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Colorado SportsCat). The only thing we haven’t been
able to change is power. Realistically, this category is a
torque-driven category and the engine itself is actually
a very strong engine for what it delivers. But that’s one
of the reasons we’ve moved to calling it the Colorado
SportsCat by HSV. We don’t want to court controversy
and spend our time arguing over what it should be
called because that’s not what it’s about. It’s actually
about getting in the car and driving it, and once people
do that, we think they’ll love it.”
Why did it take so long to finalise and announce
this new arrangement?
Ryan Walkinshaw: “We wanted to make sure we got
it right. Getting a long-term agreement like we have
with GM and Holden, we had a negotiation that looked
at all the different options that was open enough to
allow us to do something we’ve not traditionally done.
Previously, we’ve really only had one product that we’ve
worked on and it’s primarily been a relationship with
just Holden. Now that we’ve expanded that relationship
our contract is with GM in Detroit as well.
“We’re working with a lot more products coming
directly from the US, as well as products such as the
Colorado, which is coming from Thailand, and there are
additional complications in that kind of arrangement,
which obviously had to be worked through. We probably
under estimated internally how much time it would take
and the fact we’ve managed to get it done is something
we’re really, really proud of. It’s a great testament to the
work that we’ve done over the past 30 years or so with
Holden locally and a real statement of intent about
where we want our business to go in the future.
“Everyone worked very hard to get a deal done that
lets us work on so many programs going forward rather
than just what we’ve traditionally done. It’s always been
an ambition of mine to expand away from just doing
Commodore and into different markets.”
We hear to renewal is for 10 years.
RW: “It’s a long-term deal, that’s all I’ll say.”
Was GM’s ultimate approval fundamental to
going ahead with the Camaro and Silverado
conversions?
RW: “It’s their brand, their original product, and they
have to have confidence that what we’re doing won’t
damage their reputation. That’s why the cars we’re
working on with them will be in their dealerships.”
Is HSV still Holden’s performance partner?
RW: “Yes. And we’re working on other programs in the
future that will fall into that category.”
So there’s scope to do other things with other
models in Holden’s imported model range?
RW: “Absolutely. In fact, the entire point of this new
arrangement is that it opens a lot more doors than we
previously had access to. Previously, our relationship
was defined by a contract with Holden to work
specifically on Commodore and there wasn’t much
ability for us to go and play with some of the other toys
in the toy box. But going forward, the relationship now
opens up a lot of opportunities to work on different
products and also different business models. So rather
than just having the specific business model we’ve been
used to, the new arrangement with GM allows us to
look at different business models in order to make other
programs work which may not have worked under our
traditional business model.”
As well as more
‘by HSV’ variations
of other vehicles
in Holden’s fully
imported range,
there is scope for the
eventual return of
bespoke HSV models
- a departure from
Commodore-based
products we’re used to