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>> Ministerial release fuels slowly combusting PR
The timing might have been better... On July 20, the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Anthony Albanese, issued his press release, entitled: 'WHAT WILL A NEW CAR MEAN FOR YOUR WALLET AND THE PLANET?' (The minister's shouted emphasis, not ours).
While the minister and his minions undoubtedly mean well -- and their message comes hot on the heels of the Garnaut report, the CSIRO's 'Fuel for Thought' (more here) and the RACV's survey of vehicle running costs (more here) -- it has come at a point in time when sales of locally manufactured large cars are seriously in decline.
The press release points out that of the five best-selling cars in the market, two locally manufactured cars, Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore, cost over $2000 to run and produce over three tonnes of CO2 every year. By comparison, the three imported cars in the top five (Mazda3, Toyota Corolla and Yaris) are all significantly cheaper (under $2000 a year) to run and produce less than three tonnes of CO2.
What the press release unfortunately fails to explain, in promoting the department's Green Vehicle Guide, is that the two large cars displace twice the engine capacity of the three imports and carry around 50 per cent more weight.
On the face of it, the Green Vehicle Guide is useful for comparative purposes, but won't break any new ground in the cultural psyche and force different elements of society to re-think their vehicle purchasing decisions. What it has done is upset one of the very senior PR staff working for a local manufacturer.
The person in question didn't want to be quoted on the record, but felt that the 'top five' listing in the press release was unnecessarily punitive and simplistic in its approach.
As the PR boss said, placing a Falcon or Commodore in a list up against Yaris, Corolla and Mazda3 hardly seems like comparing apples with apples -- but that's how many readers will see it. Certainly, that's how it has been reported by the non-automotive media! Further, it will reinforce existing prejudices at a time when the locally built large cars have never been more economical.
If there's a need to be punitive and change the buying habits of the nation, the PR person's argument went, why not point a finger at compact and medium SUVs? The compact SUVs are almost as fuel-hungry as the large sedans and wagons, and the medium SUVs are consistently worse.
For the year to date, according to VFACTS, sales of compact and medium SUVs combined represent a total volume virtually 80 per cent more than total large car sales in this country, so total CO2 emissions from this market class are vastly worse than from large cars as a segment.
Of course, the flaw in that argument from a corporate viewpoint is that the three remaining local manufacturers also sell medium SUVs (and in one case, the Territory, build it here too).
But at the risk of countering with another inflammatory point, perhaps we should ask whether consumers objectively need an SUV? Do you blokes driving to the office alone really need to do so in a vehicle designed to carry five to seven passengers offroad?
>> Bullbars a soft target
SUVs (mainly) are coming under fire in other quarters this week -- at least in the Carsales Network's HQ state of Victoria. VicRoads, the state's road regulatory authority, has begun a print advertising campaign against the use of bullbars in built up areas.
The ads appeared first via relatively small insertions in the weekend edition of the Herald Sun a few weeks back, but this week, the campaign was stepped up in size (and we assume, frequency).
Most commonly fitted to SUVs, bullbars, the ads say, make your car 50 per cent [Ed: VicRoads' stats] more likely to kill. It says "research has shown that a vehicle fitted with a bullbar can cause death of a pedestrian at half the speed of a vehicle without a bullbar."
VicRoads asserts, there's seven ways bullbars can be dangerous (more here vicroads.vic.gov.au), most of which seem to be addressed by fitting properly designed accessories from the likes of ARB and TJM. Not surprisingly offroad and SUV interests are girding their loins for the next instalment of this ongoing battle.
In the meantime, it struck us (sorry, poor pun) that once again the regulators are going for the soft target (even worse pun). Instead of worrying about bullbars in isolation, why not do something meaningful towards improving vehicle 'fault' related road safety -- like introduce an annual roadworthy check!
Hell, one of the things the inspections could target is non-ADR approved bullbars...
>> HSV's diesel is an inline six!
The W427 might have been the star of the show this week (more here), but during the 7.0-litre soiree HSV boss Scott Grant gave CN Confidential a surprising insight into what his engineers have been up to while Holden prevaricates about adding a diesel variant to the Commodore line-up.
Questioning Grant on the suspected existence of LS9 or LSA supercharged V8 test vehicles in the hot Holden gang's skunkworks (something he denied -- more here), the HSV boss revealed HSV had built a turbodiesel Senator mule. And most surprising of all -- it's powered by an inline BMW six.
CN: What about the rumours about [the supercharged] LS9?
SG: They're just rumours. There's [rumours about] LS9, there's LSA... There's all kinds of things I've heard about.
CN: But you're not running a supercharged mule at the moment?
SG: No. We've got a few other mules going around, but we don't have [a supercharged petrol mule]...
CN: Would you like to tell us what the other ones are?
SG: No... [But] We've got some diesel stuff. We've built a high performance turbodiesel.
CN: Is that with the 2.9-litre V6 turbodiesel engine [from VM Motori, which is fitted to the Cadillac and is tipped to be the engine Holden would use]?
SG: No, it'd be a BMW engine -- from a 5-Series. We just got a car [CN: a VE Senator]; bought an engine; wanted to prove a concept. We probably spent several months in the end really proving that we could fit [the engine]. Because the 5-Series and the basic E-Series architecture is very similar -- very similar weight characteristics -- we wanted to see whether we could put a diesel into it...
...We took a Senator, whipped out the engine and put the BMW six in. Basically we're soldering wires together and it's got a BMW start button and a BMW gear lever -- it's so artificial. But it gets us thinking about -- could we run an HSV turbodiesel? And when we took it out on the track and did some stuff to the car, we thought this thing's pretty bloody good!
CN: Why didn't you go and buy the VM Motori engine?
SG: At the time we were looking at it -- third/fourth quarter of last year -- we couldn't get access to it. There's a fairly new range of VM engines coming through... It took us, maybe three, four, five months to really get it working properly.
CN: So have you since played with a GM/VM six?
SG: No... We've experienced them in their chassis or execution, not in ours. They're quite impressive, the 2.9 is a really good package...We look at a bunch of these sorts of things [engineering what ifs] and probably seven or eight out of 10 don't make it to market -- the diesel is a good example.
>> Too good for its own good
On the subject of the HSV W427, there's one overriding concern with which we left this week's launch. Has the company missed its mark with the car's appearance?
Put it this way, the most potent, potentially fire-breather go-fast Holden ever, wears barely a body adornment and arguably HSV's smallest rear wing ever. HSV's designers talk about the car needing to have DRG -- Down the Road Graphic... That's shorthand for being recognisable at 100m. This car struggles in our opinion. It might look beefy alongside an Omega, but in contrast to the Walkinshaw Group A the car essentially commemorates, it's an absolute wallflower.
We've already commented on the refinement of the powertrain. We expected fire, brimstone and then some, but got a big alloy fist in a velvet (well, red leather) glove.
While these mechanical characteristics are in contrast to the understated look of the car, is that what HSV customers REALLY want?
>> Camaro gets second generation A-pillars
CN had a chance this week to sit behind the wheel of a new Camaro -- as close as you can get to a production model in this country right now. The first thing you notice is the chopped roofline and the slender glass, which can make the whole cabin feel like you are pulling on a full face helmet.
It's not such a bad thing except the A-pillars are even more intrusive and thicker than the VE Commodore's and a massive contrast to the slender pillars of the older Camaros on display.
When pressed on the subject, the engineers admitted that it was an issue as they had to build enough strength into the pillars for rollovers and front impacts while working with such a radical windscreen angle.
But they also emphasised the Camaro was not going into production with the A-pillar thickness of the prototype. They described a new "second-generation" A-pillar made from high-strength boron steel which they claim will leave the production Camaro with thinner pillars than the VE Commodore.
This begs the question when such a "second generation" A-pillar will be fitted to the Commodore?
>> Latest suspension details fitted to Camaro
Camaro shares its IRS with the VE Commodore. The question therefore was how much the engineers had to change to make it work in the sporty coupe. Plenty of fine-tuning seemed to be the consensus.
Holden engineers then confirmed that the Camaro shares the new and lighter pressed-steel toe link and cam adjusters that have just replaced the tie-rod type design originally fitted to the VE Commodore. They claimed this was always part of the original IRS design for the VE Commodore and it was only a matter of time before it could be tooled-up and replaced the heavier, more complex launch component.
Apart from saving weight and costs, it is also much easier to install.
As for the rest, the Camaro gains the third ball joint at the hub end of the lower control arm as developed for the Sportwagon. When you have such commonality of parts with a wealthy first cousin like the Camaro, Australian Commodore buyers could prove to be winners once the Camaro goes into production and the fine-tuning continues.
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