ABDC 2017: An ABDC of firsts… And lasts

Our coverage of Australia’s Best Driver’s Car kicks off this week. And for the first time Alfa Romeo is part of the 12-car strong field.

But there’s a ‘last’ this year too… Indeed, ABDC will be missing something of magnitude when the field is called to the startline in 2018 — an Australian-built car.

The end of local manufacturing means no more chances for local iron to strut their stuff. Ford closed last year, Holden closes this year. Toyota closes too, but sadly there’s never been a Camry or Aurion judged worthy of joining the ABDC field.

So, it’s been a roll-call of hot Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores that have driven on to the boat headed for Tassie and then performed with widely varied degrees of distinction on the challenging roads of the southern state.

Unfortunately, it’s been the blue oval beasts that have copped the raw end of the fresh water crayfish.

In 2015, the Ford Falcon XR8 rattled to a halt on day three with a busted supercharger and had to be trucked back to Hobart. In three years of ABDC it’s the only vehicle to have suffered a mechanical DNF.

The roaring Ford would have probably finished last — or close to it — in the 15-car field even if it had made it all the way to the finish. It’s ridiculously high seating positon (a common Ford curse) and agricultural ‘old school’ behaviour did not impress the ABDC judges, especially on the often-wet roads where rear-wheel drive traction proved an issue.

“Push harder and it falls away; it’s a GT rather than a sports car,” one ABDC judge commented.

But get up and running in a straight line and the 335kW/550Nm 5.0-litre Miami V8 provided an intoxicating shove in the back. That was at least some reward for watching its little brother, the Fiesta ST, disappear into the distance any time the road turned twisty.

There was another vehicle that obviously exposed the XR8 and that was the local rival in the field, the HSV GTS. Almost twice as expensive at a frag under $100,000 before on-road costs, the supercharged 6.2-litre VF Commodore-based weapon showed the difference a bigger development budget and a more comprehensive parts-bin makes.

Not only did the rumbling LSA Chevrolet V8 pump out substantially more power and torque (430kW and 740Nm) than the Falcon, it also managed it more adroitly via a better sorted chassis that included multi-mode MRC magnetorheological dampers.

And of course, underneath it (like all current generation Commodores) is the locally-developed Zeta architecture, which has proved time and again to be an excellent set of building blocks for a high-performance car.

“There’s a cohesion here that makes flowing roads satisfying: down to third, brake, hit the apex, gas it, cool…” was how one judge described it.

The GTS had its dramas though, most notably at soaking wet Baskerville where pro driver Greg Crick managed to spin (not a tough task on the day) and bog in the infield. Certainly, its tsunami of torque and rear-wheel drive made this a car that had to be sometimes managed with a bit of care.

That’s a big reason why the GTS finished only eighth in the field, well adrift of such beautifully balanced machinery as the winning Porsche Cayman GTS.

In 2016, the local contingent at ABDC grew to three. The farewell XR6 Sprint was joined by the last mainstream Commodore destined for this contest, the VF II SS-V Redline. The HSV ClubSport R8 LSA also made the field.

But it wasn’t much of a send-off for the Ford, which again finished last, albeit this time making it all the way to the end.

Armed with the awesome locally-developed 4.0-litre turbocharged I6 that made up to 370kW and 650Nm on overboost, the Sprint had the goods under the bonnet to impress anyone.

“These are enormous figures for a locally engineered six-cylinder that is the basic workhorse for all Ford Falcons today,” ABDC judge Tim Britten wrote. “And they are sufficient to provide acceleration strong enough to overwhelm the traction control system in a straight line, even at speeds above 100km/h.”

But from there things went astray.

That high seating position still gave everyone the sh1ts and despite extensive suspension tuning work and the move to Pirelli PZero tyres, the Falcon did not inspire as a driver’s car on Tassie’s winding roads.

Yet at max attack on the racetrack in the hands of Luke Youlden it showed itself to be as fast as the Redline and such exotica as the Audi RS 3 and Jaguar F-Type S.

That result wasn’t enough to save the Falcon. It was an ignominious way to go out and heavily debated by carsales readers.

The Redline proved just how good Aussie cars can be. Its combination of value and performance upstaged the more expensive and powerful HSV. Time and again judges exited the Commodore extoling its virtues.

When terms like “Australia’s best kept secret”, “soul-stirring”, “they’ve saved the best till last” and “it’s simply too good to die” are articulated by the judges of Australia’s Best Driver’s Car 2016, it’s clear the car in question has had a visceral impact.

The first Commodore with more than 300kW (albeit just over at 304kW), the Redline backed up entertaining shove with a balanced, beautiful FE3 chassis that provided great turn-in, an adjustable rear-end and a level of ride comfort that shamed some much higher-priced Europeans like BMW’s jolting BMW M4.

All this plus a brilliant V8 exhaust note and $55,000 price? No wonder the Commodore pushed its way past some highly credentialed cars to be fifth in the pecking order at ABDC 2016 and was only bested by some Euro exotica.

Among those it beat were the ClubSport, the son of GTS finishing in sixth place. An extra $25,000 for a car that didn’t handle as well at the limit as the Redline was a key issue for it. Mind you, it was still hugely enjoyable and tremendously fast courtesy of its 400kW LSA V8. So fast it was fourth quickest around Baskerville, beaten only by the BMW M2, Mercedes-AMG C 63 S and the Porsche 911 Carrera S.

Even then though, it was impossible for pro driver Luke Youlden not to rave about the slower SS-V Redline.

“It felt quicker than the SS-V, but only because of its straight-line speed,” he said.

“The HSV’s ballistic on the straights but skates and ploughs rather than grips and goes in the corners. The SS-V turns in better and it’s less stiff. This understeers too much and is nowhere near as much fun.”

And so we come to ABDC 2017 and the final appearance by an Australian-built car in this event.

And what a vehicle it is, the $170,000 HSV GTSR W1. Fitted with the thunderous 474kW/815Nm LS9 V8, running on Supashock suspension and semi-slick Pirelli Trofeo R tyres, it has already been widely hailed as the greatest Aussie muscle car of its time… And maybe all time.

It’s drawn rave reviews here and its specification list reads like it is set-up to compete in ABDC.

Could the last Aussie-built performance car be the first to triumph in ABDC? It would be a fitting way to end an era, but it’s got some incredibly tough competition to beat. All will be revealed soon.