Folks, there's many, many reasons to regret the demise of Holden, and here's one you may not have
been aware of, the HSV SportsCat V8. Yep, when Holden was axed by GM in early 2020, it killed
this program, which stuffed a Chevrolet LT-1 V8 under the bonnet of HSV's version of the Colorado
ute. But here's the good news folks, we've come to HSV's headquarters in Melbourne, we've grabbed the
keys to this V8 SportsCat, we're gonna take it for a drive and find out how good it could have been.
If Holden kept going, then the HSV SportsCat V8 would have been on sale by the late 2021,
with a starting price under 80,000 dollars. HSV reckons it would have sold thousands of them,
and it's easy to understand why. Okay, so a little background here. HSV was Holden's
official go fast partner, and it built its business over more than 30 years developing
hotted up Commodores, but when the Holden factory shut in 2017, HSV and its parent the Walkinshaw
Group had to turn its attention elsewhere, and with ute sales booming a V8 Colorado
sounded like a great idea. The first step was a HSV SportsCat with the standard diesel
engine. This vehicle was going to be the next giant leap until the hammer fell.
The development program for this vehicle started in late 2016, and this is the final iteration.
This is the production indicative road registered car that would have gone into showrooms. In fact,
if you check the compliance plate, you'll see this was the last HSV ever built.
The plan signed off with Holden would have seen the LT-1 engines
installed on the Colorado assembly line in Thailand, and then the cars would have been
shipped to Walkinshaw in Melbourne for final assembly. The work did not stop
at the engine. The transmission is the GM 10L90 10-speed auto out of the Z01 Camaro,
and the 4x4 system transfer case is a current generation GM T1XX. The suspension tune is
road oriented, a bit like the W-580 Amaroks Walkinshaw makes on behalf of Volkswagen.
Here's the heart of the matter folks, pretty tight fit, isn't it? Note the Camaro engine cover here.
Also, check out the custom 3D printed air box made by the Walkinshaw guys for this conversion.
They also handmade the radiator supports and the engine mounts to fit the engine in.
There's also a new prop shaft, the petrol tank's been redesigned by Walkinshaw,
and the electrical system has been fundamentally overhauled with a new harness and modifications to
the body computer. The power and torque outputs of this thing make for a pretty interesting reading.
Fire it up and you can hear those custom headers and exhaust doing their thing.
Well, we could have hoped for better weather for one shot at driving the SportsCat V8 but whether
it's pouring down rain or blistering sunshine, there's no doubt one thing about this car is true,
it makes a hell of a din. I mean these headers and exhaust really do add some rich flavour.
So there's nothing too sophisticated about this package,
she's a big blunt instrument of a V8 engine, revs quite slowly but gives you plenty of performance.
So the ride characteristics, handling, all that stuff's a bit primitive. Probably being too harsh,
but it is a bit ponderous this car. You do feel a bit top heavy, you do feel like it's suspended
pretty firmly. It's not the final tune, let's be honest about that and make that clear up front,
but it is a car that isn't nimble, like a low-slung sports car, and that's understandable.
I pretty much agree with the guys at HSV that this would have been a hit had it been built.
Something entirely different in the ute segment. High performance, high power V8. Nothing like it.
HSV was working towards the price of 79,990 dollars plus on-road costs for the SportsCat V8.
This one-off will generate a whole lot more cash than that when it goes up for auction
later this year. Whoever writes a nice big cheque is gonna get themselves a unique
piece of Aussie automotive history, and a whole lot of noisy fun as well.
The rest of us will just have to ponder what might have been.