Walkinshaw looks beyond GM

The engineering and design company best known for developing hotted up Commodore V8s under the Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) banner will soon be openly promoted as a tuning partner by other car brands.

The Walkinshaw Group, the family-owned company that has carved out a tidy business modifying Commodores for the last 27 years, is diversifying as it prepares for 2017 and the end of local manufacturing by Holden.

It already has established a local distribution agreement with Tata and has performed design work for the Indian giant.

But group chairman Ryan Walkinshaw told motoring.com.au the company was currently performing more than a dozen engineering and design projects for more than five brands out of its Melbourne headquarters.

“Obviously we want the HSV brand to continue and that is an absolute priority for us,” he said. “But we also are opening doors to expanding what we do with the Walkinshaw Group as a front and centre name with other manufacturers.”

Walkinshaw said the group’s association with high performance through HSV and its racing efforts – it runs the factory-backed Holden Racing Team in V8 Supercars – meant some of those brands were keen to promote the association publicly.

“I am sure some manufacturers would like to use the Walkinshaw name on the car to elevate the products a little bit,” said Walkinshaw. “We have got a lot of value and respect and credibility for what we do in road cars and for racing.

“So I am sure there are some brands who will want to use that name and others who will want us to be silent partners and for them to take the credit for the work that is done.

“We have no issues with that; it depends on the business model of the manufacturer we are working with.”

While Walkinshaw was unwilling to name names, it is understood that at least one brand in the Australian market is developing higher performance models with Walkinshaw assistance, and is planning to promote the association publicly.

Through all this, Walkinshaw made clear the group remains committed to the future of HSV beyond the death of Commodore. But clearly the situation is fluid because there are so many question marks over Holden’s future product plans.

“How that (HSV) evolves in the future is going to be defined by the nature of the products we end up producing here in Australia and whether that has got to be got away from exactly what Holden want to do and how they want to do it,” he said.

“I can’t say any more either way because we don’t talk about any future products.”

While it will still potentially offer right-hand drive V8 models to the Australian market via the new Camaro that launches in North America in 2015 and maybe even a next-gen Chevrolet SS sedan replacement for the Commodore – if it gets off the drawing board – beyond 2017, Walkinshaw acknowledged HSV has to adapt to the new circumstances by potentially expanding into four- and six-cylinder and all-wheel drive models.

HSV will also face more internal competition from Holden as it launches a range of Opel products in Australia in the next few years, including highly tuned OPC models. Walkinshaw is confident HSV could improve even those models.

He was prepared to reveal the groups’ relationship with General Motors now extended further than Holden and HSV. In the recent past, a Chevrolet Special vehicles concept has been mooted.

“We have had some very good meetings with GM on some other projects we can do for them as well. Obviously it is all confidential and I can’t go into any detail but it is looking very exciting for us at the moment.

“We have completely changed our business model away from being Commodore-centric, to being open to doing everything, which is very, very good for the team here.”

The development of the Walkinshaw Group as an engineering and design house for multiple manufacturers emulates what Ryan’s father Tom achieved with TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

It has been both a business and emotional imperative for Ryan to follow in his late father’s footsteps.

“We have got more than just HSV, we have the Walkinshaw Group brand that we are going to put more front and centre in our engineering work, which is the nature of what we are doing,” he said.

“This is quite an exciting prospect for us. This is what we should have been doing a long time ago. It’s what my dad did with TWR. It gives us some ownership of our own engineering and design brand.”