HSV veterans want to build a supercar

The people that brought us generations of homegrown Holden Special Vehicles muscle cars have thrown their support behind the design and production of an Australian-built supercar to rival the Lamborghini Huracan and Chevrolet Corvette.

Four years after reaching the dizzying heights of the HSV GTSR W1 – Australia’s fastest and most powerful production car – a senior designer and engineer from the Walkinshaw Automotive Group have told

All that is needed to press ahead with the would-be Aussie supercar is a cashed-up investor.

Illustrations obtained by Torquecafe hint at the level of performance and engineering Walkinshaw could throw behind such a plan.

“That would be my dream,” said Walkinshaw Automotive Group designer Julian Quincey.

“Obviously we have a design facility, we’ve got an engineering facility, we’ve got the people and we’ve got the skills. Basically this could open up the doors to work with anyone that has a dream – we could deliver [it].”

In the wake of Holden’s shutdown, Walkinshaw has undertaken a transformational step-change with its successful RAM and Chevrolet pick-up conversion businesses, caravan business and, more recently, a deal with Volkswagen Australia to produce the VW Amarok W580.

Although most of those businesses take a base product and modify it to make it better – as HSV did for years with Holden donor cars – WAG chassis engineer David Kermond told Torquecafe the Clayton outfit had the resources to build a vehicle from the ground up if a willing suitor was to present itself.

“It’s almost a turn-key facility,” Kermond said of the company’s Melbourne HQ. “You say ‘we want this’ and we can turn this on, create a prototype and develop it and sell it.

“Our test facility is one of the best in the southern hemisphere when it comes to testing labs, rig testing. We can do anything in that regard; seat belt pull tests, cab pull tests, durability tests.

“We can scan road surfaces and play that back into the car in the workshop and make changes on-the-fly in the workshop before we head out to real-world testing.”

The notion of an Australian-built supercar isn’t as far-fetched as you might imagine. Brabham’s otherworldly-fast BT62 is a perfect demonstration of our continued performance capability.

However, like the $1.8 million Brabham BT62, any direct rival from Walkinshaw would likely be limited to a privileged few on the basis of cost and production constraints.

What do you think? Is a homegrown Walkinshaw supercar likely to eventuate or is it just vapourware?

Images: Torquecafe