GM close to confirming Chev SS on Commodore

General Motors has all-but confirmed it will launch a new Chevrolet SS Performance model next year and there are plenty of pointers to the upcoming VF Commodore as the donor car for the program. 

The VF ticks the right boxes for American muscle car fans, and Nascar stock car racing as well, thanks to its V8 engine, large-car body and rear-wheel drive.

The Commodore is also certified for sales with a left-side steering wheel thanks to the ambitious, but struggling, plan to win a significant slice of America's large-and-lucrative police car business with a tweaked version of the Holden Caprice.

The former president of GM Holden, Mark Reuss, is now the head of GM operations in the USA and a known fan and supporter of the Commodore, but is dodging Carsguide questions on a link between the SS program and the Commodore.

Holden chairman, Mike Devereux, also refuses to comment or even acknowledge the strengthening rumours in America which were first triggered by the announcement of a new Nascar racer for 2013 and then grew stronger with confirmation that a Chevrolet SS is in the product plan as a 2014 model.

The high-profile SS Performance is expected to take over from the outgoing Impala as GM's Nascar flagship, and the company has already confirmed the bones of its plans.

"Team Chevy will be racing a vehicle based on a new nameplate to the brand’s lineup. We are keeping the wraps on the new car for now and will continue to prepare for next season by testing camouflaged vehicles,” says Jim Campbell, vice-president of Chevrolet Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. Joining the dots has been easy for people close to the Detroit brand.

"The smart money is betting on a civilian version of the V-8-powered, rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet Caprice PPV, which GM now imports for police fleets from its Holden unit in Australia," says Mark Colias, a reporter with Automotive News in the USA.

The biggest challenge to the potential program is the strength of the Australia dollar, which has already culled Holden's exports to the Middle East and continues to make things tough for the Caprice PPV, which wins support from police officers but not their purchasing bosses.

But the Commodore has a proven track record in the USA, winning friends and sales during the time the VE model was exported with tweaked bodywork as the Pontiac G8. The program only ended when the Pontiac brand was chopped - together with Hummer - when General Motors was forced into bankruptcy in the USA during the global financial crisis.

The Chevrolet SS is part of a product renewal plan that includes the Impala and Malibu. Both cars were listed at Chevrolet's OnStar website for the 2014 model year, together with the SS, although the early leak of the 14 future models was quickly plugged in Detroit.

"We're not ready to make any additional announcements or confirm or deny the name, platform or configuration," one GM spokesperson says.