H.S.V. racing programme included in expansion

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 36

H.S.V. racing programme included in expansion

PETER GRENSLADE

PETER GREENSLADE

If there has been a downturn in the Australasian motor industry, Holden Special Vehicles, of Femtree Gully Road, Melbourne, has not been worried by it since it officially opened its doors in February. Since then, the staff has grown from the original five to 45, and they’ve built 600 Group A cars — 150 SV 88 models as well as 50 specific dealer request cars, for a total of 800 to date.

Additionally, Britishbased Tom Walkinshaw Racing, Australian-based Perkins Engineering and H.S.V. have instigated a world-class Group A racing programme in the middle of H.S.V.’s expansion programme. Plans have been completed to introduce, in the very near future, some new models from Holden by H.S.V. They include the SV 1800 Astra sedan and hatchback, a Holdenbased smallish car derived from the Nissan Pulsar, the SV 3800, which is based on the new Holden Commodore VN series in sedan and station waggon forms, and the new SV 5000 Commodore

in sedan and waggon form. Presumably this fuelinjected V 8 will be built from late February to achieve the 500 homologation figure which is obligatory if the car is to qualify for Group A racing. The brand new Commodore should be homologated in time to contest all the rounds in the Australian Touring Car Endurance Championship in 1989.

The current Group A saloon was debuted in Australian Group A saloon racing by Larry Perkins

and New Zealander Denny Hulme in the second race of the Australian Touring Car Endurance Championship and finished second behind the turbocharged Ford Sierra Cosworth RSSOO driven by Allen Moffatt/ Gregg Hansford in the Castrol 500 at Sandown Park, Melbourne on September 9. Although it did not have the terminal velocity of the Sierra, it was a promising debut, nevertheless. When it is fitted with the brand new fuel-injected and distributorless ignition engine of the 5-litre V 8 next year, it could be a different Sandown story. In the meantime, the Commodores will race at Bathurst in the legendary 1000-kilometre grind on the Mount Panorama circuit on October 2, when Tom Walkinshaw and Jeff

Allum will join Perkins and Hulme in the two-car Commodore team. There’ll also be a couple of Commodores on the Wellington starting grid for the Labour Weekend waterfront race, Perkins/Hulme racing one and a pair yet to be nominated in the other. They are likely to be Walkinshaw and Allum, because Walkinshaw will demonstrate the Group C Jaguar XJR-9 sports-racer at Wellington. Finally, Perkins will drive one of two cars in the Group A race on the programme at Adelaide’s Formula One Australian Grand Prix on November 13. The driver of the other car has yet to be nominated. While I was in Australia appraising the VN Commodore, I had a brief drive of one of H.S.V.’s

Commodores.. Unlike the gutted race cars, it was. luxuriously appointed, being well upholstered and trimmed. Although it won’t achieve the 280km/h and 357 kW at 7200 rpm of the race cars, it is quick enough, although the clutch is perhaps too heavy for constant city use. However, the 5-speed gearbox is a delight to use, and the steering is out of this world on fast bends and even slowish corners. On the road, the car performs with the docility of a standard Commodore, but I must say it answers serious questions with a unique growl from under the bonnet, which will be music to the ears of anyone who musical appreciation has been learned behind the wheel of .extremely potent cars.

The S.V. Astra, which is about to go into production, provides a lesson in what can be done to transform what is to all intents and purposes a pretty hum-drum Japanese small car. It has undergone cosmetic changes which are not only eye-catching. They are an aerodynamic improvement because they have been achieved with wind tunnel development. The Astra will go on sale in Australia this month, the Stage 1 version being tagged at $22,500 in that country. Incidentally, road-going replicas of the current 5litre Group A Commodore retail across the Tasman at around $37,500, plus an additional 2 to 4 per cent sales tax. It looks as though New Zealanders who have bought one of the 30 cars imported by General Motors New Zealand, Ltd and sold by their dealers will just have to grin and bear the out-of-this-world New Zealand prices asked. With 800 cars built to date, plus the remaining 160 Group A cars, H.S.V. is looking to a total build of 1400 units for the year ending December, with the inclusion of the Astras and Commodores scheduled for the Septem-ber-December period. Next year should be even better. Production of more than 2000 cars is forecast.