As motor show secrets go, this was a good one, and well kept. We’d heard a whisper about it the day before, and some internerds reckoned that they knew what was up. Sure, everyone had their theories, and the feeling that something was really on permeated the gathering hordes surrounding Holden’s darkened stand at the Melbourne Motor Show last month.

This feature was first published in MOTOR magazine’s May 2008 issue.

Over at the Ford stand, there must have been a dreadfully familiar, sinking sense of déjà vu. Cast your mind back to 1998 and the imminent launch of the all-new AU Falcon at the Sydney Motor Show. After an investment totalling $700 million and betting the farm on its next big sedan, the Blue Oval was thoroughly rumbled by a clay two-door originally sketched up on a dining room wall…

“Everything you do is tactical or strategic,” acknowledges Tony Stolfo, the director of Holden’s design department. “Strategically, we’d love to continue down the path of actually doing a coupe off our [VE] architecture, but it’s a matter of building a business case and getting the corporation to back it.

“The tactical side, obviously, is that we want to take the focus off everyone else in terms of the motor show…”

The fibreglass-bodied car took a mere seven months to complete, under a small team led by Project Design Manager Peter Hughes (one of the team leaders on VE). Starting with an SS V development hack as a parts store, the rear rails of a current-production VE chassis were shortened to reduce the car’s total length by 57mm and the exhausts modified, before the donor engine and ’box were fitted up. The majority of the build actually took place in a small workshop in Japan, which helped Holden keep the car secret.

“We’ve dropped the H-point, or the seating reference point, downwards, which [has] allowed us to push the roof down as hard as we can,” says Stolfo. “It’s got very similar proportions to what you’ll see on the Camaro, actually.”

“There’s a lot of carbon fibre, structurally as well as cosmetically, including a full flat underfloor,” chimes in Ewan Kingsbury, a softly-spoken Englishman whose previous concept credits include the recent Torana rendering.

“We tried to keep it cosmopolitan. Holden is sporty but sophisticated, with an edge – knockoff hubs and side exhaust, and brake induction vents are a nod to the Supercars, for example,” says Kingsbury.

He’s no stranger to the skunkworks world of building concepts, but even Kingsbury is surprised how easily this job worked out.

“This has been a bit of an after-hours project, but it’s come together pretty smoothly. Often they’re a nightmare,” he laughs.

Geek Speak: Active Aerodynamics

One of the cool things about this conceptual animal is how much of it actually works. “All the electrics work, the [power] glass all works… the car’s a driver and we’ve had it on the track,” grins Stolfo, who couldn’t help but give the throttle a not-so-gentle nudge on the way down the catwalk. Providing the drive is an LS2 5967cc bent eight fitted with the US-spec Active Fuel Management-capable ECU, which retards spark to four pots on light throttle percentages. It’s tuned to take E85 blended ethanol, too, making a big, fat, loud noise about what’s in store for the next major VE update. Everything else is straight SS V specification stuff, including the six-speed manual gearbox – except, of course, for the massive Brembo brakes (complete with caliper ducting), bobtail bootlid spoiler and quadruple side-exit exhausts.

“The car was built by a very small show-car builder in Japan. Data goes over there and they make the moulds and the structures. They’re great guys – I mean, we would love to build it here, but we’ve got so much work on, it meant that this one had to go outside.”

Holden’s relatively recent (and massive) investment in one-piece bodyside dies for the VE will make it think long and hard about the business case for the next Monaro. The large car sector is in serious decline, despite recent wins for Holden to supply sand to Bondi in the form of the Pontiac G8 sedan and ute to the US. Even given the fact that modifying the current VE platform wouldn’t be that hard or expensive (it could, for example, design the rear end to suit export markets straight away, as opposed to the mid-life fuel tank relocation the VT Monaro had to undergo to meet US regs), a third-time-lucky Monaro – in a mass-market sense, at least – has the sheer weight of reality stacked against it.

“There’s no details around [Holden] whether or not we can actually make that or not make it – it’s purely concept,” says a deadpan Stolfo of the Coupe 60. Yeah, right, Tony… you guys didn’t learn one single thing about building a coupe from this after-hours project.

“Having said that,” he recants, “if you look at some of the work [in the car], if we were to go down the path of looking at convertibles and so on, you’ve got to be able to take the loads etc. There’s [engineering] solutions there, we’d just have to explore them.”

“The RWD, design, and engine capability of Holden is a well-loved treasure in the rest of the corporation,” he told us at the show. “Bob Lutz said it was drop-dead gorgeous. I used to do concept cars for GM in Detroit and this is the finest car I’ve ever seen. It’s stunning.”

“So, what do you reckon?” grins Stolfo.

Screw the business models. Just build the damn thing already.

Holden Coupe 60 Fast Facts: BODY: 2-door, 4-seat coupe DRIVE: rear wheels ENGINE: 90-degree V8, OHV, 16v MATERIAL: alloy head/alloy block BORE/STROKE: 101.6 x 92.0mm CAPACITY: 5967cc COMPRESSION: 10.9:1 POWER: 307kW @ 6000rpm TORQUE: 550Nm @ 4400rpm REDLINE/CUT: none/6600rpm FUEL/TANK: 98 octane/73 litres TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual SUSPENSION: struts, A-arms, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil springs, anti-roll bar (r) LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT: 4837/1895/1400mm WHEELBASE: 2915mm TRACKS (f/r): 1678/1613mm STEERING: power rack and pinion TURNING CIRCLE: 11.4m LOCK-TO-LOCK: 2.9 turns BRAKES: 380mm ventilated discs, six-piston calipers (f); 350mm ventilated discs, four-piston calipers (r); ABS, ESP, TC WHEELS: 21 x 8.0-inch (f), 21 x 10.0-inch (r), machined alloy TYRES: Kumho custom semi-slicks SIZE: 245/35R21 (f), 285/30R21 (r) PRICE: $2,500,000

Top 3 Holden Show Stoppers

Efijy (2006)

MORE Holden Concepts

Torana (2004)

HRT 427 (2002)

11

MOTOR‘s review on the HRT 427

Bad-arse 7.0-litre was the precursor to the pigeon pair of Monaro enduro racers. Stripped, caged and race-ready, two were built before the project died in 2003, despite 50 firm orders in the books.