Here in the UK we are used to the rain falling and the price of fuel rising at an eye-watering rate. But on the other side of the globe it is a different story. In Australia the sun shines a lot of the time and they still build their own cars, for their own market. Big ones, usually automatic, with rear-wheel drive and six-cylinders as standard, but preferably eight.
To find out what the Aussies have got to offer, and what we are missing out on, PH headed to the Australian International Motor Show, which has just begun in Darling Harbour, Sydney. There’s no better place to start than Holden, a subsidiary of GM, which had wheeled out its Coupe 60 Concept. We can’t help thinking this pillarless coupe would be a huge hit in Europe. It is a working class supercar, with a roasting 6.0-litre V8 engine and a bulging physique mounted upon a tried and tested chassis – a modern day Vauxhall Monaro perhaps.
The HSV W427 may sound like a can of counterfeit lubricant, but it is actually a four-door saloon with the 7.0-litre LS7 V8 engine from the Corvette Z06 lodged in its nose. Armed with 500bhp, it’s already hailed as Australia’s first and only supercar and at £75,000 it is priced pretty close to that territory. But with only 427 ever to be built, you’d better move quickly, or be prepared to go slightly slower in a HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer.
That name may make more sense if we think of it as a Vauxhall VXR8 estate, but either way, it’s a stylish shooting brake with a 6.2-litre V8 engine and a £35,000 price tag. It’s enough to make you wonder what is in Holden’s water, especially when they stick the same engine in a 'ute' and give it mouldings in the tailgate for a beer bottle.
Holden HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer
But if that’s all a bit ‘bogan’, or ‘chav’ to you and me, then you could still consider a hot hatch from Renault, a new IS250 convertible from Lexus, or a Toureg R50 diesel from Volkswagen. They cost roughly the same out here as they do in England, but you have to be careful. Outside the big cities, the small volume sellers struggle to service everyone with dealerships.
Subaru Impreza WRX Saloon
On Subaru’s stand was the new Impreza WRX sedan, which actually looks rather good and could be perfect for those who don’t like the look of the hatch in the UK. A lot like a Liberty from the back, you can imagine it sitting tough in blue with big wheels and some STi treatment.
Ford next, and unlike the diesels and four pots back home, the carmaker still uses V8 power here to maintain perennial warfare with Holden. However the most interesting thing on the American manufacturer’s stand was the F6. It’s still a Falcon like the GT, but whereas that has a gruff old 5.4-litre V8, the F6 has a fizz-bang turbocharged four-litre, in-line six. Similar power (around 415bhp), yet so much more torque. At £33,000, it’s a bargain. And if you need seven seats you can opt for the company’s Territory SUV, which now comes with the same engine.
Mostly affordable stuff so far then, but for those flying First Class, how about a Pagani Zonda Roadster or Koenigsegg CCX? Determined importers have tried for years to sell the two cars in Australia, finding out the hard way that for all the country’s laid-back, beach-cool personality, the local bureaucrats are cunningly ruthless, bringing down a paperwork axe on anyone wanting to give us something different. Even the Morgan next door had to have its seatbelts altered and headlights shifted. That makes things expensive. £750,000 for the Zonda, £1m for the CCX and £100,000 for the Morgan.
But bless the Australians, at least they have a go at building their own. The Bolwell Nagari is a carbon fibre two-seater coupe powered by a 3.5-litre V6 from Toyota. It’s the equivalent of Britain’s Farbio GTS but arguably not as good looking - but it was far better than the Bufori parked next to it. In the company’s own words, it is ‘an attempt at timeless nostalgic design‘, but in reality resembles the wreckage of Mr. Toad’s car, moments after the crash.
No, if it has to be Australian then hopefully, finally, Elfin has nailed it with the new T5 Clubman. Ditching the big V8s that scared so many away from their Caterham-sized cars in the past, the Melbourne company has kept it sensible with a GM sourced 265bhp 2.0-litre turbo. Around thirty grand sounds about right too.
And that’s your lot. For what it‘s worth, I’d make do with a pushbike and start saving for that 60 Coupe should Holden ever decide to make it. Or settle for a Ford F6 if it doesn‘t. Either way, it’s quite amazing that a country of 20 million people can still build its own cars for its own people. And the sun shines too.
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