Chris Harris vs HSV GTS Maloo

The Drift King – and new Top Gear presenter – takes on the most Australian car ever: HSV’s tyre-shredding, supercharged GTS Maloo.

The news that the most Australian of all Aussie cars, the HSV GTS Maloo, is set to burn up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend, got us thinking about the last time a Brit sampled HSV’s supercharged ute.

We’re willing to bet that that was last year, when we invited YouTube celeb and new Top Gear presenter Chris Harris to Eastern Creek. This, of course, was an opportunity to destroy some tyres (we even made a mad dash from Melbourne to Sydney the night before in another HSV ute with a spare set of boots in the tray), but we also wanted Harris’ opinion on the Maloo.

You’ll be pleased to know he liked it: “I’m gutted it could be the last proper HSV,” he remarked at the end of the day. “It’s such a… cool brand and I’ve had a great, fun time in it.”

To see Harris’s full assessment, and some mega drifts, watch the full video below.

If, however, still pictures are more your thing, we had ace motoring photographer Thomas Wielecki along to capture how the day went. It was long, smokey and – thanks to Harris’s infectious personality – fun.

What was most interesting, though, was how Harris attacked the circuit for the video. With limited time on track, Harris systematically worked his way from corner to corner, driving the racing line first before completing two runs looking through the side window, smoke billowing from the ute’s rear.

“This thing is hilarious,” yells Harris, after his third smokey drift. We couldn’t agree more.