before being fitted, with the W1’s matte skirts done last.
Now there aren’t many times a Honda owner (ahem,
me) gets to accuse a W1 of looking quirky, but those
brightly coloured steelies don’t match that broad front
jaw, furrowed head lights, and lowered stance.
That’s soon corrected at station five, to the chagrin
of long-timer Rodney Patterson. While Pirelli Trofeo
Rs make those Superalloy wheels look like they could
stick to the roof, he says the rear semi-slicks don’t wrap
around the 20-inch wheels as easy as the standard
Continentals. I offer a stiffer sidewall as the culprit.
“They’re actually softer in the sidewall, it’s stiffer in
the tread,” he corrects. His team saves them until the
afternoon once they’ve warmed in a fan-forced chute
to make it easier. Luckily, only three to four sets of
Pirellis come a day, compared to 20 to 30 sets in total.
I also notice beefier tyre-pressure monitors on the
W1 wheels. “I believe it’s got to do with the speed rating,
because when we used to do the Vauxhalls they used
to get them with a [higher] speed-rated tyre,” he says.
Gleaming four- and six-piston calipers await next.
While our road testers think the GTSR’s AP Racing
brakes, which clamp discs an inch bigger than the
wheels on my 1.8-litre Integra Type R, were complete
overkill, they make more sense up against 636
horsepower. The setup is so big, line workers can’t tend
to the brakes unless the steering’s turned.
Once finished, it’s fired over speed-bumps to set the
suspension. With spring rates like these, they make
the bumps in Woolies car parks feel like cat’s eyes.
Next, at wheel alignment, the W1 is set with more
aggressive camber and toe
settings. But there’s no point if
the ABS and stability haven’t
been informed.
The W1 is hooked to a
computer at the second-last
station and downloads new
modules so it can talk to its
harder-working heart, feet,
and legs before it’s looked over
by the two most experienced
blokes in the building. They
run the final, and most thorough, inspection, checking
everything against a documented process. Not that they
need instructions. I’m told they can sub-in anywhere
along the line.
The compliance plate, build plate, and DataDot
markings come last, but everything pales to what I’m
about to hear. People are waiting for me back at body
line where I can plant a badge on the nose of a Heron
White W1. As it turns out, though, no one’s waiting for
me. The badges sleep in their heated draws, hiding
as if they know my clumsy fingers could wipe tens of
thousands dollars off the W1’s price.
Unfortunately time’s running out, and Alastair and
I concentrate on shooting a finished car before calling
it a day. But many here will be staying back to work
overtime. As I shake hands with everyone at HSV, I
remember what tyre man Rodney told me earlier:
“You’ll be running out of doing things like this soon.”
And while he’s right, I feel blessed to have seen the most
evolved version of Australia’s four-wheeled species
pieced together. Badge or not.M
Endoftheline
inspections are
carried out by Kent
and Stefan. The latter
is an ex-aviation
engineer. He spends
twice the time on the
W1 than he does on
GTSRs, as they get
threechecksinsteadof
two, before a sign-off
drivearoundClaytonThe brakes clamp
discs an inch
bigger than the
wheels on my
STAGE Integra Type R
9-11
78 january 2018 motormag.com.au