There’s a distinctive hissing sound at first, a kind of moody whoosh. Then follows a sudden and unexpected bwaaaaaa, delivered as a loud, mournful cry. The racket is actually made by the VXR8 GTS-R’s enormous pipes as the exhaust valves blow wide open at 4500rpm, but it could easily have been the sound made by yours truly the moment I heard the V8 bruiser was to be discontinued. A very sad day indeed.
With the demise of the Australian car manufacturing industry, the Holden Commodore – the car Vauxhall has been importing and rebadging for a decade – will soon be no more. On top of that, the Luton marque is now part of the PSA Group, which itself would have expedited the death of the mighty saloon anyway. Like a tubby old sow in a Danish food processing plant, the VXR8 didn’t stand a chance.
However, it will not depart this life with a whimper. Instead, Vauxhall’s last V8 super saloon, the consonant-pillaging VXR8 GTS-R, will be the brand’s most powerful car ever. Farewells don’t get any noisier than this.
This will, in fact, be the year that several of our favourite cars are finally put out to pasture. Some of them have served for even longer than the VXR8, others a little less, but all of them have been constant fixtures in our performance car league tables for as long as they’ve been around. Each and every one of them will be sorely missed. But there is a glimmer of hope: all but the Vauxhall will be replaced by new models in the coming months.
The VXR8 is the one we should feel most sorrowful for, then. Not because it’s pretty – its front end looks like the face of some terrible Antipodean spider seen through a microscope – but because it’s just so characterful. The GTS-R is the run-out special. Only 15 will be sold in the UK, each costing a good old fistful at £74,500.
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Future of Holden Special Vehicles
I enjoyed Dan Prosser's article on the Vauxhall VXR8 in the 30/8 issue of Autocar, I was amused by his suggestion that the future of HSV could secured by dipping into the wider GM stable and importing Chargers & Challengers to convert to right hand drive,have I missed something? when gid The General own Dodge,last time I looked Dodge belonged to Fiat Chrysler. If the question needs asking what's going to replace the Astra & Insignia when GM sell Opel to PSA leaving another big hole in the Holden lineup
GM Sale of Opel/Vauxhall to PSA
The sale to PSA is done - the transfer completed on 1st August 2017 - PSA-Opel/Vauxhall will continue to build existing models under licence to GM who retain all IP rights for Opel/Vauxhall products - the deal includes PSA-Opel/Vauxhall's build of Insignia for Buick and Holden and Astra for Holden.
Many predict the end of the Holden brand before the Astra/Insignia end their current models.
Ruperts Trooper wrote:
Well, considering that even Vauxhall is just a badge on a range of Opels, and has been since the early 80s, the Holden brand may also live on in badge engineered Opels / RHD Chevrolets / Daewoos etc.
Its diapointing that GM didnt
Its diapointing that GM didnt make the commodore replacement on the platform used by the the Camaro in the US (the previous Camaro used the Commodore platform afterall), and then there would still have been a V8 RWD RHD saloon, no matter what badge ended up on its nose. I hope GM reconcider this for a future model, i cant see the Australians taking too kindly to the Insignia.
artill wrote:
American engineers, or more likely their managers, are unable to remember to allow for RHD - that's why there's no RHD Camaro to compete against RHD Mustang - or RHD V6T Insignia Grand Sport.
The new E2xx platform, used for the new Insignia Grand Sport was engineered by Chevrolet in USA, unlike the previous Insignia which used Epsilon II engineered by Opel in Germany - Chevrolet didn't account for RHD V6 turbo versions so the most powerful Vauxhall will be the 2.0TT - without UK sales, Opel had to cull the LHD V6T as well - so the Aussies get a choice of 2.0TT or V6 non-turbo - while the Americans can get a V6T in their Chevrolet/Buicks based on this platform.
Vauxhall, Holden and GM
It is indeed sad that the VXR8 is coming to an end here, but then we only ever bought 10-20 per year - but doubly sad for the Aussies who can no longer buy a V8 Commodore and then heaped with insults by badging the Insignia as a Commodore when sold down under.
Even the Yanks will miss it as the Commodore was built in LHD as well and exported to the States as the Chevrolet SS.
GM has lost the plot big time.