|
Mark
the New Zealand assembled Holden Commodore SS as a classic car
in the making. There are two reasons why. First, production
was restricted to little more that 30 units and second, this Commodore
came with a unique sporting specification.
GM
NZ launched the Commodore SS with the bold statement that the
5 litre V8 model was the fastest saloon ever built in New Zealand.
In addition, Holden was marked as one of the quickest four-door
production sedans made anywhere in the world. It was also the
fastest Commodore made in Australasia.
Timing
of this small tribute to an unusual locally assembled car is appropriate,
with the current built-up Group A Commodore SS being phased out,
and the move by GM-Holden’s across the Tasman to Japanese sourced
engines. Yet even the later Aussie-made Commodore SS could not
match the power claims for the Kiwi VH SS.
All
bar one of the New Zealand cars was white. The dark sheep of
the fleet was a black example run initially as a company vehicle
by GM NZ. It was affectionately known as “Black Beast”.
Trentham
Built
Producing
the small run of Commodore SS sedans at Trentham was a difficult
exercise that was doubtless a loss financially to the multi-national.
GM dealers complained that the price tag was too cheap and they,
like GM, had to look at the vehicles as a promotional exercise.
Retail margins weer slim on the SS which represented fine value
for money.
GM
NZ code-named the Commodore SS “8Vl69 L31 M21 G80”and the model
sold at $30,509.00. At the same time, a base Commodore VH SL4-clyinder
cost just over $14,000, while an SLX 6 auto with power steering
was $21,500. As a more realistic comparison, the Commodore 4.2
V8 SL/E automatic of the day cost $33,000.00.
Object
of the Commodore SS was not to make money for either distributor
or dealer, but to spread the GM name and help elevate Holden from
its fifth position in New Zealand passenger car sales in 1982.
What General Motors ended up with was a 200 km/h car with performance
to embarrass its counter-part across the Tasman.
A
large amount of Aussie expertise, in the shape of Peter and Phil
Brock, went into the creation of the Kiwi special that was able
to out-gun the 1982 Group Three SS Commodore sold in Australia.
A standard road-going Commodore SS tested by NZ Car – without
any special tuning or preparation – proved to be consistently
faster than a Group Three Aussie assembled version.
Secret
lay in the stripping of pollution equipment from the V8 Engine.
New Zealand, of course, has no requirements for emission, so the
Commodore SS is devoid of ADR 27A equipment.
On
paper, the difference is not great – up from 180 kW at 4750 rpm
to 184 kW at the same revs, but the Kiwi car shows an improvement
throughout the speed range. Carefully prepared Commodores for
series production racing in New Zealand were soon putting out
as much as 220 kW (300 bhp DIN), close to 20% better than a standard
SS.
Rapid
Acceleration
The
evaluation car was a standard, off the shelf SS, which was able
to slice half a second off the 0 to 160 km/h time of the Australian
5 litre Group Three SS. It wheel spun to the magic “ton” in old
imperial miles per hour terms in 16.9 seconds.
0
to 140 km/h took 12.0 seconds (12.7 seconds for the Australian
car), while the 0 to 120 km/h run at 8.4 seconds was a full 1.5
seconds faster. Other times were: 0-100 km/h, 6.5 seconds (7.5
seconds for the Australian SS), 0-80 km/h , 4.9 seconds (5.5 seconds)
and 0-50 km/h, 2.6 seconds (2.8 seconds).
Mid
range acceleration, the NZ car also showed a worthwhile improvement
and is even more tractable. In third gear, the Kiwi Holden accelerates
from 50 to 80 km/h in 3.1 seconds, .04 seconds better. Accelerating
through the same speed zone in fourth gear results in a 0.7 second
improvement to 4.3 seconds.
The
car accelerates from as low as 600 rpm in top gear, or around
35 km/h, without protest, and in town pottering it’s only necessary
to use two or three of the four gears.
With
the Brock modifications, the engine spins remarkably freely for
a V8, and while GM recommends a 5400 rpm for continual use, the
power house sounds perfectly happy at much higher revs than this.
With the massive torque and flexibility, however, this rapid road-burner
rarely requires any more than 4500 – 4700 rpm in highway operation.
Although
the Commodore SS puts a large amount of rubber on the road (195/60
HR 15 inch diameter), the car is remarkably easy to get off the
line rapidly. Too much power and the Holden snakes from side
to side – and in one acceleration run we almost spun the car due
to excessive power. The sort of performance that is all too rare
in most of today’s metal.Special Engine
Engines
for the NZ Commodore SS were built under the guidance of the Brock’s,
and basically followed the same line as the Australian-made car.
Compression ratio is standard, as are short block, pistons and
rods.
There
is no special balancing and the standard Rochester carburettor
is unmodified. The flywheel is lightened and the strong 5044cm
engine gets bigger values and better breathing cylinder heads,
plus the much more efficient twin exhaust system and better air-intake.
|
