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HSV's plans for its next generation of locally-built performance cars are still to be formalised as the specialist musclecar maker awaits Holden's own 'eco' and alternative fuel strategy decisions.
Talking at the launch of the Clayton (Vic) based organisation's new flagship, the $155,500 375kW W427, HSV Managing Director Scott Grant (pictured) told the Carsales Network his company was still to cement its future product plans. However, he confirmed that some of the options Holden is considering for 'greener' locally-produced models may not present options for HSV versions.
"We don't have a firm position on the future [HSV] product line-up," Grant told the Carsales Network. "We're waiting really -- to see where Holden leads in that regard.
"They're [Holden] talking about E85; they're talking about LPG; they're talking about diesel; they're talking about hybrids... We probably need, realistically, another three to six months for them to finalise which way they're going to move and then we will look at that option and see what we can do off that -- from an HSV point of view.
"The answer might be there's nothing -- if they go down a particular path there may not be a high performance opportunity for us..."
Grant says diesel is an opportunity HSV would like to explore. LPG and E85-compatible vehicles also present opportunities, he says, however the performance-focussed company was unlikely to follow Holden down the Active Fuel Management (AFM -- GM's version of cylinder deactivation) path.
"There's no plan to do so at the moment, but it's one of those things that we're looking at," Grant revealed.
"Generally our position is to wait and see what Holden does. They're a key stakeholder and technology partner. It's our best cost and speed-to-market proposition to work with them.
"To go off completely into unchartered territory and to try to build business or commercial relationships and technology partnerships with people, and to then be, in a sense, solely responsible for the introduction and ongoing support and everything else is [not viable]. We're still a small company."
Grant hosed down rumours his company was developing a car around GM's new supercharged V8s (LS9 and LSA (more here).
"They're just rumours. There's LS9, there's LS8... There's all kinds of things I've heard about [that we are supposedly working on]. We've got a few other mules going around, but we don't have any supercharged cars..."
One mule Grant admits to is a turbodiesel Senator with a 'surprise' powertrain. Not the VM Motori-sourced 2.9-litre V6 turbodiesel that is destined for European variants of the Cadillac CTS, but rather a BMW inline six-cylinder oiler.
"We have built a high performance turbodiesel car. It's powered by a BMW engine -- from the 5-Series," Grant revealed.
"We could have chosen a number of different engines I suppose... At that time our thinking was: is diesel going to emerge as potentially an alternative for Australia?"
Answering his own question, Grant continued: "The growth in diesel products is quite huge -- actually, the growth in the total new vehicle market over the last, say, two or three years has almost been entirely diesel. They're mainly small cars, but the growth is there so we're at the point sort of saying, let's put some R&D budget aside for this and see if we can prove a concept that really does work."
Grant says his engineers have since tested the Cadillac turbodiesel, pronouncing it "a really good package" but says, coming full circle, that HSV will only produce a saleable diesel car when Holden does.
"We could spend a bit of money and we can look at those sorts of things as ideas [turbodiesel] and we could even build up on a small budget basis some proof of concept vehicles, but [to proceed to market] we really need Holden to be in the diesel business.
"If Holden's in the diesel business then Adelaide [Holden's Elizabeth plant] is ready with all the fuel lines and everything else for diesel, and then we can really say -- hey, now how can we do something appropriate for us off that.
"But, are they in diesel or not? We really just have to wait until those decisions are final. [In the meantime] We're always doing a few things around the edges and that's what the nature of HSV is, and that's a good thing."
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