Holden Commodore News

The platform – to be called the Omega, according to a report on Car and Driver in the US – will replace the aging Sigma platform that has been the basis for several models in the Cadillac range.The report says while the Omega will underpin a replacement for the current Cadillac XTS and other future large cars, it will include aspects of GM’s smaller Alpha platform to aim for production savings.However it looks unlikely to get anywhere near a Commodore nameplate in the future.Holden is already working on the next iteration of the large rear-wheel Zeta platform, Zeta II, that will be used for the next-generation Commodore and possibly elsewhere in the GM world – with the most likely overseas jobs to be for Chevrolet in the US and GM brands in China.

The Adelaide-built Holden flagship was beaten by Toyota's HiLux , the Corolla and the Mazda3 as the Australian carmaker's overall tally saw it slip to third for April, although it retained second spot for the year so far.The Commodore was also beaten for the second time by its Cruze stablemate last month (Cruze outsold the Commodore in January 2012) and the big six-cylinder sedan is just 76 units ahead of Cruze for the year so far.Holden sales, marketing and aftersales executive director John Elsworth said its locally-built cars accounted for 70.3 per cent of its April sales."Cruze continues to be a great car for Holden, it was Australia's fourth highest-selling car in for the month with 2315 cars sold,"he said.Mr Elsworth said while Commodore continued to capture more than 50 per cent of the shrinking large car segment in April, the sales tally for "a tough month" had been effected by stock shortages of imported models.Ford, which launched its turbocharged four-cylinder Falcon in a bid to arrest sliding sales, had its Melbourne-built sedan and the Territory SUV outsold by both the Focus and Ranger LCV ranges.Toyota has been market leader for 83 of the past 85 months - a run broken only by the 2011 natural disasters. Executive director sales and marketing Matthew Callachor said HiLux had the highest awareness among people looking to buy a 4x2 or 4x4 ute."Almost one in two HiLux buyers already own a Toyota while more than half say they are likely to choose another Toyota for their next vehicle," he said. Mazda's strong performance last month was also attributable to the brand's new CX-5 strong start - with 1413 sales it was second only to the Toyota Prado for SUV sales. The passenger car market fell slightly behind its monthly and year-to-date (YTD) tally - down 2.5 per cent for April and 0.2 per cent YTD, while Sport Utility Vehicle sales continued to climb, increasing by nearly 28 per cent for April and 24 percent YTD.FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers said SUVs continue to dominate the Australian vehicle market."This month however we can also see an interesting emergence of customer preference for diesel powered SUVs," he said. The Australian new vehicle market fell just short of 80,000 cars in April - 79,097 - a 6.6 per cent improvement (or 4883 vehicles) on April last year.                           

The updated bodywork developed to refresh and revitalise the struggling star is already locked for customer deliveries by May 2013, but could be fast-tracked onto noses and tail of the Holden heroes for the start of next year's touring car season in March. Race teams are pushing for an early go-ahead from Holden headquarters at Fishermans Bend to save them building two sets of bodywork for the new Car of the Future regulations that come into force for V8 Supercar racing early next year. "Why would we build one body for the start of the year and then have to change it two or three months later?", one of Holden's pit lane leaders asks Carsguide. But an early switch could work against Holden's carefully-crafter sales plans, creating a buyer strike during the runout of the current VE as shoppers wait for the updated model. The VF will look significantly different, with major changes to the front and rear ends of the bodywork although nothing is likely to change in the central glasshouse. That means the undersized external rear-vision mirrors are expected to continue their unpopular run. But there will be major improvements to comfort and cabin quality, as well as the overall refinement of the car, even though Holden is still stonewalling on its work. "You'll have to wait and see," is the only answer from Holden's spokesperson, Emily Perry, to a string of Carsguide questions. But there is an even bigger question mark over the VF Commodore, with rumours from the USA that a re-badged Holden cold be sold there as the Chevrolet SS. General Motors chiefs admit that they will have an all-new car as their racing star in the 2013 Nascar racing series and the company has registered SS as the badge. But Chevrolet insiders are downplaying any chance of an Aussie-led invasion of the stock car series - which is second only to Formula One as a worldwide motorsport drawcard - pointing to the strength of the Australian dollar as a major negative for any potential export program. Holden's existing push for police car sales with a specially-adapted long-wheelbase Caprice has been hit very hard by the car's price, even though it is a favourite with police forces trialing it against rivals from Ford and Chrysler. Holden refuses to talk numbers, but the cop car program has resulted in less than one-tenth of the original sales target.  Even so, the Commodore worked well in the 'states as the Pontiac G8 until the brand was closed when General Motors went into bankruptcy protection and a Chevrolet SS would be likely to have the support of the two top executives in the USA - Mark Reuss and Alan Batey - who where the president and sales chief at Holden before being promoted to big jobs across the Pacific.  

We look ahead, because that’s where the car is pointed and that’s where first position is. So I’m not looking back at the last round and the DNF against my name in Tassie. It’s a long season and we’re only coming up to the third round, so I’m not too concerned about sliding down to eighth position. Besides, everyone has at least one bad round. It’s just that I’ve already had mine so I can’t afford to have any more. We just have to get back to what we do well and make the best of every race and round and make it winner. So I’m looking ahead to next weekend in New Zealand. This is the last time we will race on the streets of Hamilton because their contract has expired, which is a bit of a shame. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we absolutely must race in New Zealand. We have a huge fan base there and a lot of crew and drivers who are Kiwis. But Hamilton just didn’t draw big enough crowds to make it viable. There is talk that we could go back to Pukekhoe which is a great track with a fast back straight, tight hairpin and a lovely flowing section past the pits. If it was available I wouldn’t be too disappointed in returning there. Another possibility is the Hampton Downs circuit near Auckland which has some good elevation changes. It’s short, but no shorter than Perth or Symmons Plains. I don’t have a preference for the South Island or North Island, but if we go to a street circuit, it really needs to be either Auckland or Wellington in the North Island as they have larger population bases and more tourism. Growing up as a kid, I always enjoyed watching the touring cars race at Wellington. I’ve never had a chance to race there, but I would certainly put my hand up for it. I have always supported races at tracks because they provide permanent infrastructure that can be used all year round, but I do enjoy street circuits. They are a huge challenge, a great spectacle and they place a lot of emphasis on the driver to make a difference Drivers have to be a lot braver on street circuits with concrete walls on either side, especially in the rain.  And, if you forget about the electrical gremlins that spoilt my Gold Coast party last year, we actually did pretty well on the streets last year.  

The walk from a crashed car back to the pits is one of the longest a race driver can do. My walk wasn't that far from the hairpin to the pits last Sunday, but it seemed like an eternity. To be honest, I was bitterly disappointed when I got out of the car. But by the time I got back to the crew and collected my thoughts, I was able to put on a brave face and a smile for the cameras, even though it was still hurting inside. When you have a race-ending accident and you know that you were going to have a tough day you chalk it down as one of those things. But when you have an accident that puts you out of a race where you had every chance of winning with a strong car, it is absolutely gut-wrenching. We had pole and we had a car that was very good on the soft tyres for both speed and long-distance wear, so things were looking really positive. I was putting pressure on Will Davison who was starting to show signs of struggling. I'm not sure if it was tyres or brakes, but he was having issues. Meanwhile, Frosty (Mark Winterbottom) was putting pressure on us, so I had to keep forging ahead and try to put the pass on Will. That's when I made contact with his car and it broke the front left wheel off my car and ended my race. I don't know who was to blame. I suppose it's 50-50. It is a difficult and tight hairpin corner. The road doesn't go straight, it bends around slightly. We specifically spoke about it in the drivers' briefing and we try to give each other racing room. Will was racing for the corner and I was hard up against the shoulder with nowhere to go. I don't think Will did it intentionally. It's just the nature of that corner. The stewards have deemed it a racing incident, so we just need to get on with life. I don't think Will deserves a penalty. At the time you are probably hoping for one, but you take a step back and look at it and put it down as a racing incident. It's a totally different incident to the one at Adelaide with Todd Kelly where I turned him around and copped a 25-point penalty. That was probably another 50-50 incident and we argued we should have had more racing room, but I've put it down to bad luck and moved on. Will came and saw me after the race and wasn't sure who was to blame but he apologised for the incident That was nice of him. That's something I've always tried to do; clear the air straight away. We don't want long-term problems with other drivers. We also spoke again the next day and it was a lot easier to talk then. We are going to be racing against each other for some time, so we need to be on good terms. You have to put everything into perspective: it's a long season, I still get the opportunity to do something I love - drive race cars - and no one was hurt, so it wasn't all bad. The positive out of the weekend is that although we struggled for speed on Saturday, we rectified it for Sunday. The temperature and wind conditions were different and more in our favour and we came up with a better set-up with a new rear spring. It was just a subtle change, but it worked. I also changed my line in a couple of corners which changed our overall speed. It's a track that's under a minute around, so a 10th of a second can mean two grid positions. Now that have I the bad luck out of the way, bring on New Zealand in two weeks.  

Because the Tasmania round this weekend will be a whole new ballgame. For the past few years we've raced later in the season at Symmons Plains when the weather has been much colder and wetter. This time the weather will be hotter and drier, so it means much of the technical information and car set-ups we've accumulated in the past few years will be totally useless to us this weekend. Jamie was successful there last year and I had a win the previous year, but potentially our car set-ups from previous years just won't work. We will be using hard and soft tyres again and with increased track temperatures, teams will have to adjust their suspension settings, their pit strategies and the way they use the tyres. We discovered at last week's Australian Grand Prix round how to extract a bit more life our of the soft tyre, so that's something we will take to this round. Because it's a short sub-minute track, qualifying is of paramount importance. You simply have to be up the front of the grid to avoid the carnage into the first hairpin. Then it's a matter of having a good race and pit strategy to avoid going a lap down which is so easy to do here. Qualifying is also very difficult on this short circuit because there is so much traffic and it's hard to find a bit of space to get a fast, clean lap and use your tyres when they are at their best. After the crash in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix between Greg Murphy and Jonathon Webb, the officials have said they will be watching carefully to ensure there is no balking or incidents. Greg was on a fast out lap and came on to the last corner just as Webb was held up by other traffic and they had a nose-to-tail accident. There were no penalties handed out as it wasn't Webby's fault. He was more the middle man being held up by banked-up traffic in front of him. Anyway, it's good to know the officials will be looking for these types of incidents. If we can qualify in the first couple of rows, our strategy will be to get clear and pit early which is what 90 per cent of the teams did at the GP. Obviously our strategy will depend on the weather pattern, but you can bet on us starting on hard tyres and pitting early to bolt on the soft tyres. Then we will try to extract as much life as we can from them. Last year we found we could go further on this track on soft tyres than we thought. But it was cooler then and the tyres may not last as long in the hotter conditions. Last week I mentioned how important history is in this sport. In that regard, I'm looking forward to driving a 1953 Holden FX in next January's Monte Carlo Historic Rally. It will celebrate 60 years since Holden's first international race.

There had been big question marks over the Commodore after the death of the current VE-VF series car in 2016 but all the doubts and worries disappeared yesterday with the announcement of a $1 billion commitment to local car making that comes all the way from Detroit, USA. The announcement of a $275 million government co-investment package looks good, but the $1 billion bottom line is the really important thing.  Based on typical timings in the car industry, with at least an eight-year major product cycle for an all-new mechanical platform, the Commodore now looks cemented in place until at least 2024. The Cruze, which has been a sales success since it moved into Holden's Adelaide factory alongside the Commodore last year - and even out-sold its big brother in January - looks to have a similar future.But what will the future Commodore look like? No-one knows. The new-generation Holden hero is certain to be smaller than today's family favourite, with four-cylinder engines and a hybrid powertrain choice, but its body shape could easily veer away from a four-door sedan into some sort of crossover station wagon or coupe that taps Australia's growing preference for cars with flexible SUV bodies. Holden admitted more than five years ago that it needed to find a firm future for the Commodore, including the right body, and it is well down the road on the right choice. But the cash injection yesterday gives the clarity and commitment from General Motors needed to get the job done, and done right. With $1 billion to spend, it's likely that the talented designers and engineers at Fishermans Bend will be allowed to develop a totally unique 'top hat' and local mechanical package to fit over a global mechanical platform. An all-new car currently costs around $1 billion to develop from the wheels to the roof, so $500 million each should be enough to do a comprehensive localisation program on both the Commodore and Cruze. There is already talk that the next Commodore will be tied to the mid-sized Chevrolet Malibu, which will be sold in Australia next year, although sources in Detroit also point to a potential tie-up with the compact Cadillac ATS that is about to go on sale in the USA. If the Cadillac connection is right, it would mean the Commodore could continue with the rear-wheel drive that makes it so popular with Aussies. But, and it's a big but, there is still plenty of time for GM to find an all-new package to sit under an Aussie-badged and themed Commodore. It's a contrast to Toyota Australia, which is locked into a plan that calls for local production of a global Camry, with only minor tweaks for local customers.Toyota is spending $350 million on a new four-cylinder engine factory, but has been forced to cut jobs and trim its spending because of slow export sales for the Camry. Ford had it's own cash injection in January, getting $103 million to continue revamping and improving the struggling Falcon. But there is no indication yet of a solid plan - despite talk of a globalisation similar to Holden - beyond 2016. Further into the future, it is obvious that the Australian car industry will need ongoing support from Federal and State governments. There are plenty of people who want to end any form of support, but a recent survey showed that Australian taxpayers pay relatively little to ensure the future of the three carmakers.And all countries with a local manufacturing industry get some form of support, from special deals on land and taxes to outright protection and subsidies.

Last year a few critics complained that TeamVodafone dominated and it was a two-horse race between my teammate Jamie Whincup and myself. But going by the first two rounds in Adelaide and Melbourne, it will definitely not be a two-horse race this time.I still think we are the team to beat, but the Holdens won't have it all their own way this year with the Falcons of FPR and Stone Brothers really starting to show good speed.There is a big possibility there are going to be three or four teams bidding for the championship, but it will really depend on professionalism, consistency and reliability throughout the year not just starring in a couple of rounds.For the fans, it's definitely a promising start to the season with about six cars vying for the championship. It's only early stages yet, but the way it is shaping up it is going to be a very tough season for us and we'll have to make sure we do all the little things right all the time.The Australian Grand Prix weekend was disappointing for Jamie and me, but it wasn't a total disaster. Certainly it wasn't the result we were looking for in front of our sponsors. However, there are a few positives we can take away from the weekend.The first is that we now have two reasonably straight cars to take to Tassie next weekend. The cars are on the transporter back to Brisbane where we will have only a little bit of work to do on them before turning them around and sending them off across Bass Strait.Jamie's car needs a bit of TLC on the passenger's door after Saturday's accident, but that's about it. Another positive we can take from the weekend is that when we weren't having engine or brake troubles, we showed pretty good speed.With our engine problems in the first race and the way each race determined the grid position for the next race, we were shuffled back in the pack with little hope of winning, so we turned our focus on testing.Because it wasn't a championship points round and we get so few test days during the year, we had a good opportunity to trial a few things such as suspension settings. We've also come away with some useful data on soft tyre degradation.It was the first time we have used the soft tyre this year and we learnt that if you are a bit kinder to the tyre when you first leave the pits, you can get more out of it. I'm not sure whether it cures, but it definitely lasts a lot longer with a three-quarter pace at the start, rather than trying to get 100 per cent out of it from the first lap.That info will be important when we go to Tasmania next week. One thing my mentor Peter Brock taught me is to respect the history of our sport. So it's pleasing to me to see my old Betta Electrical Ford Falcon getting some TLC in our Brisbane workshops.It's chassis number 10 and the first car I drove after joining the team in 2005. It's also the car Jamie and I drove to the first of our trifecta of wins at Bathurst from 2006. The car also has great sentimental value to our team boss, Roland Dane, and I believe he is rebuilding it with a plan to take it to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK in June.I'd love to go to Goodwood and have a look at the classic cars, but to also drive the Betta car again would be fantastic. As we are starting to build the new race cars for next year's series, it's interesting to look back at the old Falcon and see how far we've come.It still has the H-pattern gearbox and obviously everything was first class, but to see the development and progression since then is amazing.

Holden engineers clocked up some 1.3 million development kilometres in the LPG Commodore and produced 78 testing and evaluation prototypes. Holden developed a `raft of local engineering solutions' for the LPG Commodore to improve driveability and to cut running costs. Holden claims the LPG car costs roughly the same to run as a small or medium-sized petrol car. They evaluated liquid and vapour-injection LPG systems opting for vapour injection. According to Holden, vapour injection provides lower fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions compared to liquid, while vapour also uses fuel more efficiently with fewer pumping and parasitic losses. Holden says vapour systems are less mechanically demanding and therefore better suited to the varying grades of LPG fuel found across Australia. Ford, which uses Liquid LPG injection on its LPi Falcon, has a different view. The heart of the LPG Commodore is the 3.6-litre, double overhead cam V6 engine, with four valves per cylinder. This engine has been re-designed to run solely on LPG and therefore has allowed for design optimisation in several key areas. As LPG contains a higher octane rating than petrol, new pistons of an optimised design have been used to raise the compression ratio to 12.2:1 to take full advantage of LPG fuel. A particular highlight of the dedicated LPG Commodore is the new six-speed automatic transmission. Lighter, smarter and more refined, this new transmission boasts sophisticated control software that optimises shift patterns to provide outstanding driveability. It produces 180kW of power and 320Nm of torque. In Omega spec, it records 11.8L/100km on the ADR combined cycle and the LPG range scores 4.5 stars from the Green Vehicle Guide, and exceeds projected Euro 6 exhaust emissions standards. Touring range is around 700km from the 84-litre aluminium tank that resides behind the rear axle to optimise boot space. Dedicated LPG is available across a range of current Commodore sedans, Sportwagons utes and long wheelbase Caprice. The additional cost is $2500 with a Federal Government rebate of $2000 available.

It's never been a championship round before because we could never be guaranteed enough track time. But this year we have a championship round at Abu Dhabi where we compete alongside the F1s, so why not in Melbourne? Abu Dhabi has fewer support categories and more time available for us. However, I wouldn't like to see organisers cut down too much on the support categories in Melbourne, as it gives the fans more entertainment variety and provides those categories with some profile. But we've supported the F1 in Melbourne since 1996 and I believe a lot fans come along specifically to see the V8s and would like to see us competing for points, not just in exhibition races. That's not to say the racers don't take this round seriously. You can tell from the hard racing and crashing that everyone is having a red-hot go. Our team treat it very seriously because of our connection with Vodafone and the F1 McLaren team, so all the big bosses are out here to see us perform at our best. The F1 round also presents a great opportunity for us to experiment with some left-field set-ups that we wouldn't normally do. If you do get it wrong, at least you're not hurting your championship. In the past, the difficulty with having Melbourne as a championship round has been that we can't get enough practice time and qualifying time. This year the format is substantially different with fewer practice and qualifying sessions but more races. In the end, it works out to a similar amount of track time. We start with two practice sessions and a qualifying session on Thursday which sets the order for an eight-lap qualifying race on Friday. It's an interesting format where we drop off the last three cars after lap three right through to the end of the race where it's basically the top 10 cars left to thrash out the last lap. It's very similar to some supercross race formats and it should be very exciting. I'm pretty sure it will mean there will be a lot of racing and jostling for position not just up front, but right down the back with drivers desperate to escape an early cut from the pack. The race doesn't count toward the overall points for the weekend and, of course, the weekend doesn't count toward the championship, but it's a good experiment to see if it develops thrilling racing. If it does, then it should be considered for future events. I suppose that's one of the advantages of this round because the organisers can experiment with race formats to get a feel and sense for whether it works and see the reaction of the drivers and fans. How we finish in that qualifying race will determine the starting order for the second race on Friday which also establishes the starting order for the third race on Saturday. Grid positions for Sunday's final race are determined by the points accumulated in Friday's and Saturday's races. It sounds confusing - I'm a bit confused myself - but it should help build excitement throughout the weekend and give us something to race for. The Albert Park circuit has been a pretty happy hunting ground for me with pole and round wins in 1999 and 2009 and about six race wins all up. It's not really wasted effort because it gives you a lot of confidence going into the next round knowing you have good car speed.