66 january 2018 motormag.com.au
be a token 5kW bump in power, but 435kW/740Nm are
still very large numbers and the 6.2-litre supercharged
LSA V8 is unrelenting in its urge, propelling two
tonnes (with fuel and driver) well north of 200km/h
on both straights with nonchalant ease. With the
driver preference dial set to Performance, Track or ESP
Off, it also sounds the part, a deep, throaty roar with
an impolite blurt on upshifts if you time it right.
It sheds speed as efficiently as it gains it thanks to
the enormous 410mm two-piece rotors and six-piston
monobloc calipers nicked from the W1. A standard
GTS wears 390mm rotors and six-piston calipers, but
the GTSR benefits from a much larger pad contact
patch for even greater levels of retardation.
Once again AP Racing supplied the hardware and
HSV engineering boss Joel Stoddart explains the
appeal: “We’ve got a really good working relationship
with [AP Racing]. We’ve got a steady engineering
base and they’ve got a fairly steady engineering base,
so those guys have been working together a long
time and understand our requirements. The size of
the company is right in the sweet spot in terms of
volumes and levels of performance; if you went to a
major OEM supplier our volumes don’t support that”.
On the road the setup is arguably overkill – it’s difficult
to imagine the GTS setup ever fading – but while
HSV claims the new stoppers are a demonstrable
improvement on track, the right tyre is needed to fully
exploit the benefits.
Continental has been HSV’s tyre partner for
the entire Gen-F run (bar the W1) and while the
ContiSportContact 5Ps are brilliant in the wet and
offer great grip and progression in the dry (it’s not our
2017 Tyre Test champion for nothing!) the wear rate
can be very high, especially when you’re dealing with
a heavy, powerful car, a racetrack and temperatures
in excess of 30C. Under heavy braking it’s not hard to
trigger the ABS, circumspection is needed on turn-in
to prevent the heavy LSA dragging the nose wide and
patience required on the throttle to ensure as many of
those 435kW are transferred to the tarmac as possible.
Don’t get me wrong, the GTSR is a track weapon,
easily capable of embarrassing much more expensive
machinery, but the quality of the brakes and chassis
is such that it feels like a more focused tyre – the
Pirelli Trofeo R fitted to the W1, for instance – would
yield quite a significant time gain and a
more stable base to push against. This
is no slight on the Continental, it’s not
intended to be a track-biased tyre, merely
a comment that if you’re planning on
tracking your GTSR – and you should, like
the bloke exercising his W1 during our
time at Sandown – it might pay dividends
to have a dedicated set of rims and tyres.
Our test car has been taken from
one of HSV’s executives, the press fleet
having long been re-allocated, and as
a result we’ve been asked to limit laps,
so we reluctantly depart Sandown for
greener pastures. Our chosen route is a
well-worn one – east from Melbourne to
Healesville, through the Black Spur and
HSV wasbornone
year afteryourauthor,
but it’s achieved
much greater things
in its three decades.
Road trips have
always been an HSV
strong suit, with
plenty of comfort,
massive performance
and space for five
and luggage–fuel
consumptionisan
issue with LSA-
engined modelson to Marysville, climbing towards Lake Mountain
before descending back down Reefton Spur, a 250km
loop that incorporates virtually every type of corner
and road surface.
We’ve driven the GTSR before as a Maloo but only
the sedan’s shorter wheelbase platform is compatible
with Magnetic Ride Control, marketing-speak for the
magnetorheological dampers tucked in the GTSR’s
muscular wheel arches.
HSV was an early adopter of the technology, which
first appeared on early-2000s Cadillacs, installing it as
standard on the E-Series GTS. Each damper contains
magnetorheological fluid – a mixture of iron particles
and synthetic oil – and a pair of electromagnetic coils,
so when an electrical current is applied the fluid
viscosity changes, stiffening the dampers.
HSVs have always managed a
reasonable compromise between
handling agility and touring comfort,
but the addition of adaptive suspension
allowed a greater breadth of ability than
ever before. It took a little while for HSV
to really nail the setup – that first E-Series
GTS came 18th in the 20-strong PCOTY
2006 field – however, certainly by the
time the Gen-F rolled around the trick
dampers were a crucial part of being
able to soak up the worst Aussie roads
could throw up while also harnessing
430kW/740Nm on a track.
In ‘Tour’ mode the magnets are
presumably dormant as the dampers
are slackened off to an almost comical
Our test route is a
250km loop that
incorporates every
type of corner