The outback will never be the same again without Holden

Besides the 'Muricuns, there's another breed of horsepower and torque fetish humans who fantasize flogging their own built V8 super saloons on public roads, wowing pedestrians and leaving big, black tyre shredding strips everywhere- Aussies with their Holdens. However, it is only a matter of time for the fun to subside as the Aussies are embracing small cars, SUVs and pick-ups in record numbers. The once iconic family and fleet V8 monstrous sedans are now gradually becoming passé.

Hold it, what's Holden?

Holden is the largest Australian car manufacturer with American General Motors having a stake at the company. Besides manufacturing pure Aussie models, Holden has a reputation of badge engineering import models in sharing arrangements with GM, Opel, Vauxhall, Isuzu, Suzuki and Toyota. From sedans to hatches to sports coupes and diversifying into utes and SUVs, Holden has long intimidated other players in the industry with high sales in a broad range of locally produced vehicles. However, Holden will stop building cars in Australia in 2017 like Ford has planned for 2016 and Toyota in '17. Although the Australian automotive giant publicized earlier in 2013 that all manufacturing and R&D will stop, the new Chairman and General Manager Mark Bernhard announced on the 13th of September 2015 at the unveiling of the last ever locally made Commodore (VF II), which marked the end of an era of Australian car manufacturing that despite the discontinuation of engine and body manufacturing plants, a design studio with a team of powertrain engineers will continue to work in Melbourne who will be 'Australianising' the new imported Holdens from Asia, America and Europe post 2017.

Even though we are miserable at Holden's demise from Australia, there is a glimpse of silver lining for the motorsports enthusiasts in Australia. Holden Special Vehicle (HSV) will continue to produce mental performance cars in Clayton beyond Holden's manufacturing closure in 2017, says its new Managing Director Tim Jackson, stating that the origin of the car is not a factor for HSV to modify for local customers.

Is Holden cool?

Australians are a happy bunch of folks who find a lot to do from nothing, really. When they are upset because of the marque closing down in the homeland, you bet its ice cool. We at SHIFT reckon its freezing as it has some of the most unique cars for motor heads around the globe to go bonkers about.

Some of Holden's sensations

So here are a few wins in no particular order from Holden (and HSV for the matter) that makes the automotive world to go gaa gaa about.

1974 Monaro GTS350

The Monaro GTS350 was an iconic luxury sports coupe which had the classic American muscle car appeal with a crafty interior. The bonnet scoops, smooth body lines with the laid back rear and hunched wheel arches gave it a brawny charm. The 5.7L V8 motor was imported from Chevrolet which pumped out plentiful horses for a wide 70's grin. During the 70s, The Monaro GTS proved to be unbeatable in most of the national level touring championships even with foreign competition around.

2010 HSV Maloo R8

A utility pickup which can barely tow more than what a Toyota Corolla can- that's what Holden's Maloo is; good for nothing, low slung ute that farmers would ridicule about. But HSV took the ute and turned it into a brute- hairy chested, broad shouldered, six packed player of the HSV fleet. The 2014 Gen F is the craziest of the lot with supercharged LSA 6.2L Corvette engine throwing in 550bhp and 740NM of torque! But we at SHIFT favor the last gen R8 with a 6.2L LS3 Corvette engine, punching 425bhp and 550Nm of torque. Reason? Because it just looks so much better! The black coated vector vents in the bonnet and front guards, 20 inch GTS alloys, 6 pot brakes, bi-modal burly exhaust system and 'hazard yellow' paint scheme made it look sportier than a sport coupe. While many would consider this V8 pickup to be Holden's exercise in futility, some might ruminate as the ultimate utility.

2014 HSV GTS Gen F

This is Australia's fastest, most powerful production car ever built having a 0-100 Km/HR figure of 4.4 sec. And it's a sedan with a price tag less than half the price of its main rivals- the Mercedes E63 AMG and BMW M5. With the same supercharged V8 Corvette power plant shared by the latest Maloo GTS, the HSV GTS easily gives the E63 AMG and M5 a run for their money. Even the American rival Chrysler 300 SRT8 is of no match to the HSV GTS. The Gen F GTS has gained dramatic size over its predecessor, having aggressive grilles, bold yellow 6 pot AP brakes used in V8 supercars, chunky wheel arches, side vents and loud quad exhausts. The interior got considerably larger too, incorporated with leather and alcantara, contrast stitching and sporty dials, giving it the total performance package experience. It is also the most technologically advanced Australian vehicle ever produced, consisting of torque vectoring system that brakes a spinning rear inside wheel to reduce understeer, exclusive rear suspension module and subframe, a 'Track' mode. We all know this monstrosity of a machine is based on the VF Commodore, but never be fooled by the wolf in sheep's clothing.

1998 Holden Commodore (VT)

The third generation (VT) Commodore was more of a simpleton compared to the recent models. Holden looked into German Opel for a donor platform and was given the Omega B. We deemed this generation should be in our list because of the best selling Commodore to date cementing its place as the number one in Australian sales. This Commodore also gained international acclaim as it was exported heavily into the left hand markets as Chevrolet Lumina and Omega. Winning the Wheels Car of the Year 1997 seemed quite obvious.

2004 HSV GTO LE Coupe

What was Pontiac GTO to America and rest of the world was HSV GTO to Australasia. The LE was the best of the VT Commodore based grand touring coupe- anthracite interior, 19" signature five spoke alloys, Pirelli PZero tyres, LS1 V8 throwing our 380 bhp and 500 Nm of torque.

Holden's nightmares

Like most manufacturers, Holden made some bloopers too. Interestingly, none of them were home grown vehicles; rather the badge engineered imported ones. Here are a couple of its highlighted blunders.

1997 Holden Barina Cabrio

Holden shook hands with Suzuki, Daewoo and Opel for its subcompact 3 / 5 door hatchback series called Barina. The third generation Barina Cabrio is the one that caught our attention. It is actually an Opel Corsa that came with the roof alright, but got chopped off and replaced with a tog-top in Melbourne. It is a wanna-be convertible for women prone to skin cancer. Looks cute, but drives terrible, especially when wet. The 1.4L measly motor wouldn't budge with the automatic tranny. We at SHIFT can't comprehend why anyone would buy a car that was prone to going off- track, significantly pricey and useless.

1986 Holden Piazza

Despite the RWD sporty hatchback Isuzu Piazza selling fantastically over Japan and Europe, it was not received particularly well in Australia. Badged as Holden Piazza, the sales figures turned out so poor that Holden did not even bother renewing the contract for the second generation in 1992. Holden was in trouble with heavy national criticism over the topic of handling- Car Australia's March 1987 review stated "rear axle suffers from atrocious bumps, front ones are jerky even through minor irregularities; the car feels nervous in the highway". The 2.0L turbocharged inline 4 banger was highly applauded on the other hand- 135 bhp and 225 Nm of torque from just 3,000 RPMs at 7psi of boost was considered great during that time.

The world's reaction to Hold'en no more

The workers at Holden who are to have their jobs axed by 2017 are quite cross with the Aussie government and are starting to ponder on job relocations. The customers are anxious of the price to go up of the imported badge re-engineered models post 2017. They are also worried sick that there will be less variety in the market to eeny-meeny from. The motorsport enthusiasts on the other hand are not bothered much as HSV will carry on its tradition of tuning Holdens to wild proportions.