When is HSV's Anniversary?

After previously announcing its Anniversary models in five-year intervals from 1988, HSV took the unusual step in October of linking its latest 20th Anniversary ClubSport to events in 1987. Just which year and date did HSV start? And does it mean the really wild 20th Anniversary models hinted at over the last year are still to come?

According to Scott Grant, HSV's Managing Director: "The birth of HSV and the reveal of the very first VL Group A SS Commodore -- commonly referred to as the 'Walkinshaw' -- took place at the 1987 Sydney Motor Show."

True or False?

The truth is there wasn't a single production spec VL Group A Walkinshaw in existence at that time. However, Sydney Show visitors in October 1987 were confronted with a giant billboard with a full size rendering of the coming Group A. While it was not quite to final specification, it was close enough.

Just as interesting to show visitors was the pre-production version of the new Group A racing engine, Holden's first V8 with fuel-injection. It was capped with a cutaway plenum chamber showing the huge induction trumpets and twin throttle bodies and was a work of art for 1987. A lone example of HSV's new wheel design was also on view.

At this point, the plot thickens, massively.

The contract between TWR and Holden wasn't signed until October 15, 1987. This might explain why the huge motor show billboard also carried the HSV logo and bold Holden Special Vehicles lettering as a graphic backdrop for Holden's then managing director Chuck Chapman and TWR principal and namesake, Tom Walkinshaw, to announce their new joint venture, Holden Special Vehicles.

But how could they depict a production ready car, wheel and engine when the ink on the contract had barely hit the paper, let alone dried?

The truth is that the Walkinshaw Group A was NOT conceived as an HSV model and could just as easily have been a Brock car. Enter John Lindell, the now retired head of the Holden Motor Sport Group who sent Tom Walkinshaw two plane loads of VL parts for assessment of the VL's development potential. This was in late 1986.

TWR's preliminary aerodynamic work won Walkinshaw a purchase order to continue. Lindell realised that the red HDT VL Group A would need a major update to stay competitive and knew that the Holden Engine Company would soon want an export showcase for its advanced fuel-injected V8 engine.

By July 1987, TWR's development work was completed. Under any other circumstances, Holden would have then contracted Brock-HDT to build the road car version, market it and race it. It was no different to any other SS Group A which had to be signed-off and finalised within Holden before HDT could build it.

After the Brock-Holden relationship imploded, TWR (not HSV) was then asked to build the second VL Group A for Holden.

Former HDT operations manager and racing driver John Harvey was appointed as TWR's first Australian employee on the ground in May 1987. He had to find a local factory for TWR fast to build the required 500 road cars for homologation based on this second VL Group A race car. Holden wanted this new Group A by November 1987.

It is especially significant that this second VL Group A was still a Holden VL Commodore SS Group A as Group A regulations required it to be a variation of a high-volume Holden Commodore SS.

In the meantime, the GM head office motorsport ban was lifted allowing Holden to participate in full view. Tenders were let out officially in May 1987 for a more extensive shared engineering base, motor racing and special road vehicle operation. History records that TWR won the contract out of nine submissions -- hence the October 15, 1987 agreement.

Harvey's Notting Hill assembly plant had to be suddenly transformed into one of the ritziest corporate headquarters in Australia, Holden executive John Crennan was reportedly recruited at the 1987 Adelaide Grand Prix as HSV's founding Managing Director and the official opening of HSV was declared on February 17, 1988.

As for HSV's first car, the details are murkier. All Modern Motor magazine could reveal in November 1987 were Group A drawings even further removed from the Sydney Motor Show rendering. All Wheels could show in December 1987 was a raw clay rendering of the finished product and HEC's wild VL Berlina development hack (it was burgundy and registered CZK 449) with its mad offset bonnet bulge and Momo alloys.

Production was delayed because TWR's elaborate body additions challenged local suppliers... But not for the 'official' reasons given. Holden's antiquated build processes were delivering VL bodies that varied in critical dimensions by centimetres when TWR's aero parts were designed to close up all the gaps. By the time this was sorted and Holden's Group A delivery obligations were met, HSV couldn't build the first model of its own until May 1988.

The SV88 that resulted was an enhanced VL Calais with HSV alloys and used up the last V8 carburettor parts originally intended for various Brock models. The car's big claim to fame was Australia's first onboard car phone and fax option, a big clunky box emblazoned with SV88 stickers.

HSV can therefore legitimately draw on its October 1987 contract date with Holden, its February 1988 factory opening and the May 1988 release of the first HSV model in determining it's 20th Anniversary milestone.

With such a wide time frame with which to operate, there's no doubt we'll see an ongoing rollout of special 20th Anniversary models in the year to come

HSV's Previous Anniversary Models

February 1993: Special Fifth Anniversary batch of 140 Galaxy Blue/Panorama Silver cars including: 65 ClubSports, 40 Senators, 15 Maloos, 15 Statesman and five Sport Wagons.

February 1998: 10th Anniversary build of 10 Bronze examples each of VT XU6 and Senator Signature; plus 10th Anniversay update of the VSII Maloo.

September 1998: 10th Anniversary build (104 autos, 70 manuals) of VT ClubSport in Bronze, Red and Blue.

May 2002: 15th Anniversary build of 105 VXII ClubSport, 45 VXII ClubSport R8, 25 VUII Maloo.