Holden Commodore 2011 News

... for the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship and let the title slip from his grasp as it did last year.The 2008 and 2009 champion was deeply hurt that despite winning more races than any other driver last year he had to watch James Courtney lift the championship trophy after minor things went wrong for Whincup in certain events, including the deciding final weekend of the year, in Sydney.In the first four races of 2011 Whincup, driving his TeamVodafone Commodore, has two first places, a second and a third. This gives him 567 points to Orrcon Falcon driver Mark Winterbottom's 423.That 144-point gap is almost worth one race win (150 points) and has been established so early in the season.But Whincup is well aware of what happened last year, when he won all four races at the start of the year - and that there are still 23 more races to go in 2011.He said even after his Clipsal 500 win he would not be backing off to play safe for the championship."I am here to win races," he said of his philosophy. "I was in a similar (leading) position last year and got mowed down and spat out the back. We need to keep our heads down this time."Garth Tander (Toll-HRT, Commodore) is third on points with 363. After a win in Adelaide on Saturday over Whincup and a fifth place on Sunday, the 2007 champion is still more than 200 points behind Whincup.TeamVodafone remained at Adelaide's Victoria Park pit garages yesterday preparing Whincup's and Craig Lowndes' Commodore for the three V8 Supercar races at the Melbourne GP this coming  weekend - races which will not count towards their championship.The cars were due to leave on their transporters last night.Meanwhile, Lowndes has headed to Bathurst, outside Sydney, to try his hand today in the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One car on  Australia's most famous race track.Lowndes raced in Formula 3000 open-wheelers in 1997 in UK-Europe but it will be a huge change stepping from his V8 Holden on the Adelaide street circuit to a Grand Prix F1 racer at Mount Panorama.In the exchange, Jenson Button, winner of the past two Australian GPs in Melbourne, will drive a V8 Supercar around the Bathurst track and is greatly looking forward to it.

JASON Richards is planning to be cancer free and ready for Bathurst, starting with a Ferrari cameo this weekend at the Clipsal 500 meeting.  The BOC Commodore racer has stepped down from his V8 Supercar seat while he battles cancer but could not resist a guest drive in the  Australian GT Championship opener in Adelaide.TODD Kelly joins the 150 club in Adelaide this weekend when he clocks  up a milestone V8 Supercar start at the Clipsal 500. The Jack Daniel's  racer is the 16th driver to hit the 150 mark and will do it at a track  where he was a winner with the Holden Racing Team in 2007.MARK Webber's young protege, New Zealander Mitch Evans, heads to the  GP3 championship in Europe with another title in the bag. The 16-year-old has just become the latest Toyota Racing Series champ after dominating the series in New Zealand.SCOTT Pye has had a promising start to his campaign in the British F3  International Series, setting the fifth-fastest time in a shakedown at  Silverstone with his new team, Double-R Racing. Pye was only three-tenths of a second behind the pace setter and is looking forward to  his race debut at the Monza circuit in Italy in early April.MARCOS Ambrose has become a team owner in the USA with a late-model  stock car program including another transplanted Australian racer,  George Miedecke. Ambrose plans to mentor Miedecke as he tries to  follow him into NASCAR racing after some promising starts last year in  America.DAVID Brabham is facing another busy year, joining Stone Brothers  Racing for the V8 Supercar endurance races while racing a sports car  in the USA's major events and tackling the FIA GT1 series in Europe.  Brabham will race a Nissan GT-R in the GT1 title, driving for the  British Sumo team that includes former F1 drivers Riccardo Zonta and  Enrique Bernoldi.ELEVEN of Australia's brightest young talents will compete in a Fujitsu-backed development program this year, aiming for a test drive  that could take them to the next level. The Cool Driver initiative  sees seven kart racers - Jason LeCocq, Brody Appleby, Renee Gracie, Damon Strongman, Joey Mawson, Royce Nott and Todd Hazelwood - vying for a test in a Formula Ford and four Formula Ford drivers - Cameron  Waters, Nick Foster, Shae Davies and Rhett Noonan - hoping to win a  test in a V8 Supercar.

In just over two weeks he will become a grand prix driver for a day when he hot laps a McLaren Formula One car at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. Final approvals are through, the cars are set, the date is booked for Tuesday, March 22, and Lowndes said yesterday he is fit and focussed for the F1 challenge."I'm going to live the dream. If I feel good I'll give it a bit of a go," Lowndes said yesterday. "The amazing thing will be driving it over the top of the mountain. It will be so fast."Lowndes will be strapping into a McLaren in a 'changing places' promotion orchestrated by Vodafone, which sponsors both his Commodore team in the V8 Supercar championship and the McLaren team. As part of the deal, former world champion Jenson Button - who drove a Vodafone Commodore at Albert Park last year in a swap with Jamie Whincup - will strap into Lowndes' car."It's actually happening. It's all finalised and going ahead," Lowndes confirmed yesterday. "I cannot imagine the budget for this. It's bigger than Ben Hur. They have to close the track, find all the marshalls, get the two teams organised, everything else."Lowndes is now famous in Australia as a five-time Bathurst 1000 winner and three-time V8 Supercar champion, but there was a time when he was headed to Formula One. He was backed by the late Tom Walkinshaw for a season of open-wheel racing in Europe, driving a Formula 3000 car as team mate to Juan Pablo Montoya, who subsequently raced F1 with Williams and McLaren."That was 1997. It didn't work out," Lowndes said. He knows he is getting a second chance and, even if it's only for a day, he is happy. "The ultimate goal is not to crash it. I didn't make it to racing in Formula One so this is the next-best thing."Lowndes says he is hoping for around 10 laps at Bathurst and plans to push hardest through the two easy 90-degree turns onto and off pit straight. "They are the easy ones to get a feel. If I can get about four laps to find my way, then I'll have a bit of a go.  Across the top I'm expecting it to be pretty exciting."Jenson Button helped drive Craig Lowndes' grand prix dream with his request for Bathurst laps in a V8 Supercar. Button traded places with Jamie Whincup a year ago in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix, lapping his Holden Commodore at Albert Park. But he said he really wanted a crack at Mount Panorama. "It was on his wish list. He wanted it to happen," TeamVodafone boss, Roland Dane, said yesterday."We're happy to provide him with one of our Commodores. For us it's about the F1 car at Bathurst but for Jenson it's about ticking one off from his bucket list. Dane said the car will be running on soft-compound tyres to give Button better feel, but there is no plan to attack the lap record. "There won't be any timing. But there is going to be a brilliant viral video at the end of the day," he said.

CRAIG Lowndes started the 2011 V8 Supercar season with an emphatic lap record at the Eastern Creek test day at the weekend. The five-time Bathurst winner and three-time series champion set a lap of 1m30.1877s on fresh, soft tyres, beating Mark Skaife's 1999 pole position lap by half a second. Commodores took the top seven positions, while current champion James Courtney was 16th in his HRT Holden. The series begins next weekend in Abu Dhabi.THE Daytona 24-Hour came down to a one-lap sprint to the flag after a late restart at the weekend. Defending Grand-Am Series champion Scott Pruett held off his teammate, Kiwi Scott Dixon, by 2.42 seconds in the one-lap dash to take out the title at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. It was team owner Chip Ganassi's fourth win.GT vehicles will join with production cars for the first time in the Bathurst 12-Hour this weekend. There are entries from Audi, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Holden, Lotus, Mitsubishi, Mosler, Nissan, Porsche and Subaru. However, outright honours are expected to be fought out between Porsche teams and the 11-time Le Mans winners, Audi Sport Team Joest, with Craig Lowndes as the lead driver in an R8.FORMER F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen and World Rally Champion Petter Solberg have been confirmed to contest Rally Australia at Coffs Coast, New South Wales, in September. They will drive works-built Citroen DS3 WRC rally cars. Raikkonen's ICE1 Racing team will contest 10 of the 13 WRC rounds this year, while Solberg finished third last year and will compete in the full season.TASMANIAN Jason White has moved to the top of the Australian Targa Championship points table with a dominant performance at the second round of the series, Targa Wrest Point, out of Hobart. The reigning Wrest Point champion drove his Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera to a 29-second lead from South Australian Steve Glenney in a Mazda RX8 SP and Queenslander Tony Quinn third in his Nissan GT-R. The final round is the Targa Tasmania from April 5 to 10.EASTERN Creek International Raceway in Sydney will get a $9 million circuit upgrade. Work will include increasing the circuit's capacity and track configurations to four layouts with two circuits able to operate independently. The upgrade follows the recent closure of Oran Park.CHAD Reed has claimed his first podium with his own team, TwoTwo Motorsports, at in the fourth round of the AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, at the weekend in Oakland, California. The Australian finished second n the slick surface behind James Stewart and remains in fifth position in the titles while Stewart moves to the top. The next event is in LA this weekend.FLOOD damage has forced the third and fourth rounds of the Australian Off Road Championship to be moved from Queensland to Victoria. The March round at Goomburra will now be held on May 28-29 at Hedley in Victoria. Motorcycling Queensland has cancelled the Queensland 2 Day Enduro to the floods, but the national CIK Stars of Karting Series will go ahead as scheduled on February 26/27 in Ipswich. The International Karting Committee decision has come after consultation with the local council. The five-round series is conducted in four states up to September.TWO-time World Superbike champion Troy Corser has admitted he doesn't have many years left at the top level. The 39-year-old BMW rider from Wollongong missed the first test day in Portugal to test on his own at Eastern Creek and start his physical training earlier than usual. "I know I haven't got too many seasons left at the highest level, so I am really motivated to make the most of the next few years," he said. The season starts at Philip island on February 27.

All the signs are positive after a strong run through 2010 on everything from new models and new technology to the price of cars and petrol and even motorsport.Last year produced a million-plus result in showrooms, only the third on record and a huge turnover in a country with a population of just over 22 million people. And the sales total for 2011 is likely to be even bigger.The fuel for the sales growth will come, as usual, from the importance of cars in Australia and the incredible number of new models that his showrooms each year. No-one can underestimate the sense of freedom that Australians tap with their cars, or the genuine needs of people who rely on cars for everything from day-to-day commuting to long-distance nomadic work.Car companies are currently doing all they can to clear their backlog of 2010 stock in readiness for the first arrivals of 2011, which means great buying for at least another month. Cars are like horses, because they all get a year older on the same day, and anything in a showroom now with a 2010 build date is out-of-date.But there is nothing out-of-date about the lineup for the first major motoring event of the year, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It opens next week with the unveiling of everything from a Hyundai Veloster and the next Honda Civic to a new Porsche supercar.There will be lots of news from Detroit, perhaps including Holden's plans to revive Commodore exports to the USA and the potential future of the Ford Falcon. Chrysler will show its new 300C, which will take more than a year to reach Australia, and Chinese brands are promising another new wave of technology and small cars.Chinese cars will be one of the big stories in Australia in 2011, with Chery, Geely and Great Wall all planning to start passenger car sales down under. Great Wall is already doing well with its value-priced utes and SUVs but it's Chery that is looking for the big breakthrough with baby cars that undercut the Korean price leaders.On the motorsport front, the Dakar Rally is already blazing through South America - with Bruce Garland doing his best for Australia in an Isuzu D-Max - the V8 Supercar championship will be another boomer, and Mark Webber will be looking to improve on his 2011 season in another year with Red Bull Racing.Melbourne will be motoring central again this year, not just because it is home to the three local carmakers - Holden, which has the local Cruze this year; Ford, which is about to go with the updated Territory; and Toyota, which has an all-new Camry for 2011 - but also thanks to everything from the Australian Grand Prix to the latest running of the Australian International Motor Show.The organisers of the show have confirmed this year's dates as July 1-10, with the promise of a truly world-class event. Moving the date is planning to bring more people indoors to look at the shiny new metal and, more importantly, open up a new position on the global motoring calendar to allow the Australian show to become a major Asian motoring event each year.

It marks a return to the main game for Owen, second at Bathurst this year with Jamie Whincup and already a two-time Fujitsu champ.  "It's a great Christmas present - a great sponsor, great team and a great car," said Owen, himself the owner of a blue heeler."I've proved (this season) that with a good car I can drive straight to the front. All the ingredients are here and I don't think we'll be far behind those Vodafone cars at all."The new, all-Queensland venture, sees VIP Petfoods return to V8 Supercars and Paul Morris Motorsport continue their technical alliance with Brisbane's Triple Eight Race Engineering. Morris will run two cars in 2011 with Russell Ingall in the Supercheap Commodore and now the 36-year old Owen replacing Kiwi Greg Murphy.Along with undoubted speed Owen, who ran endurance races this season with the Vodafone-backed Triple Eight, will bring initiatives and ideas learnt from that outfit.  A confident team owner Morris reckons Owen will be fighting it out for podiums, warning some of the series 'seat warmers' better move over: "This thing (Commodore) will be up the front."As for VIP Petfoods owner Tony Quinn, a part-time racer, motors racing is about promoting his business.  "I'm a pet food maker that's found motorsport does wonder for the brand," said Quinn. "It's up to Steve now."

Originally for solar vehicles only, the 3000km trial from Darwin to Adelaide now runs a parallel Eco Challenge. Carmakers are falling over themselves to include their latest models as fuel consumption and emissions become more important to consumers. Holden is the latest carmaker to put a car on the grid for the event. It will run a direct injection 3.0-litre V6 Commodore Omega Sportwagon on the 3000km drive from Darwin to Adelaide. Holden chairman and managing director Alan Batey says the decision to field a Sportwagon will serve as a practical demonstration of the car's fuel-saving capabilities. "Our strategy of providing customers with better fuel efficiency today, and next-generation fuel advances for tomorrow is driving everything we do," he says. Arch-rival Ford is running a Falcon XR6 and its yet-to-be-released Econetic Fiesta hatch, which promises real-world economy of 3.7 litres/100km. Ford Australia chief, Marin Burela, says it is not a publicity stunt. "We wouldn't be entering unless we had something to say," he says. It will be the first time this particular Fiesta will be seen on Australian roads as it does not arrive in showrooms until November. Apart from Ford and Holden, Hyundai, Kia, Peugeot, Mini, Skoda, Suzuki and Volvo are all participating. The world's first production fully-electric sports car, the Tesla, is also entered. The Eco Challenge is aimed at giving carmakers with conventional and alternative-engines an opportunity to showcase their advances in economy and low-emission technologies. A spokesman for the Global Green Challenge, Mike Drewer, says there are about 20 practical family cars taking part. "There is a greater emphasis on alternative fuel-efficient cars coming on to the market," he says. However, Drewer says the Eco Challenge part of the revamped Global Green Challenge will not take anything away from the 44 pure solar cars participating. "It's important for the solar cars to showcase new technologies," Drewer says. Since the South Australian Motor Sport Board took over the World Solar Challenge last year it has rebranded it and broadened its appeal. "There has been a push to get available relevant technology," Drewer says. Burela welcomes the Eco Challenge's broader take on new technology. "The have shifted as the market as shifted as fuel economy is more important." The Eco Challenge covers a series of set stages with overnight stops at Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, and Port Augusta. The event kicks off from Darwin on October 24, ending in Adelaide on October 31.

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 shipment of Commodores, rebadged as Chevrolet Omega, also marks the 10th year of Holden exports to Brazil.Brazil joins the US, Middle East, South Africa and New Zealand as markets for the VE Commodore and WM Statesman.China, where the previous long-wheelbase Statesman was sold as the Buick Royaum, is expected to be next on the list.Holden has actively positioned itself as a global manufacturer to help underpin the continuing viability of its local operations.Holden and Toyota are the only local carmakers with an active export program, though Ford has export plans for next-generation Focus, which will be built here from 2011. It expects to ship 15,000 cars a year overseas.Mitsubishi had hoped to enter an export program with Proton for its 380 sedan, but that deal fell through.From next year, cars built by Holden will be sold around the world by five brands.GM-Holden chairman and managing director Chris Gubbey says the company was able to get the investment needed for the VE program because of its export opportunities.Apart from Brazil, VEs rebadged as Pontiac G8s are soon to be sold in the US.Gubbey says VE and WM Statesman and Caprice were specifically developed with design hardware and suspensions that can be easily adapted for different markets.“VE and WM are generating a great response from our global GM partners, so much so that we expect to export 50 per cent of the vehicles we make by the end of next year,” he says.Brazil's media has already praised the Omega after a preview last month.GM Holden export manager Kristian Aquilina says the ethanol E24-capable Omega is sold as Chevrolet's flagship model in Brazil.“The Omega's position as the top model in Chevrolet's line-up confirms Holden's ability to produce a world-class product,” he says.Holden has exported more than 9000 vehicles there since 1998.The Holden export program started in 1954 with a small shipment of FJ Holdens to New Zealand. Last year 46,074 Holdens were shipped, taking the tally to more than 700,000. 

It is safe and sure, this purple kilometre eater, as it sweeps past slower travellers. Now it settles back into a loafing run, swallowing up the lumps of highway. With the going down, out through Goondiwindi and down the Newell highway, onto the Oxley, into Dubbo for the night, there is the anticipation, the dreaming of The Great Race. It is some 1100km from the centre of Brisbane to the hallowed Mount Panorama at Bathurst, 210km west of Sydney. There are truck stops – with dining rooms for professional drivers and prints with campfire Indians dreaming of buffalo. There are wide open plains, stands of cypress pines and tidy country towns. There are the spring-green paddocks of Bathurst, dotted with sheep. And then there is the Mountain, home since 1963 to the greatest of Australian motor races and now the domain of Australia's V8 Supercars. It is the old argument, handed from father to son, Ford versus Holden. This is a solid 12-hour run from Brisbane without red flags and with a co-driver. It is a run through the heartland in a V8 Falcon and V8 Commodore, a run through places where these sedans can stretch out a bit. Out here a V8 tourer makes sense, for comfort, safety and fuel economy. The 5.4litre, Ford V8 returns 12.4litres per 100km going south. Holden's 5.7litre comes in at 11litres per 100km on the run back. The big V8s are strolling here, the Commodore running just over 1500rpm in sixth gear for 110km/h. The four-speed auto Ford is running closer to 2000rpm. Neither car is stressed, not even when the taps are opened to flow past slower-moving machinery. There is need to sweep past, with hard acceleration and some V8 authority, as a little Korean machine is tucked between an interstate trucker and caravaner struggling uphill at 90km/h, and all nose-to-tail. Maybe the Ford or the Holden, slip briefly into the illegal zone. This happens from time to time, for it is a far safer option than hanging out on the wrong side of the bitumen. Tell that to the judge. And tell it on the Mountain, this big lump of hill that rises out the central western plains of NSW. This is a sacred place and on October weekends an extra special place for rumbling and roaring V8 Holdens and Fords that share body shells and some other bits with these road-going SS and XR8 warriors. This year it was again Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly's KMart Commodore at the end of a long day, 161 turns up and over the mountain. Then the tribes disperse, back to all corners of the country. The return is a bit more of a drag, more traffic, more tired. The sandwich stops are quicker, less fun. Up and back the red SS Commodore attracts the most attention. This is the VZ with the fake air-intakes on the flanks. The XR8 is a more subtle purple and there is less detail work. It is bold in the bonnet, the power bulge standing tall and proud. That minimalist feel is carried through to the cabin. It's simple and workmanlike, yet comfortable and more spacious than the SS. The Holden cabin too works well. It is a bit busier and bolder in detail work, with shades of grey, silver and red instrument dials. The SS has more sporting ambience; the XR8 is more sombre in its approach. The Holden turns in a little sharper and the ride is a little edgier. Here with the six-speed manual there is the chance to run up and down the gearbox for maximum effect and best use of the 470Nm of torque for the best chance of getting away from trouble. It may be a little notchy but the six-speed manual is tops for touring. Drop back to fifth for the uphill climbs or a gentle pass, back to fourth for a quick and hard run around another convoy of trucks and trailers. Sixth helps with highway economy. The Ford XR8 is that bit smoother over this 1100km run to the top of the mountain. This is a more gentle tourer, the ride more compliant, the four-speed auto less work. Never be fooled, for when the lever is flicked to sport and revs lift, the 5.4 litre Ford rises to the occasion with a full-throated bellow. There's a little extra, and earlier, torque here over the Holden. And here the Ford recognises its connection to those Falcons running up Bathurst's mountain straight. Neither Ford nor Holden put a wheel wrong over the Brisbane-Bathurst haul. Both cabins are quiet and comfortable, packed with bits from six-stacker CD players to airconditioning and cup holders. Both run with good economy, stress free. Both these heroes can run hard to stay out of trouble on the wrong side of the road. These are fine road machines that pay homage to those mighty V8 Supercars and they still make sense on these long runs.