SPY PICS: HSV GTS-R W1

It's with equal parts sorrow and joy that the last ever Aussie-made Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) will roll out of the company's Clayton HQ near Melbourne in 2017. And what you see here is the first sneak peek of the new models.

Posted on GMAuthority.com blog, the spy pics are a tantalising preview of what's to come from HSV.

Three new colours are just the start – shades of green, orange and grey – with the sedans and utes new front and rear fascias concealed by white tracing paper that, incidentally, appears to have been applied half-way through the HSV Christmas party.

The wheel coverings are likewise hastily added but they do the job, hiding new alloy designs effectively.

One of the vehicles in question, possibly the bright green sedan, could be the HSV GTS-R W1 first uncovered by motoring.com.au, which will be a fitting swan song for one of Australia's best-known high-performance brands.

Featuring taped-up side vents – likely required to ensure thermal harmony for its almost 500kW V8 – the car will stand out like sauce stain on a white shirt.

Propelled by Chevrolet's riotous LS9 engine, a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 transplanted from the Corvette ZR1 supercar, the HSV GTS-R W1 could bang out circa 480kW and 820Nm outputs, depending on what HSV's engine boffins do.

With the right tyres, the W1 could reliably achieve 0-100km/h acceleration times of around 4.0secs – exceedingly quick – and dispatch the quarter mile in roughly 12.0secs.

But you better call the bank manager first, because motoring.com.au understands this beast will cost more than $170,000, making it the most expensive HSV ever. And you can bet your bottom dollar it will be a limited run vehicle too, ensuring its collectible status – and high demand.

Australia's fastest production car will be equipped exclusively with a heavy-duty Tremec TR-6060 six-speed manual gearbox and the adjustable MRC dampers will be ditched in favour of Supashock dampers.

Made in Adelaide and used on the Holden Racing Team's VF Commodore race car, the Supashock units will feature advanced damper tech to withstand high-speed punishment, but unlike the rest of the 2017 HSV range fitted with MRC dampers, they will not be adjustable.

Go hard or go home, it seems.

Another chassis upgrade for the wild HSV GTS-R W1 will be AP brakes, bigger than the current 390mm whoppers on the GTS at present.

The leaked images also show what could be a new aerodynamic wing on the orange car, possibly the next Clubsport, while the red HSV Maloo ute has plenty to hide as well.

It's not crystal clear how the HSV-Holden relationship will continue post 2017, once the Commodore and its derivatives have been axed.

However Holden's chairman and managing director, Mark Bernhard, previously stated that "we continue to work very closely with HSV and on [the] vehicles that we will have with HSV in the future".

But will the next-generation German-made four- and six-cylinder "Commodore" HSVs be as wild as these vehicles? We'll know soon enough.