Motor Australia — January 2018

SO HERE we are. Holden Special Vehicles has revealed The Plan and it’s

special bits for Colorados, gigantic Silverado trucks and right-hand-drive

converted Camaros – news broken by MOTOR in our October 2017 issue. As

you’ll read in our interview with Clayton powerbrokers Ryan Walkinshaw

and Tim Jackson this issue, they’re seeing it as an opportunity to make the

company bigger and stronger than ever. That includes moving to a larger,

brand new facility and ambitions to output more vehicles than at the height

of HSV’s Commodore-based success. Scaling back? Nope, they’re scaling up.

But at the same time that it’s a beginning, it’s a very obvious end. The

HSV brand has effectively been put into quasi-hibernation. Reportedly,

many HSV dealers will be rebranded Chevrolet in anticipation of Camaro

and Silverado, with the HSV brand, for now, only going on Colorados in a

secondary sense. Walkinshaw and Jackson have hinted there will be future

models from the adored HSV brand but it’s not clear what, and when. And so

for now, it’s a quiet and solemn goodbye to Aussie Commodore-based HSVs

like our beloved Clubsport and GTS, the world’s best attainable muscle cars

heading to the knackery long before they’ve run their last race. Now, HSV

will gesture you towards a Camaro instead when the novated lease is up.

So what’s next for those who love the idea of a performance model, even

if it’s from overseas, optimised for Australian tastes? Surely, given the GM

internal politics we’ve heard of before, we’ll never see an HSV-enhanced

Camaro so long as there’s a ZL1 around; it doesn’t make sense to put an HSV

badge on a Chevrolet anyway. It might be up to the tuners to show the Yanks

how a muscle car is done, Aussie-style – or a new secondary manufacturer.

There’s a glut of aftermarket parts available for Camaros in the States just

begging to be put on a boat to Australia, and hopefully we might also see

local operations the ilk of Harrop and KPM pick up the niche manufacturing

mantle and offer homegrown parts at the level we’ve come to expect from

them. We don’t know yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye on it.

All we know is, Falcon and Aussie Commodore are gone, but an appetite

(and market) for uniquely Australian-style muscle cars has not. For

enterprising types with their finger on the pulse, an opportunity awaits.

Dylan

Campbell

Ed’s note

There’s an opportunity for someone to write the

next chapter in the Aussie performance car story

EDITORDylan Campbell

ASSOCIATE EDITORScott Newman

STAFF JOURNALIST Louis Cordony

SUB-EDITOR Trent Giunco

ART DIRECTOR Damien Pelletier

DIGITAL JOURNALIST Chris Thompson

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Chris Andrew

GUN DRIVER Warren Luff

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

Ellen Dewar, Nathan Jacobs, Alastair Brook

DIGITAL DREAM TEAM

Bonnie Jacks, Daniel Wong

WRITERS

Daniel DeGasperi, Mark Fogarty, Tim Keen,

David Morley, Dennis Van Loenhout

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Wilson Hennesey, Steffen Jahn, Alastair Ritchie

EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENTS

Georg Kacher, Michael Taylor

ADVERTISING MANAGERS

GROUP SALES MANAGER Matt Rice (02) 9263 9706

BRAND SALES MANAGER – MOTOR

Liam Quirk (02) 9282 8348

QUEENSLAND Todd Anderson (07) 3245 5049

SOUTH AUSTRALIA Nick Lenthall (08) 8212 6256

WEST AUSTRALIA Emily Thompson 0408 516 176

NSW AGENCY SALES Max Kolomiiets (02) 8275 6486

NSW AGENCY SALES Aaron Whiteman 02 9288 9123

VIC AGENCY SALES Stephen Hughes 03 9567 4320

VIC AGENCY SALES Andrea De Kauwe 03 9567 4388

PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Shaun Johnson

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Joanna Garretto

CIRCULATION MANAGER Stuart Jones

MARKETING MANAGER Charlotte Brunton

GROUP FINANCE MANAGER Richard Wein

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Ged Bulmer

BAUER TRADER CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Terry King

BAUER MEDIA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Paul Dykzeul

CUSTOMER CARE Regina Fellner 1300 362 355

PRIVACY NOTICE

This issue of MOTOR is published by Bauer Media Pty Ltd

(Bauer). Bauer may use and disclose your information

in accordance with our Privacy Policy, including to

provide you with your requested products or services

and to keep you informed of other Bauer publications,

products, services and events. Our Privacy Policy is

located at http://www.bauer-media.com.au/privacy/ It also

sets out on how you can access or correct your personal

information and lodge a complaint. Bauer may disclose

your personal information offshore to its owners, joint

venture partners, service providers and agents located

throughout the world, including in New Zealand, USA, the

Philippines and the European Union. In addition, this issue

may contain Reader Offers, being offers, competitions

or surveys. Reader Offers may require you to provide

personal information to enter or to take part. Personal

information collected for Reader Offers may be disclosed

by us to service providers assisting Bauer in the conduct

of the Reader Offer and to other organisations providing

special prizes or offers that are part of the Reader Offer.

An opt-out choice is provided with a Reader Offer. Unless

you exercise that opt-out choice, personal information

collected for Reader Offers may also be disclosed by

us to other organisations for use by them to inform you

about other products, services or events or to give to

other organisations that may use this information for this

purpose. If you require further information, please contact

Bauer’s Privacy Officer either by email at privacyofficer@

bauer-media.com.au or mail at Privacy Officer Bauer

Media Pty Ltd, 54 Park Street, Sydney NSW 2000.

motor_mag

motorofficial

Available on iPad and Zinio

motormag.com.au

Steffen Jahn
Likes: Ordering Georg around; awards;
expensive fast-moving props
Dislikes: Subtle climate wear, bad photos