Torana not dead: just wearing a different badge?

Opinion

Is Holden's mid-sized rear-wheel drive program really dead? Not if you believe the news coming out of the USA at the moment...

GM product boss Bob Lutz is feeding the US automotive 'chooks' with quotes suggesting Cadillac has two medium/small rear-wheel drive products under development. The suggestion is that the products will, respectively, replace the Saab-based current Caddy BLS mid-sizer and debut as a smaller 1 Series type competitor.

US website Edmunds.com has quoted Lutz as confirming the small car and stating that it makes no sense to cut down an existing large car chassis with which to underpin the new products. Further its writers highlight the logic of Caddy adopting a 3 Series/ 1 Series parts sharing strategy

So does this mean Holden's so-called 'Torana' project is in the frame? Potentially...

Holden sources CarPoint has quizzed since the launch of the VE have been very careful with their comments regards the platform. Ask them if there's going to be a new Torana and they'll say no. Ask them if Holden is still working on a mid-size platform and they change the subject, talk about the weather or rush away to answer previously silent mobile phones...

It's been thought by many that any hope of the RWD medium Holden seeing the light of day retired along with former company boss, Peter Hanenberger. But as we've written here before, there seems little doubt the Torana Concept TT36 (pictured) displayed at the Sydney show in 2004 progressed a ways down the track further than Holden would currently like to admit.

It's likely the car went to at least the stage of mathematical modeling, some sources say the car was a fully functional prototype. In fact, it's claimed the car was commissioned in part by Aussie then-Vauxhall boss, Kevin Wale. Wale was after a cut-price 3 Series with which to 're-invent' the UK arm of GM. A high-risk project, the 'Torana' was killed off by GM's financial woes and downgraded to a spiced up showcar.

In the cold hard light of 2006, if such a rear-wheel drive platform is still to be part of GM's global product mix then make no mistake, Holden's designers and engineers are the ones that are working on it. And if GM is to underpin it's resurgence with great product, why wouldn't Lutz be calling for a near-premium rear-wheel drive midsizer.

BMW, Benz and Lexus are the only mainstream brands to successfully sell a rear-wheel drive mid-size car. Each of the marque's applicable models are stand-out performers in terms of dynamics and sales success.

A mid-size RWD car would give Cadillac the wherewithal to take on these premium marques on their home turf. In emerging markets, like China, it would give the GM products an entrée above and beyond the conventional front-wheel drives.

In a 'dumbed-down' form the car would be the perfect 'small' Holden for SE Asia and markets like India. In such a form, the platform would also allow GM's near-premium marques to differentiate themselves from the largely Korean-sourced 'me-too' models.

More to the point for local consumers, it would deliver Holden another potential export product and, locally, a real opportunity to cut through the static and present a fresh product paradigm to the current buyers of Japanese and Euro front-wheel drive medium cars.