Holden compact
concept stunner

EXCLUSIVE
by BRUCE NEWTON in France

THE Torana will be reborn in spirit when Holden reveals a
compact sedan concept car at next month’s Australian International
Motor Show in Sydney.
And the car is being touted as a potential BMW fi ghter
globally by no less than General Motors' product czar
Bob Lutz.
Mr Lutz viewed a clay rendition of the concept
during his visit to Australia last February and immediately
backed Holden plans to produce a running prototype
for Sydney.
Others who viewed the clay and gave it the thumbsup
included global engineering chief Jim Queen and
global design boss Ed Welburn.
But it is unknown whether it will be called Torana,
in honour of the compact LH-UC range that was manufactured
locally between 1974 and 1979.
That will no doubt be subjected to heavy
debate, just as reviving Monaro for the Commodore
Coupe was several years ago.
The concept car is expected to be powered
by a twin-turbo version of the new
Port Melbourne-built Alloytec V6 engine.
That engine confi guration is an obvious
pointer to a planned production turbo
Alloytec that should be used in the 2006 VE
Commodore and take on the Ford Falcon XR6
Turbo.
But a production version of the concept would more likely have
2.2-litre normally-aspirated and turbocharged four-cylinder engines, and possibly
a V6, according to GoAuto sources in the US.
The concept will sit on GM’s low-volume rear-wheel drive Kappa architecture,
which has so far yielded one production model, the Pontiac Solstice.
This in itself is a signifi cant advertisement for Holden’s engineering skill
because up until this point Kappa had only been used for left-hand drive fourcylinder
vehicles such as the Pontiac Solstice roadster.
“I encouraged that (Holden concept) direction because I think the corporation
could use a BMW 1 Series equivalent,” Mr Lutz told GoAuto in an exclusive
interview during GM’s global product seminar in southern France this week.
“From a communications standpoint, the only thing that bothers me a little bit
is we said Kappa was optimised around four-cylinder engines and you couldn’t
put a V6 engine into it, which of course was just a challenge to the Australians.”
Mr Lutz agreed the concept could form the basis for a new medium rearwheel
drive architecture that Holden would develop for the GM world, along the
same lines as the Zeta large and long wheelbase architecture.
“Of course it could,” he said. “Almost anything Holden does has potential
international applicability because they work it that way.
“And yes, if that thing really touches a nerve at the Sydney show and gets a
lot of international attention, and we get a lot of people saying ‘oh why don’t you
do that’, then we’ll take a look at it.
“Back in the old days Holden would have had to do the business case locally,
how many do they sell in Australia? The change is that now you do the worldwide
business study.
“And if Holden can say ‘hey we can sell 120,000 of these globally’, where for
the US it might be modifi ed and become a Pontiac, hey that’s fi ne.”
While Mr Lutz described the Holden concept as a 1 Series fi ghter initially, he
revised that to describing it as more of a “2 Series” sized vehicle, which suggests
something close to the size of the current 3 Series.
The BMW comparison is apt, because this project
originally emerged from the fertile mind of former
Holden managing director Peter Hanenberger, who
wanted Holden to develop a sub-Commodore sized
RWD sedan powered by four and six-cylinder engines
capable of taking on BMW’s iconic 3 Series.
Current Holden boss Denny Mooney is believed to
be an enthusiastic supporter of the concept.
Even if it ran an engineering program for a production
version of the concept, Holden would almost
certainly not build such a car itself because it has its
hands full preparing the Elizabeth assembly plant for
the arrival of the Zeta-based VE Commodore in 2006.
Currently, all Kappa-based production comes out of
GM’s Wilmington, Delaware, plant.

“From a communications standpoint, the only thing that bothers me a little bit
is we said Kappa was optimised around four-cylinder engines and you couldn’t
put a V6 engine into it, which of course was just a challenge to the Australians.”
Mr Lutz agreed the concept could form the basis for a new medium rearwheel
drive architecture that Holden would develop for the GM world, along the
same lines as the Zeta large and long wheelbase architecture.