W427 on sale

[T-Pak Addict]

yeah it wouldnt be a V8..... stop thinking its the 70's

anything is possible, just a question of dollars..
Being the Ford fans we are, who would laugh at a 6 wipeing the floor of a Holden V8????

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by AU Falcon 99

yeah it wouldnt be a V8..... stop thinking its the 70's

anything is possible, just a question of dollars..
Being the Ford fans we are, who would laugh at a 6 wipeing the floor of a Holden V8????

It could be done, but my bet is there's allot more people out there prepared to spend 155K on a hot Aussie V8 (insert brand here) than 155K on a hot aussie (insert brand here) Turbo 6...

[b2tf]

About the only thing I dont like about this car are the wheels. HSV have done a brilliant job making it a reality.

[Falc'man]

Originally Posted by CSV_LS1

At least it has paved the way for FPV to possibly follow their lead with something special. FPV would be too scared to ask for that sort of money on one of their cars without having someone else testing the waters.

I must agree. Unfortunately though Barrett has already limited FPV's scope
by announcing how FPV's "halo" car wouldn't sell for anything near that. He's
working off a budget, limiting this "HO's" engineering content, and not showing
any faith in FG's superiority to VE. In other words he is saying a VE can be worth
155 but not an FG. He's silly as this W has just proven it can sell for what he
thinks is too much to pay, thus putting himself in a corner.

Guys, regardless of what you think about it's "over-the-top" pricing, HSV have
proven (so far) to have made the correct move. It is selling. End of story. As
CSV_LS1 has stated, it's also paved the way for FPV to deliver the same... to a
degree.

[Falcon Coupe]

Originally Posted by b2tf

About the only thing I dont like about this car are the wheels. HSV have done a brilliant job making it a reality.

You may pick up a set, most commies i see only use the front two. :

[b2tf]

Originally Posted by Falcon Coupe

You may pick up a set, most commies i see only use the front two. :

20 inch burnout tyres are hella expensive bro

[da_ilks]

No surprise to see a bunch of people say 'why would you drop $155k on a Commodore' yet if FPV/Ford released something similar they'd be drooling all over it like their first Playboy.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

It could be done, but my bet is there's allot more people out there prepared to spend 155K on a hot Aussie V8 (insert brand here) than 155K on a hot aussie (insert brand here) Turbo 6...

The F6 and XR6T have already proven their weight in gold and I can't see why they can't use the 6T engine for a premium performance sedan.

[Rodp]

The bias shines through. It's a Holden, only a cashed up bogan would buy one. Had it been a Ford...

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

The F6 and XR6T have already proven their weight in gold and I can't see why they can't use the 6T engine for a premium performance sedan.

Like i said it could be done.... but the demographic for a hot V8 is slightly different to that of the T6...
IMO there isnt anywhere near the amount of buyers with 155K to spend on a special T6 as there is on a N/A hot V8....

Its already well proven with FPV sales going 2:1 V8 to I6T...

[XD 351 Ute]

In these days of automotive washing machines, it's good to see an Australian version of something special.
Granted the styling is a bit out there for me, but the figures speak for themselves...
Will we see a Ford equivalent or better?
Maybe from overseas, but I doubt Ford Aus will.
I am happy to be proven wrong though!

Ed

[gcg2503]

Originally Posted by Darkr

For all that power the 0-100 time seems disappointing :(

A 6L VZ clubby is like 0-100 in 5.5.

Great car, but I don't think its worth 155k, almost get a Lambo for that

The front half of the Lambo without the engine surely?

Originally Posted by Wally

being able to afford spending $155k on a car is not a sign of stupidity or foolishness.

Only 427 of them are being made, so apart from the thrill. it may just be something that j curves into a handy profit down the track.

Exactly. You buy one of these babies, prep it and put it away in storage. I'd say your storage money would well and truly have been paid back in 20 years.

Not a risk I'd be willing to take.

Is it just me or do people on this forum hate Holdens just for being Holdens. Fair enough if you have good reasons, but coming up with reasons just because it's a Holden is pathetic.

Give credit where it's due. It's an awesome car, that people are more than willing to pay $155k for. Isn't that what determines the price of a car?

I couldn't sell my stockish XR8 for $100k, because people aren't willing to pay it. The amount of cash someone is willing to fork over, determines the value of the car or the value of the USD for that matter.

For all the people going on about the stupid price, I personally find the GTHO price much more ridiculous. But fair enough if people are willing to pay it, that's what it must be valued at.

Nice job by Holden. It would be great if Ford had a rhetort to it. It would be in this true competitive spirit that the quality of automobiles in this country are improved.

OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE

[4Vman]

ANYONE who buys a car like this just to store away on the off chance it will appreciate in value has rocks in their heads and a fool as a financial advisor.. these cars scream drive me.. They're built to drive and enjoy now.

[Falc'man]

Originally Posted by Shounak

OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE

Pot meet kettle! A fair few here have commended HSV.

[Mick K.]

In these days of the news covering the combination of global warming and rising petrol prices, the Holden PR team have done a great job to get a minute or two on the 6:00 news. Even if Ford did put together a "special" such as a GTHO, I'm sure Ford PR / marketing would screw it up :(.

MK

Originally Posted by Falc'man

Pot meet kettle! A fair few here have commended HSV.

I'm not saying everyone on this forum. I'm talking about the ones who do.

And yes, they exist.

[vanman_75]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

ANYONE who buys a car like this just to store away on the off chance it will appreciate in value has rocks in their heads and a fool as a financial advisor.. these cars scream drive me.. They're built to drive and enjoy now.

and you will agree that the xygtho was too... they are out there

good on em sorta wish we had our own version but :

[CAMS290]

Awesome piece of gear, good onya HSV, but keep it as a 1 off special and dont do what you did to the people that paid $90k for the priveledge of having a limited edition 300 kw GTS, and then offer the motor in every other model forcing their so called exclusiveness out the window

[Krakey]

hmmm 7litre commodore or 4 door m3 or c63 amg for 15k cheaper.........hard choice cough cough

Krakey

[Windsor220]

It will be interesting to see what performance the media get out of these. The problem is if they are only a bit quicker than the other HSVs in the range then what happens when the time comes to upgrade the R8/GTS? Performance will be almost lineball but with a $70k price gap. It might stop HSV from being able to upgrade the other models.

[Falcon Coupe]

The media have already got hold of one, does not give the source but.

From LS1.com:

http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=102898

THE seven-year gestation period of Australia’s first 7.0-litre supercar has given it almost mythical status and our first experience of HSV’s final production car this week proves that the driving experience at least matches the hype.

Putting the mighty HSV W427 through its paces both on the road and the race track revealed a car with the heart of a lion and the temperament of a pussycat.

In the hands of Mark Skaife, even on a desperately slippery Calder Raceway, the W427 feels and goes like a race car, yet it is can also be so docile and well-mannered that you would have no problem letting your mum drive it down the shop for a litre of milk.

This is an impressive achievement and reflects the growing maturity of Holden Special Vehicles – appropriate given that the company recently celebrated its 20th birthday.

In another time, HSV may have gone hardcore and matched the mighty LS7 engine with a suspension that sat flat on the track but rattled the fillings in your teeth, along with brakes, steering and clutch to suit. It might have been a wild weapon with a menacing edge, but perhaps not something you would want to drive every day.

No doubt many buyers will simply park their W427s and hope that in a couple of decades they will have an investment to match the Falcon GTHO Phase 3, but that would be a waste of a great car – and probably a dubious financial choice as well.

What HSV has done is produce a car that ostensibly celebrates the company’s original model, the race homologation Group A special known to everyone as ‘the Walkinshaw’ – hence the ‘W’ in W427 – but it’s the differences more than the similarities that distinguish the 21st century version.

Whereas the Walkinshaw was a lumpy, overt, impractical and difficult beast, the W427 is exactly what a modern-day supercar ought to be, blending useability with red-hot performance.

HSV first dabbled with a 7.0-litre engine early in the decade and built a few Monaro-based HRT 427 models, mainly for racing, but could not present a sufficiently good business case to put it into production and the project was abandoned.

Legend now tells how the project was revived a few years ago when Holden boss Denny Mooney met HSV owner Tom Walkinshaw in a bar and suggested he could access supply of the Chevrolet LS7 7.0-litre engine out of Detroit, and wouldn’t that make for a really special model to celebrate HSV’s 20th anniversary?

Now here we are, sitting behind the wheel of the fastest and most powerful local supercar ever launched onto Australian roads, one of only 90 that will be built this year, with production never to exceed 427 units.

Hand-built in the US and dropped into the W427 in a dedicated area at HSV’s Clayton plant, the locally-calibrated LS7 engine has an exact capacity of 7008cc and pumps out some 375kW of power (500 horsepower in imperial land) at 6500rpm and 640Nm of torque at 5000rpm running on 98 RON premium fuel.

There is simply too much power for an automatic transmission, so the W427 comes only with a six-speed Tremec TR6060 manual gearbox, which features two overdrive gears and slots through with little fuss once you get used to it.

More impressive is the lightness and feel of the clutch, thanks to HSV’s revised actuator system that increases the leverage for that very reason. We didn’t drive the car around town, but reckon it would be a breeze, even in stop-start traffic.

Put your foot down and the W427 leaps into life with an expected urgency, and the power delivery is very linear from the mid-range, with no sudden peak in the torque curve, making it all feel very controllable, without the risk of a sudden traction-breaking surge mid-corner.

It certainly makes light work of the car’s considerable weight, which at 1874kg is 45kg more than a ClubSport R8 and 30kg more than both the GTS and Senator – all of which use the 6.2-litre LS3 engine that develops 317kW and 550Nm.

HSV does not produce official performance figures, but chief engineer Joel Stoddart said that a 0-100km/h time of about 4.7 seconds has been recorded, making it at least three-quarters of a second faster than its manual-equipped siblings, if not quite into European supercar territory. The standing 400-metre time is said to be just under 13 seconds.

From the outside, the car sounds great when revved hard thanks to active bi-modal rear mufflers (which are needed to meet idle and drive-by noise requirements) while inside it is still pleasing but more muffled than many hardcore HSV enthusiasts would prefer, and is accompanied by a notable level of induction sound.

Fourteen months of stability control calibration work has resulted in an ESC system that is well-matched to the car and non-interventional, allowing a healthy amount of throttle oversteer without being over-nannied while still providing a comforting backstop.

There is enormous grip available from the big tyres and the wet roads revealed a progressive breakaway that is easy to control, while the massive new brakes – featuring six-pot front callipers for the first time in an HSV car – provide the sort of stopping power required, but with a commendable level of feel.

What really surprised was the ride quality, which we were not expecting from a car like this running on 20 inch-wheels (8.0-inch wide at the front and some 9.5-inch at the rear) with low-profile performance tyres (35-series front, 30-series rear), let alone one that rides 20mm lower than a GTS and with 30 per stiffer springs and shock absorbers all round.

Revised calibration of HSV’s familiar magnetic ride control (MRC) suspension has endeared the W427 with remarkably good manners over all but the sharpest of bumps, even when the dash-mounted ‘Track’ button has been selected for ultimate handling performance.

Frankly, it felt more compliant that some European cars with half the performance capability and underscores the W427’s unexpected daily drive credentials.

The steering was also an admirable blend of feel and lightness, although the wheel itself is rather on the thick and hard side, lacking the quality feel you might expect at this price level.

And that brings us to the elephant sitting in the room – the price.

This is by far the most expensive car to ever wear an HSV badge, let alone a Holden badge, and $155,500 can buy a lot of car elsewhere. Just for starters, there’s the incredible BMW M3, which is just as quick and comes with a frankly incomparable level of mechanical sophistication and interior refinement.

Can any Commodore-based car really be worth that sort of money? Of course not, but we suspect that does not matter a jot to potential buyers who simply want the meanest, fastest Holden ever built and probably hope that the original purchase price will ultimately represent a good investment.

Real estate or even a term deposit would probably be more effective, but where’s the fun in that?

HSV buyers have become increasingly affluent over the past 20 years and perhaps still may not want to be seen driving an M3, but it will be interesting to see how they will respond to a car that is almost double the price of the GTS that previously topped the HSV range.

Even with limited supply, pushing the price envelope that far could be a challenge.

It might be easier to justify if there was a real ‘wow factor’ with the interior and exterior treatments, but the W427 really looks like a regular HSV model with a few new enhancements.

The big style statements are the wheels (with a ‘castellated’ design graphic that extends to the exhaust tips and the W427 badge), the low-key carbon fibre-look rear spoiler and a red interior (which has polarised opinion, with our view leaning to the negative). HSV talks of a “unique face” for the W427, but only its aficionados will spot the subtle differences.

Inside, you get well-bolstered but quite wide bucket seats and some nice glossy ‘technical cubic’ detail finishes on both the dash and steering wheel, but there remain many familiar HSV components and Commodore giveaways that prevent the W427 from feeling as special as it deserves.

There is no question that the W427 is a high-water mark in HSV’s history – the car they always wanted to build, they tell us – and also a performance, driving and engineering benchmark.

But it massively breaks a Holden/HSV price barrier and, if it succeeds on that front, will go down as a marketing benchmark as well.

[Windsor220]

4.7 seconds which is atleast 0.75 seconds quicker than the R8? Ummm thats wrong. 4.9 is there official claim for the R8.

[Daymoe]

I have to commend them on a job well done, but was it really necessary to use a 7L V8 engine? What about a TT configuration or something on a smaller engine?

[SSbaby]

It also paves the way for something even wilder (I recall reading)... like a 6.2L S/C (LSA or LS9) engine that is available to HSV. The W427's dry-sumping would allow a straight forward install of the LS9 if HSV so choose to head that way.

[futura888]

Well done hsv,for having the balls to go where no ford australia car would dare to go,while it may not be a looker(in my opinion),this thing would put a rocket up any euro sedan they have to offer and judging by demand,it will sell heaps.

lift your game ford oz,your respectable image is crap...just have a look at the ads :togo:

[SSbaby]

Didn't Barret say he wants a GTHO? Well now's the perfect chance... once the new Hurricane/Boss V8 arrives... or even build a wild 'F6R'?

[pitpal]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Like i said it could be done.... but the demographic for a hot V8 is slightly different to that of the T6...
IMO there isnt anywhere near the amount of buyers with 155K to spend on a special T6 as there is on a N/A hot V8....

Its already well proven with FPV sales going 2:1 V8 to I6T...

Forget the b series. The g series has changed that. The F6 is line ball, if not outselling the v8's

[SBR_1]

i want one :(

[Auslandau]

Good on Holden to have the balls to do it .... very risky and looks like they will pull it off. Best thing to come out of this will be FORDS counterpunch (PLEASE Ford ) Here hoping!

Originally Posted by Shounak

Is it just me or do people on this forum hate Holdens just for being Holdens. Fair enough if you have good reasons, but coming up with reasons just because it's a Holden is pathetic.

Give credit where it's due. It's an awesome car, that people are more than willing to pay $155k for. Isn't that what determines the price of a car?

OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE

Opinions of this car will come think and fast and for all various reasons ...... one being 'Its a Holden'. I go on the side which has a saying that includes polishing turds. If some dont agree with your opinion, or reasons behind it, doesnt make others wrong!

Yep, dont like it because of what it is, not caring how great it may be. Would love to drive one but never would I own one. Its a Holden! Because of that fact, I will not be told to like it because I should? I will only respect what they have had the guts to do and force the oppostion to get off there bum!

Cant wait to see the first VT with a W427 plastic bits applied with cable ties.



| [/url] |