car. Not the music type? The new system also provides the driver with live traffic alerts, speed advisory, and point of interest functions.
Press release after the jump.
Full story
We can thank General Motor’s Australian arm, Holden, for making a few of the more memorable modern day high performance Pontiacs available here in the U.S. market; however no matter how hard they tried, the new defunct automaker couldn’t seem to keep the GTO and G8 around for too long. The latter is still available down under as the Commodore, and in the outback one of America’s favorite four door sport sedans is also available as a five door wagon and even a modern day El Camino cross between a G8 and a pickup truck better known as the Holden Ute.
The Australian automaker is currently working on series of factory tuned performance models that will carry a very interesting combination of GM high output monikers. Chevrolet contributes their Super Sport logo along with Cadillac’s V-Series lineup of sports cars so that Holden can come out with the SS V-Series Special Edition Commodore, Sportwagon and Ute models a little later on this year. The new limited edition vehicles will offer around $7,500 worth of Holden factory options at a considerable savings. The SS V-Series Commodore will get the familiar Pontiac G8 GT aggressive twin kidney grill and hood with matching scoops as well as a deck lid spoiler and a few key chrome accents. Just like the SS V-Series cars will be a limited production run, they will also be available in a limited selection of colors, like: Phantom black, Red Hot and Voodoo blue.
Unlike either an SS or V-Series powered GM car, these budget minded Holden’s are more focused on efficiency, so instead of a 426 HP LS3 V8 under the hood, the special edition Holdens are offered with a very efficient 3.6 Liter direct injected V6 under the hood connected to a gas sipping four speed automatic transmission; providing customers with everything they need and none of the excess that they don’t. The Holden SS V-Series Commodore, Sport wagon and Ute are the perfect solution to the new car buyer that wants some additional cargo room without sacrificing fun, or breaking the bank while doing it.
Press release after the jump. Full story
