Last Friday (December 29th), an orange GTSR W1 rolled off an assembly line to become the last Holden Commodore-based HSV vehicle made by Holden Special Vehicles in Melbourne, Australia. The final car is production #275 of 275 total built for the Australian market. This closes a nearly 30-year long chapter in the production of modified Commodore V8 models by HSV.
The 2017 GTSR W1 is a powerful super sedan that’s got a supercharged LS9 6.2L under the hood that makes 635-horsepower. This is the same engine Chevy used when building the C6 Corvette ZR1. It was only last year that the GTSR W1 was unveiled, and seems to be somewhat of a ‘going out in a blaze of glory’ kind of move.
Coated with an appropriate color called Light My Fire burnt orange, this final HSV creation will be retained by the company for their heritage collection. This car is an excellent representation of what the company has been able to accomplish over the last three decades. Founded by Tom Walkinshaw of TWR fame in 1987. They have since built 90,114 vehicles, most of them based on the Commodore. The writing was on the wall for change when Holden started importing what’s basically a Buick Regal Sportback to take the 2018 Commodore name, which promoted HSV to shift gears.
The next adventure for HSV will be to shift focus to the Holden Colorado pickup for its vehicle modification program. They will also help out in welcoming Chevrolet to Australia this year with the sale of the Camaro SS and several Silverado models. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a Camaro SS HSV hit the Australian market soon.
Before they do anything else, their first task will be to shut the doors on the former Nissan plant they’ve been occupying since 1994, and move to a state-of-the-art facility that will allow them to start converting Holden and Chevy vehicles.
Shawn Henry is a Texas native who has spent the majority of his career building and selling F-Bodies and Corvettes. Now studying journalism, he is taking a new direction with his love of GM Performance vehicles.
