HSV factory visit.
Discussion
I have just returned from a wirlwind visit to Melbourne so while there I was lucky enough to visit the hsv factory at Clayton
I had hoped to arrange the trip myself,but to my good luck A god son of one of my relatives works there. So a tour was duly arranged.
I arrived on last thursday morning to meet my guide in reception, but it took me about 20 mins to get over the carpark, just all the Maloo's GTO's and Clubsports in the great colours.
Once I had composed my self
I made way my into the building where I was introduced to Nick Hurst, and Andrew Roach, Andrew is the promotion manager for the HSV Toll super car team, so as big bonus they took me to The building were the V8 super cars are prepared, so it was of in his 06MY clubsport to a building on a largest industial estate, there is no sign from the outside what was inside, apart from the livered racecar transporters parked out side. The cars had just returned from the weekend race at perth, 3 and a bit day's to get back from a race (bet they can not wait for the Darwin race to come around).
Once in the unit both the Toll cars where on the ramps undergoing post race servcing, both cars seemed in quite good shape and appeared to have finished under there own steam. Most of the easily removable panels where off and work had begun. (Photos to follow) the site where the cars are built also prepare the HRT super cars, although they share a lot off the support departments, they appears to be something more than sibling rivarey between the teams infact something more a Man utd-liverpool/ arsenal-spurs type thing, I though it should be just F*rd but no.
After a quick look round the transporter I was taken to the machine shop where they seem to machine a lot of the bespoke components in house,With a few cnc machines working I was allowed to view some of the finshed parts like the ally weel nut and airgun socket for the weels, and lot of turnbuckle type parts for adjusting anything.
Then to the engine shop which had about six bays for doing engine rebuilds, allowed to stop and talk to the guys building the engines,In fact I was allowed to talk to most of the guys and what come over was the sence of job satifacion and enjoyment they have working there. Then into the engine Dyno cell, where they had just finished testing a V6 engine, (maybe a Hsv product for the future). Whilst walking between the various departments, You walk past various parts that have suffered some battle damage, a nice HRT team red bonnet signed by Skaife should fetch a good price on Ebay.
It was then back into Clubsport to go to the Car producion line. The Clayton site is made up of many grey anonimus bulidings.So we pulled up out side on of the largest ones, No cammeras or cammera phones are allowed in to the build area,
First thing we see is a Bathurst wining race car and a convertable concept from the 80's I think, tucked away in the building, We was told that hsv do not have a heritage center and have sold most of the cars on that where built. Although it may change soon. Then into the production facility, My guide Nick told me that they had finished building a batch of Vauxhalls about ten days ago and they had gone, I was able to see the complete production cycle , when a car is shipped from Elizabeth, South Australia it arrivies with the engine and interiors fitted, but it comes as a complete car with steel wheels and unpainted bumpers and body kits,ordinary exhaust sytems and brakes, the wheels are taken off and the car is placed on the space saver type wheels in the factory,all the parts that are taken off can not be used again so they are sold on as slightley used second hand parts, (This seemed an expensive way of doing things to me,But Austalian ADR prevent the parts, being used again or the fittment of any slave parts that could be removed later by HSV)
The car then moves on to have the brakes and suspenion fitted , then the exhaust which made me laugh thinking that will probaly be in a skip somewhere in Austalia soon. The body kit and wheels are then fitted, last of all the car is then taken to a lift and the HSV dna mirco dot system is appiled to the underneath. Also if there is a order for any of the interior hsv specific parts, satnav,dvd,tyre px indicators or Hid headlights the cars are brought off line and fitted out accordinley.
In the factory there is a Holden by design area where you can have just about anything done to your car that want to pay for, also they cut and fit the sunroofs to the Monaros there as well.
Also there is a sepate area that is the start of the WPP Walkinsaw performance part company, where they where staring to evaluate the goods that they are going to offer for the cars, had a long chat with the development engineer here and he explained about suspension kits and brakes kits wheel tyre combo,s etc they had a SS commodore being fitted with most of the kit in there, surprisingly he had not heard of the rip shifter, only the harrop and b&m short shift kits!!! (put him right on that one) I thought I was in heavan looking at all the parts they had on the shelves.
Looking around the facory there is no sign off any special 427 end of line coups being built, they are sure there will not be any, I saw about 5 of the LE special edition coupes in production Black ones numbered 67,68,69,.
HSV ve commodore when i mention this to the guys a broad smile appeared and they said when the car is available it will be a show stopper, it has different body panels to the ve commodore, and it will knock the fords out of the water!!!
After the tour it was time to hit the shop for some Hsv merchandise,being that i did the trip on my own I thoiught better get some gifts in, I now have two teenage daughters parading around in HSV tracksuits, the wife refused that one but accpeted the perfume instead, from the airport instead.
Many thanks for a special tour goes to Nick Hurst and Andrew Roach,they made a very quick trip austalia worth it,
A few thoughts on Australia and Melbourne, Great city it has been about ten years since last there and stayed in a different area, and it is developing all the time some great places, A city that loves its cars, I saw some great pieces of machinery driving around A brand new looking Ferrari 612 parked at victoria market
porsche cayman,and some good looking HSV and Holden stuff all very well looked after, but a Lambolgini Espada driving around on sat afternoon took the bisciuit but the award for hottest car was a Black R8 Mallo with black windows lowered and on chrome wheels looked most menacing.
Worringinly was the toll sytem around Melbourne, the road charges seemed quite high about $10-$15 to get to the airport and it is all done on eletric tags no toll booths like the congestion charge, and the amber nectar is dear too!!! still with petrol at about 60p a litre I wish could have bought that back to drink here!! Hopefully some pics will appear after this
If wortec keep getting any more power for our cars we will need these!!
the next exhaust maybe
Well the jet lag is about to kick in, i will check this over and edit my crap spelling later and add more pics that i find.
Paul
>> Edited by p7vxr on Wednesday 24th May 16:21
>> Edited by p7vxr on Wednesday 24th May 16:21
>> Edited by p7vxr on Wednesday 24th May 20:12
I had hoped to arrange the trip myself,but to my good luck A god son of one of my relatives works there. So a tour was duly arranged.
I arrived on last thursday morning to meet my guide in reception, but it took me about 20 mins to get over the carpark, just all the Maloo's GTO's and Clubsports in the great colours.
Once I had composed my self
I made way my into the building where I was introduced to Nick Hurst, and Andrew Roach, Andrew is the promotion manager for the HSV Toll super car team, so as big bonus they took me to The building were the V8 super cars are prepared, so it was of in his 06MY clubsport to a building on a largest industial estate, there is no sign from the outside what was inside, apart from the livered racecar transporters parked out side. The cars had just returned from the weekend race at perth, 3 and a bit day's to get back from a race (bet they can not wait for the Darwin race to come around). Once in the unit both the Toll cars where on the ramps undergoing post race servcing, both cars seemed in quite good shape and appeared to have finished under there own steam. Most of the easily removable panels where off and work had begun. (Photos to follow) the site where the cars are built also prepare the HRT super cars, although they share a lot off the support departments, they appears to be something more than sibling rivarey between the teams infact something more a Man utd-liverpool/ arsenal-spurs type thing, I though it should be just F*rd but no.
After a quick look round the transporter I was taken to the machine shop where they seem to machine a lot of the bespoke components in house,With a few cnc machines working I was allowed to view some of the finshed parts like the ally weel nut and airgun socket for the weels, and lot of turnbuckle type parts for adjusting anything.
Then to the engine shop which had about six bays for doing engine rebuilds, allowed to stop and talk to the guys building the engines,In fact I was allowed to talk to most of the guys and what come over was the sence of job satifacion and enjoyment they have working there. Then into the engine Dyno cell, where they had just finished testing a V6 engine, (maybe a Hsv product for the future). Whilst walking between the various departments, You walk past various parts that have suffered some battle damage, a nice HRT team red bonnet signed by Skaife should fetch a good price on Ebay.
It was then back into Clubsport to go to the Car producion line. The Clayton site is made up of many grey anonimus bulidings.So we pulled up out side on of the largest ones, No cammeras or cammera phones are allowed in to the build area,
First thing we see is a Bathurst wining race car and a convertable concept from the 80's I think, tucked away in the building, We was told that hsv do not have a heritage center and have sold most of the cars on that where built. Although it may change soon. Then into the production facility, My guide Nick told me that they had finished building a batch of Vauxhalls about ten days ago and they had gone, I was able to see the complete production cycle , when a car is shipped from Elizabeth, South Australia it arrivies with the engine and interiors fitted, but it comes as a complete car with steel wheels and unpainted bumpers and body kits,ordinary exhaust sytems and brakes, the wheels are taken off and the car is placed on the space saver type wheels in the factory,all the parts that are taken off can not be used again so they are sold on as slightley used second hand parts, (This seemed an expensive way of doing things to me,But Austalian ADR prevent the parts, being used again or the fittment of any slave parts that could be removed later by HSV)
The car then moves on to have the brakes and suspenion fitted , then the exhaust which made me laugh thinking that will probaly be in a skip somewhere in Austalia soon. The body kit and wheels are then fitted, last of all the car is then taken to a lift and the HSV dna mirco dot system is appiled to the underneath. Also if there is a order for any of the interior hsv specific parts, satnav,dvd,tyre px indicators or Hid headlights the cars are brought off line and fitted out accordinley.
In the factory there is a Holden by design area where you can have just about anything done to your car that want to pay for, also they cut and fit the sunroofs to the Monaros there as well.
Also there is a sepate area that is the start of the WPP Walkinsaw performance part company, where they where staring to evaluate the goods that they are going to offer for the cars, had a long chat with the development engineer here and he explained about suspension kits and brakes kits wheel tyre combo,s etc they had a SS commodore being fitted with most of the kit in there, surprisingly he had not heard of the rip shifter, only the harrop and b&m short shift kits!!! (put him right on that one) I thought I was in heavan looking at all the parts they had on the shelves.
Looking around the facory there is no sign off any special 427 end of line coups being built, they are sure there will not be any, I saw about 5 of the LE special edition coupes in production Black ones numbered 67,68,69,.
HSV ve commodore when i mention this to the guys a broad smile appeared and they said when the car is available it will be a show stopper, it has different body panels to the ve commodore, and it will knock the fords out of the water!!!
After the tour it was time to hit the shop for some Hsv merchandise,being that i did the trip on my own I thoiught better get some gifts in, I now have two teenage daughters parading around in HSV tracksuits, the wife refused that one but accpeted the perfume instead, from the airport instead.
Many thanks for a special tour goes to Nick Hurst and Andrew Roach,they made a very quick trip austalia worth it,
A few thoughts on Australia and Melbourne, Great city it has been about ten years since last there and stayed in a different area, and it is developing all the time some great places, A city that loves its cars, I saw some great pieces of machinery driving around A brand new looking Ferrari 612 parked at victoria market
porsche cayman,and some good looking HSV and Holden stuff all very well looked after, but a Lambolgini Espada driving around on sat afternoon took the bisciuit but the award for hottest car was a Black R8 Mallo with black windows lowered and on chrome wheels looked most menacing. Worringinly was the toll sytem around Melbourne, the road charges seemed quite high about $10-$15 to get to the airport and it is all done on eletric tags no toll booths like the congestion charge, and the amber nectar is dear too!!! still with petrol at about 60p a litre I wish could have bought that back to drink here!! Hopefully some pics will appear after this
If wortec keep getting any more power for our cars we will need these!!
the next exhaust maybe Well the jet lag is about to kick in, i will check this over and edit my crap spelling later and add more pics that i find.
Paul
>> Edited by p7vxr on Wednesday 24th May 16:21
>> Edited by p7vxr on Wednesday 24th May 16:21
>> Edited by p7vxr on Wednesday 24th May 20:12
Sounded like a good day out. Also envious. Pictures put me in mind of a trip to Rianham on a sunny day only a little more technical and lot more space. Wish Vauxhall had given us the same options option, I would have waited for mine to have been built, maybe! Personally I like the yellow VXR or whatever it was, looked like it could have been a little faster than black, might be wrong.
>> Edited by shadok on Thursday 25th May 17:21
>> Edited by shadok on Thursday 25th May 17:21
Jagsy it was a great day seems like so much has happened since i was asking you about your trip there at the ace cafe back in January, glad to see you are settling in fine and are mobile again, did not buy much as i was traveling light and fast so did not have much space for to many goodies this time.........but in the imortal words I'll be back!!!!!
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