Holden Commodore 2006 News

And it signals that Holden and Ford's new battle ground will be at the bowser. GM-Holden yesterday fired a salvo across Ford's bows by launching what it describes as the most fuel-efficient Australian-built six cylinder car available. It has unveiled two new hi-tech six-cylinder engines for the Commodore range just a week after Ford said it would build a four-cylinder Falcon. GM-Holden chairman, Mark Reuss, said Holden was going to ‘out-engineer’ its rivals with cutting-edge technology. "Dropping cylinders would be the last resort," he said. The new direct-injection 3.0-litre and 3.6-litre V6 engines will hit showrooms next month in the face-lifted Commodore and Statesman range. Not only is Australia's best-selling family sedan now cheaper to run, it emits less harmful greenhouse gases, Reuss said. "We've been listening to what the customer wants," he said. "We've invested in changing what matters most to motorists, increasing fuel efficiency, improving refinement and developing performance." The new petrol engines will be joined by a more economical LPG Commodore engine. Reuss said the new 3.0-litre Commodore was so efficient, families could drive from Melbourne to Sydney, a distance of 870km, on one tank of fuel. "We know because we've done it," Reuss said. "The car we drove actually got 7.5l/100km in actual real-world driving, that's right in there with our four cylinder entries in the smaller car market." Owners will also be able to save $325 in annual fuel costs too, he said. Reuss said the Commodore's direct-injection technology was a big step forward for the local car industry and Australian manufacturing and was applauded by the Industry Minister, Senator Kim Carr. "We are defining our own future, creating our own luck," Reuss said. "It places a more refined Commodore amongst four cylinder competitors while delivering the space and flexibility which Australian car buyers clearly want." Both V6s adopt what Holden calls spark ignition direct injection, to deliver up to 13 per cent better economy and up to 14 per cent lower CO2 emissions, combined with a new six-speed automatic transmission. The new Omega 3.0-litre gets 9.3 litres/100km, more than 13 per cent better than the existing model's 10.7 litres/100km. This engine also produces 600kg less CO2 emissions than the existing engine. Apart from lower fuel consumption, power is up. The 3.0-litre develops 190kW, up from 175kW of the previous engine, while the 3.6-litre develops 210kW, up from 195kW. Holden's popular dual-fuel LPG range will retain the 3.6-litre AlloyTec V6 but it has been reworked for better economy and lower CO2 emissions. Apart from powering local Commodores, GM-Holden plans to export the engines to several other GM plants globally, including Mexico where it is expected to go into a new Cadillac off-roader. New Holden Global V6 direct-injection engines 3.0 and 3.6-litre double overhead cam alloy V6. Uses 91RON ULP, Euro IV+ emissions rating Power: 3.0 - 190kW @ 6700rpm 3.6 - 210kW @ 6400rpm Torque: 3.0 - 290Nm @ 2900rpm 3.6 - 350Nm @ 2900rpm Fuel economy (l/100km)/emissions: 9.3/221g/km - 10.3/245g/km. Between 9 and 13 per cent fuel consumption improvement, 9-14 per cent emissions improvement. Superceded V6 3.6-litre double overhead cam, variable inlet camshaft, 24-valve alloy V6 (High Feature in top-spec models). Power: 175kW @ 6500rpm HF 195kW @ 6500rpm Torque: 325Nm @ 2400rpm HF 340Nm @ 2600rpm (ECE, Nm) Fuel economy (l/100km)/emissions: 10.6/252g/km -11.6/274g/km  

The new car is hiding more under the skin than on top. A new, high-tech direct-injection V6 could be destined for the big sedan late this year when the car gets a refresh. The VF Commodore is likely to get a range of improvements designed to lift fuel economy and further develop the company's ‘Ecoline’ strategy. Visually the car may also borrow some design elements from Holden's Coupe 60 concept car, like the repeaters in the rear view mirrors, deeper grille and restyled lower bumper air intake to give a smoother look to the front end. The interior is also likely to get a styling make-over to better compete against the FG Falcon's stylish interior. GM-Holden is not revealing details yet but the company has a choice of two DI engines of either 3.0-litre or 3.6-litre capacity that substantially reduce emissions and improve fuel economy. The 3.0-litre delivers 190kW/298Nm, which is 15kW more than the current 3.6-litre Commodore engine but 27Nm less torque. The bigger 3.6-litre DI engine delivers 225kW/369Nm and is available in GM's Cadillac models. However in an effort to respond to changing consumer tastes, GM-Holden may also choose to downsize the Commodore V6 by introducing a smaller capacity 2.8-litre version of the Alloytec engine that could be badged ‘Ecoline’, part of Holden's solution to tackling fuel efficiency. The entry engine could be available as a ‘fleet’ model on the base Omega to help bolster Commodore sales. A 2.8-litre V6 with variable valve timing is available in some General Motors vehicles and generates 151kW at 6800 revs and 246Nm at 6300 revs. More economical V6s are just some of the initiatives GM-Holden chief, Mark Reuss, is instituting to lure buyers back to the Commodore and ensure the car rebuilds its credentials from the current car slump. These include E85 ethanol engines, dedicated LPG cars and frugal turbo-diesels. The DI engines could be mated to six-speed automatic gearboxes to deliver sub-10.0 litre/100km fuel economy. GM's direct injection technology not only improves fuel economy but quietness. Rubber isolators are used with the fuel rail to eliminate metal-to-metal contact that would otherwise transmit noise and vibration from the high-pressure fuel system. Along with direct injection, the 3.0-litre gets variable valve timing to improve power and economy. GM-Holden is confident the new engine technologies for the V6 can deliver fuel economy comparable to some of the larger capacity Japanese four-cylinder engines. The facelifted Commodore may also have gone on a diet to help improve economy.   GM-Holden's high-feature Alloytec V6 is truly a world-class engine... Apart from powering a family of Commodores, versions of the company's Fishermens Bend engine finds their way into various Cadillac, Saab and Alfa Romeo models. The Saab engine is a single turbo 2.8-litre variant developing 188kW/350Nm. A 294kW twin-turbo version was developed for the Saab Aero-X concept car. Alfa Romeo's 190kW/322Nm 3.2-litre version of the Holden V6 is heavily modified and uses direct injection and lean-burn technology.  

The overwhelming response to the Victorian Chamber of Automotive Industries' future car competition, is prompting the chamber to take it national. About 100 school and university students entered this year's "Target 2020" competition to design the car of the future. Now in its fourth year, the competition has some significant design muscle behind it from the car industry. The man behind the VE Commodore wagon and spectacular Efigy concept hotrod, GM-Holden chief designer Richard Ferlazzo is on board as one of the chief judges. "This year's entrants are of an incredibly high standard," he says. "It's also a great initiative." Ferlazzo also singled out the quality of the entries from secondary school students. "They are particularly good," he says. The VACC's generation manager, communications and marketing, Tim O'Brien, says the award is gaining widespread credibility among young designers. "It is now becoming a valid stepping stone," he says. The entries were received across three disciplines, three-dimensional models, designs or essays. O'Brien says some of detailing and the thought processes of the candidates were exceptionally good. He says the students have not shied away from the economic, environmental and energy challenges facing all manufacturers. "There is a green theme through a lot of them and that's inspiring to see," he says. Secondary and tertiary entrants had a choice of three categories in Target 2020, model making, drawing/design or an essay. Ferlazzo says the winner of the model making category, Kevin Lee from Monash University, answered the critical questions of mobility in the future. Lee's space-saving Pendulous pod uses two gyroscopic wheels for movement and when stationary, can be mounted in a special space-saving pod when parked. "He has really thought out the whole process of how we move around in 2020," Ferlazzo says. Ferlazzo also applauded the Cub entry from Nishant Mathur of the Melbourne High School. Mathur's entry won the secondary school drawing/design category. "Great presentation and execution," Ferlazzo says. Ferlazzo applauds the VACC for getting behind young designers. "Competitions like this are a big help," he says. "When they come through as graduates they tend to have a real feel for the car brands." Last year, as with the previous year, the winning tertiary students found employment with Holden and Ford. Winners for the model making and drawing/design categories receive $3000, while the essay winner receives $500. Each winning entrant's school, TAFE or university also receives a similar amount. Visitors to the Melbourne Motor Show will be able to check out the winners and the finalists. The 11-day show starts on February 27.   The Winners Secondary Design Category   Car: Cub Nishant Mathur Melbourne High School Secondary Model Making Category   Car: Aero Cameron Newnhan Scotch College Tertiary Design Category   Car: Velos Matt Blythman Swinburne University Tertiary Model Making Category   Car: Pendulous Kevin Lee Monash University

Its VE Commodore has qualified for the benchmark five-star safety rating awarded by the Australian New Car Assessment Program after a series of upgrades that bring it into line with the Falcon, which got the first five-star tick for a locally-made car earlier this year. The problem, for the moment, is only the Omega sedan model in the Commodore range is rated as a five-star car. The missing link for the rest of the Commodore family is a reminder light for the front passenger's seatbelt, something which will be added from January production at the GM Holden factory in Adelaide. "We have made the commitment that the passenger seatbelt reminder will be standard across the range," Holden spokesperson, Kate Lonsdale, said. Holden has made a series of safety upgrades to the VE range this year, adding extra side and side-curtain airbags. There is also an energy absorbing panel on the steering column shroud, and the seatbelt reminder on the $37,290 Omega. "Of course it is disappointing that this five-star result does not apply to all Commodore sedan models, but we are confident Holden will address this next year,” said Michael Case, chief engineer with the RACV, one of the ANCAP partners. “There was an issue with the lack of a front passenger seat belt reminder on the Commodore, but Holden has undertaken to incorporate these reminders into their production processes through 2009 to ensure other Commodore variants offer the same levels of protection." While the Commodore has done well, the latest ANCAP crash-test results are not as good for some other makes and models. The Ford Falcon ute and Honda's compact Jazz both got a four-star rating but the baby Nissan Micra only got a three-star score, no better than the company's four-wheel drive Navara and Isuzu's D-Max ute. The Jazz missed a five-star tick because the top models with six airbags are not fitted with ESP stability control, which is essential for the top ranking in 2009, while Ford did not submit the ute for the pole-impact test necessary for the top mark. “ANCAP is still waiting for the breakthrough of a five-star commercial vehicle so that tradespeople, couriers and other such vehicle users can have the same level of safety as company executives,” Case said. And, once again, the pedestrian safety ratings — a new focus for ANCAP — were below the crash-test score in every case. The Jazz rated three stars from four for pedestrian protection, the Falcon ute and Micra got two, but the Commodore, Navara and D-Max only got one each. "These results are clearly disappointing," Case said.   ANCAP SAFETY SCORES December 2008 5 stars: Holden Commodore Omega 4 stars: Ford Falcon ute Honda Jazz 3 stars: Nissan Micra Nissan Navara D22 4wd Isuzu D-Max utility  

Motor racing champion Dick Johnson has questioned whether young drivers have the experience to take on Adelaide's street circuit after four were injured in high-speed crashes over the Clipsal 500 weekend.The man who has won just about everything in Australian motorsport warned that drivers had to be highly experienced to cope with the demanding course through central Adelaide.Johnson spoke out as 27-year-old Ashley Cooper remained on life support following a smash at around 200km/h on Saturday.Another three drivers, all in their 20s, were injured in a pile-up of V8 utes yesterday before the final leg of the feature V8 Supercars event. One of them, Matt Kingsley, 23, was admitted to the intensive care unit of Royal Adelaide Hospital.The accidents marred the 10th running of the annual Adelaide race carnival, which attracted record crowds. The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, car racing's governing body, has launched an investigation into the crashes.Johnson, the three-time Bathurst 1000 winner who manages a V8 Supercars team with his son Steve as a driver, said motor racing was dangerous at the best of times. But driver experience was at a premium on the tight Adelaide street circuit.“It may be that they (CAMS) have to take a good look at the experience of the drivers,” Johnson said.“It's a very difficult course and ... must be treated with the greatest of respect.”Doctors were forced to perform a trackside tracheotomy on Cooper after he was pulled from the wreckage of the VZ Commodore he had purchased to compete under his own banner in the Fujitsu series, a V8 Supercars support category.The father of two from the NSW south coast town of Ulladulla suffered severe head trauma, brain swelling and internal injuries. His wife, Casey, was at his bedside yesterday as Supercars chaplain Garry Coleman led the big race crowd in praying for his recovery.The injured V8 ute drivers were rushed to hospital after their race, a warm-up to the Clipsal 500 finale, produced more high drama yesterday.Jamie Whincup won the main event after Ford rivals Craig Lowndes and James Courtney took each other out of the race.CAMS chief executive Graham Fountain said the track layout in Adelaide and “driver issues” would be covered by the investigation into the accidents. 

Specialist car builder and former racer Erich Bitter has been using General Motors cars for some time and from this month is making a performance Bitter Vero model from a Statesman donor.Holden exports variants of the VE and WM sedan ranges around the world, mainly as Chevrolets and Pontiacs.However, GM Holden media relations national manager John Lindsay said Bitter bought the cars directly from them."I believe he was a friend of (former Holden boss and now GM Europe's product planning head) Peter Hannenberger which is how the relationship was established," he said."We just sell him the cars and he then customises them and resells. We don't get involved in the tech or design side."At the 2003 Geneva Motor Show, Bitter displayed a Holden Monaro/Pontiac GTO based coupe, called the CD II.However, the prototype, which was rumoured to have a V12 engine, never went into production.Bitter this year took the wraps off his Statesman-based Bitter Vero in his former hometown of Schwelm. The company also unveiled a new philosophy, 'Bitter Horsepower.'Under the sculpted hood sits GM's six-litre V8 engine, which produces 270kW of power.The all-aluminium power plant is mated to a four-speed automatic and from May 2008 a six speed automatic will be an option.The biggest visible modification is the new nose with a large, low-mounted grille and massive Bitter logo.Bitter has also modified the suspension, brakes and interior.The Vero can only be ordered directly from Bitter in Germany where it will cost almost as much as a Maserati Quattroporte. 

JAMIE Whincup missed the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship by a hair's-breadth two points but last night he got the best consolation a driver could want - being presented with the Barry Sheene Medal.Whincup was runner-up to new champ Garth Tander - 623 points to 625 - in the nail-biting finish on Sunday to a season of 14 rounds that started at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide back in March. At the V8 Supercars Australia annual awards at a gala dinner in Melbourne, Whincup gratefully accepted the Barry Sheene Medal.In honour of the late Sheene, a former British world champion motorcycle racer who emigrated to Australia and came to love the V8 Supercar concept, the medal recognises the driver who best represents the sport on track and off track through the year.Whincup, 24, winner of last year's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, races for the Triple Eight outfit in the Vodafone Falcon as a team-mate to Craig Lowndes, who won this award last year. Whincup, from Melbourne but now living on the Gold Coast to be near the team headquarters, has driven with Lowndes to win the Bathurst 1000 races last year and this year, as well as this year's Sandown 500.Had he not been beaten by .8sec on Sunday in the final race of the final round at Phillip Island he would have taken the V8 Supercar Championship from Tander (Toll-HSV, Commodore).“Jamie has shown character this year in bouncing back with real guts and determination,” chairman of V8 Supercars Australia, Tony Cochrane, said last night.The Mike Kable Young Gun award went to another 24-year-old, Dale Wood, who races a Holden Commodore VZ run by Greg Murphy Racing in the Fujitsu Series.Harry Firth, former Holden team manager and the first winner of the Bathurst 1000 race - with Bob Jane in a Ford Cortina in 1963 - was inducted into the sport's Hall of Fame.The Clipsal 500 race already is in the Hall of Fame for best event, allowing the 2007 best event award to go to the Bahrain round.The Clipsal 500 was named as having the best volunteers.Mark Winterbottom (FPR, Orrcon Falcon) won the award for most pole positions and Jim Beam Racing (Dick Johnson's outfit) the prize for best-presented team. Holden is manufacturer of the year.Meanwhile, Tander has denied that he has signed to drive for the Holden Racing Team next year.But he hasn't ruled out such a deal.“I certainly haven't had any discussions in the lead-up to Phillip Island, we were very focused on that,” Tander said yesterday. “This week we'll celebrate our championship victory and the year. If there is a discussion I guess it will happen some time after that.”

There has been a rash of locally developed high-performance off-roaders such as the Ford Territory FPV F6 and Toyota's HiLux TRD. Now Holden Special Vehicles is looking to get in on the act.

It is fitting that GM-Holden's engineering guru, Tony Hyde, drives the car that best represents his work; a 2006 Holden Monaro CV8.Hyde and his department were responsible for the modern reincarnation of the venerable Monaro coupe, the modern version of which started as a concept car at the 1998 Australian International Motor Show.As GM-Holden's executive director, engineering, for the past seven years, Hyde has been responsible for some of Holden's most exciting products; Monaro among them.Now, after 39 years' service he will vacate his engineering role to retire at the end of the year.“It was an outstanding project and experience,” he says of the Monaro.Boasting an annual engineering budget of more than $300 million and counting 1250 people on the engineering staff, Hyde hopes he'll be remembered most for allowing his staff the freedom to push the boundaries.“From a management point or leadership point of view, I think I've tried to let the team push the boundaries and, to a certain extent, the Monaro was a bit of that,” he says.“I think that the people who have worked for me have hopefully enjoyed the amount of freedom I've given them."“From a project point of view, I'd say the work I've done on the original disc brakes for Holdens back in the mid-1970s ranks as a piece of work as an engineer that I remember fondly.”Hyde's brake work actually appeared on the Torana A9X concept car from the 1970s.With the new VE Commodore and WM Statesman and Caprice models now bedding in and the arrival of the just-launched VE Ute, Hyde says it's time to go.“I'm 60 in February and I just really think it's about time,” he says. “We're getting to the point of saddling up for the next all-new products and I'm certainly not going to be here for that so I think it's appropriate for new leadership for the team.”The quietly spoken Hyde started with Holden in July 1968; as a technical report writer in experimental engineering.His most favourite Holden is, perhaps not surprisingly, the latest VE Commodore and WM Statesman.“It's perhaps trite to say that but I would, on the basis it is 100 per cent Australian,” he says. “They are our technical tour de force."“However, the VM (Commodore) enabled us to break away from the copies of European vehicles and we were able to get back to the large cars we previously did.”Hyde has held several positions with the company within its engineering organisation, including three overseas postings.Early in his career he had a two-year scholarship to General Motors' Institute in Michigan in 1971; where he was subsequently awarded an overseas fellowship with GM.This was followed a few years later by a two-year assignment with Opel in Germany.After a brief interlude in 1984 in the role of manager, technical services, Hyde was promoted to chassis transmission and drivetrain engineer, which led to the role of manager, mechanical engineering in 1986.In recent years Hyde has expanded the breadth of his portfolio within Holden in other engineering and planning roles.In August 1997 he was promoted to the position of director, engineering and design, at GM Holden before taking on his current position as executive director, engineering, in 2000.One of his tasks has been to take Holden engineering to the GM world, by making Holden responsible for rear-drive platforms for GM.In 2002, he was also appointed to the Holden Special Vehicles board.Apart from his jet-black Monaro, Hyde also has a 1976 Chevrolet Corvette in his garage to tinker with in retirement.When he's not driving on the road, he'll be on the golf course trying to better his 3.5 handicap.Hyde will be replaced by Greg Tyus, who is currently general director, engineering and product planning, at GM Canada.Tyus will begin transitioning into his new position next month. 

Previous Bathurst 1000 Winners 1963 Harry Firth/Bob Jane Ford Cortina GT 1964 Bob Jane/George Reynolds Ford Cortina GT 1965 Bo Seton/Midge Bosworth Ford Cortina GT500 1966 Rauno Aaltonen/Bob Holden Morris Mini Cooper S 1967 Harry Firth/Fred Gibson Ford Falcon XRGT 1968 Bruce McPhee/Barry Mulholland Holden Monaro GTS