What I wouldn't give to have £55,000 and be British. Holden's Mad Max boffins are giving British hoons the necessary weapon to head over to Germany and slay 'em some M5 and RS6. The big news is of course the big engine. Based on the 428-cubic-inch monster found stateside in the Z06, the W427 LS7 (built by Tom Walkinshaw Racing, hence the W) will put out at least 570 horsepower and 472 lb-ft of twist. We find the latter figure odd, as the Z06 comes standard with 475 lb-ft of the good stuff, but they did say, "at least." A 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds puts it in league with the AMG E63 and shaves a tenth of a second or so off an M5's sprint. Here comes the even better part — the VXR8 only comes with a 6-speed manual, in this case a Tremec TR6060. Screw flappy-paddles — we don't need 'em! Other mods include 20" wheels, an upgraded clutch, beefier limited slip-diff, monster six-piston brakes and a carbon fiber rear wing. And now to address the elephant in the living room. We have no idea if this might show up in America as the Pontiac G8 GXP. But mother of all that is holy do we hope so.
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this is a hsv that has been rebadged vauxhal. i thought you people didnt like badge engineering.
and it was anounced maybe a month ago
and i thought it was 370 Kw which is about 500 horses and also i thought the name w427 was because it was a 427 cubic inchs
i thought you people didnt like badge engineering.
Let’s settle this once and for all. Putting badges for the masses on hardware developed for the upper crust because the manufacturer needs to maximize the return on its investment? Good. Slapping a luxury badge on what is basically mass market hardware to accomplish the same end? Not so much. One approach suggests value; the other, deceit. It ain’t complicated.
Since we don’t get either brand, rebadging a Holden to a Vauxhall means nothing to people on this side of the Atlantic
Pontiac might get some serious attention if the G8 GXP carried those specs. Of course, it would inevitably be offered with a slushbox in N.A.
Those specs will never be offered here, unless the LS9 becomes the base ‘vette. Nothing can outpower the Corvette. Sorry.
What I wouldn’t give to have £55,000 and be British.
That’s just for starters. With the Brits paying about $10 a gallon and this thing probably getting about 10mpg, the odometer will be a direct count of how much money you’ve burned.
this is a hsv that has been rebadged vauxhal. i thought you people didnt like badge engineering.
It’s not badge engineering when it’s sold under a different name in a different country. If Holdens were sold alongside Vauxhalla and Pontiacs (hoping that they get this car as well) at significantly different pricces based ont eh name plate, that would be badge engineering at its worse. For years, Nissan sold cars in the US under the brand name Datsun. Does that make all of those cars badge engineered bastards?
The slightly reduced peak torque can be a side effect of a more aggressive cam that shifts the powerband higher in the RPM range.
Personally, I’d rather be American and spend $60k on the upcoming CTS-V with a stick, and a smoother, supercharged LSA V8.
@Samir Syed:
I thought the rule was that nothing could overpower the highest spec Corvette, i.e. the ZR1, which will have 620 bhp. 570 would make sense, as the G8 GT has 69 hp less than the base Corvette.
Samir Syed :
The CTS-V is going to have a lot more power than the base Vette, although it might not be any faster since it weighs more