Holden

One of the best looking cars to ever surface from Australia has to be the Holden Torana GTR-X. Designed to be a low-production sports car for the 1970 model year, the two-seater had a sublime long-nose, a short-tail design that would have been in good company with the Chevy Corvette, Datsun Fairlady/Z, and the Mazda RX-7.

Holden showed of the beautiful Holden Torana GTR-X concept car in 1970, but the Australian car company first created the Holden Hurricane, a concept car that debuted in 1969. The experimental car was Holden’s first concept car and had a distinctive wedge shape with a total height of just 38 inches.

While most automotive concepts look forward to the future, or at most embrace a few key design attributes of classic cars, this unusual concept car from GM’s Australian Holden division was almost entirely a retro-style hot rod.

Last year at about this same time, we talked a bit about the final Holden Commodore-based HSV that would pack the blown 7.0-liter LS9 V8 out of the last generation Corvette ZR1. At the time, we thought the car might sell for around 100,000 Australian Dollars (about $76,000 USD).

Back in August, I mentioned that rumors were swirling that Holden would cram a supercharged 638 hp V8 from the Corvette ZR-1 under the hood of its final hopped up Commodore. The catch with this final Commodore is that it will be a very limited edition.

We already know that the Holden Australia plant is slated for shutdown at some point in 2017. I think that’s a shame, because they produce some seriously badass cars. One such vehicle is the Commodore, which currently shares its platform with the Chevrolet SS.

Of all the cars available around the world that we can’t get here in the U.S., the one I have always wanted most was a Holden Commodore. Sure, we’ve got the Americanized Chevy SS, but I wanted the real deal.

Using a six-year-old’s logic, the Chevrolet El Camino is clearly the coolest car ever. The six-year-old in question is Rafael Barkan, and he really wants GM to make a new El Camino. “He first saw an El Camino at the Autry Museum’s Route 66 exhibit last summer,” says the boy’s dad and he “instantly fell in love with the El Camino, because ‘it’s a muscle car AND a truck.'”

While Australia’s Holden plant is expected to shut down in 2017, they still have a few good cars rolling off the assembly line – not the least of which is the insane HSV Maloo GTS – a pimped-out utility wagon (or “ute” as they call them down under.)

Holden Special Vehicles pushes the limits of what can be done with a Ute with the ultimate performance, limited edition Holden GTS Maloo. With bold styling all around and a giant 6.2-liter supercharged LSA V8 engine under the hood.

Australian aftermarket tuning specialists Walkinshaw Performance builds some pretty amazing versions of the Holden Commodore and they’ve just released the specs are the latest performance-modded version, the Racing Edition. The package is available for all VF and VE series Commodores, but will be limited to just 50 units.

The 1999 Holden Barina isn’t the sort of car collectors are champing at the bit to add to their garages. But David Johns isn’t just any Barina owner – he’s also Ad Director for the  Ad Agency Chimney.

GM’s Australian Holden assembly plant may be on its way out in 2017, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still push out a few more quality cars before it stops production. Case in point, the new Vauxhall VXR8 GTS, targeted for sale in the UK.