Exclusive: Camaro and Corvette for Oz

Holden V8 fans rejoice: General Motors looks likely to offer not one but two big-bore performance coupes Down Under after the homegrown Commodore SS is killed off this year.

After years of being denied official access to Chevrolet’s brawny Camaro muscle-car and iconic Corvette supercar, Australians should eventually be able to purchase both American sports cars from their local Holden dealer.

While next year’s all-new, mid-engined Corvette is expected to come here thanks to a factory right-hand drive program, the arrival of the Camaro is being driven by Holden Special Vehicles owner, the Walkinshaw Group.

Facing the loss of HSV’s primary income stream when Holden’s locally-developed and manufactured Commodore ceases production in October, Walkinshaw Group boss Ryan Walkinshaw and his chief lieutenant HSV boss Tim Jackson have doubled down on their efforts to gain GM backing for an Australian right-hand drive Camaro conversion project.

GM global development boss, former Holden chief Mark Reuss, is said to be a fan of the project. Holden is aware of the plan and has given it tacit approval, if not any strong support.

News of the Camaro deal has emerged from HSV and Holden dealers, giving them a boost with the next imported Commodore to eschew both V8 and rear-wheel drive.

Although HSV is refusing to comment on the V8 offensive, an official announcement is expected within weeks.

Holden spokesperson Sean Poppitt told motoring.com.au cryptically: “There’s plenty of exciting products, including the top-secret sports-car, coming at us but I’m not in a position to comment.”

The Corvette fulfills a ‘promise’ made to Holden enthusiasts that the company would offer a V8 rear-drive model in the long term. Converting Camaro, on the other hand, is part of a wide-reaching Walkinshaw Group plan to keep its GM and Holden relationship profitable and healthy and the HSV badge relevant.

HSV is also working on a Colorado in the same vein as the ZR2 high-performance off-roader that’s been revealed in the USA this year.

It’s also planning some mild upgrades to the imported 2018 Commodore and is said to be checking out the Chevy Silverado pick-up as another local RHD candidate alongside the Camaro and its ASV RAM conversion business.

According to motoring.com.au sources, the Camaro plan is focused on a sub-$90,000 entry-price for a high-spec version of the Camaro SS coupe.

Also available as a convertible in the US, Chevrolet's Camaro SS is currently powered not by the 6.2-litre LS3 V8 found the last of Holden’s Australian-made SS Commodores, but by GM's newer direct-injection 6.2 LT1 V8 from the C7 Corvette Stingray, featuring variable valve timing and Active Fuel Management.

That circa-$88K price tag is a lot more than the $57,490 entry price of a Ford Mustang GT V8 coupe and about $33,000 more than the soon-to-be-defunct Commodore performance flagship, the SS-V Redline.

But this will be the cheapest V8 option on offer for GM fans post-October, after which the German-made Commodore line-up will be topped by a 235kW/381Nm V6 all-wheel drive model called the VXR.

The Camaro will also seriously undercut the ‘C8’ Corvette, which is expected to be priced at around $200,000 when it turns up in Australia.

So why can’t Walkinshaw match the Mustang on price? Economy of scale is one thing. The Mustang is built in right-hand drive in the US factory and exported globally to RHD markets.

It’s proved a massive success in Australia, giving Ford performance fans a replacement for the Falcon and easily leading the local sports-car market with 5048 sold so far in 2017 (YTD June).

GM, Holden and HSV have all watched on with a mix of jealousy and puzzlement at Ford’s success, unable to figure out how the Mustang program can make money.

GM and Holden’s inability to make the sums add up has presented the opportunity to Walkinshaw Group, which prides itself on its ability to extract maximum bang from its engineering and design buck.

Walkinshaw Group intends to convert the sixth-generation Camaro locally at the new facility it will soon move into in Clayton, utilising the expertise it has garnered from its RAM pick-up program, allied with its GM product knowledge.

Official backing from GM is critical to the business case for conversion of Camaro as it will mean a discounted purchase price for the car for Walkinshaw.

Otherwise it would have to buy them from US dealers and sell a handful for $140,000-plus, as Queensland converter Performax and others did with the previous, Zeta-generation Camaro, and other converters currently do with both the Camaro and Corvette.

Motoring.com.au believes the conversion process will be based on the facelifted MY19 Camaro that we scooped in June.

As well as the Camaro SS, Walkinshaw may also convert the supercharged 6.2-litre ZL1 and also offer the 1LE track pack.

There’s chat of the legendary Z/28 badge making a comeback at the midlife update and that surely would be a motza for RHD.

It’s a similar story for the eighth-generation Corvette, the design of which is currently being overseen by Australian, Mike Simcoe.

The first mid-engined and first global Corvette, the C8 is also due on sale in the US late next year as a 2019 model.

Like the Camaro, that makes the Corvette likely to be available here within two years, which would see Holden keep its promise that a new V8 sports car will be among 24 new models released between 2015 and 2020.