2017 Holden Director, Magnum and Motorsport – what’s in a name?

Nostalgia’s a powerful thing. Remember the HDT Director?

Of course you do. No other Commodore has proved as polarising (geddit?) or magnetic (c’mon people) as the crystal-enhanced VL Calais-based HDT Director of 1987 – the one that famously severed the relationship between Holden and Peter Brock’s HDT tuning outfit.

But there’s another Director in Holden history – the VK Calais Director that was the VL’s immediate predecessor. Originally intended as a stealthier alternative to racier HDT metal like the VK SS Group A, the VK Calais Director had an understated bodykit cloaking a Group 3-derived 308- or 304-cubic-inch V8 powerplant.

Precise mechanical specification varied somewhat: thanks to an extensive menu of options, the scope for individualisation meant transmissions, driveline, wheels, suspension and interior equipment differed wildly according to buyer preference. Even a precise total build number is hard to pin down.

For the modern reboot of the Director, there will be just 360 cars. With a focus on mechanical upgrades rather than lairy bodywork, the 2017 Director is more akin to its VK grandfather rather than the ultra-rare and slightly controversial HDT VL Director.

And then there’s the Magnum. Depending on who you ask, that name either applies to high-powered ammunition, an (objectively terrible) cop show, a big ol’ bottle of champagne, an ice cream or a prophylactic. Fun stuff, but in 1983 the Magnum moniker was applied to another appealing device: a cushy Statesman-based cruiser with a Group 3-spec 5.0-litre V8, three-speed auto and a sports-tuned suspension.

Boasting luxe and power in equal measure, the original HDT Magnum nevertheless lived in the shadow of its contemporaries. Only 100 were built, three of them based on the ute bodyshell rather than the Statesman. However, in 1998 HDT revived the Magnum as an exclusively ute-bodied special with the VS Magnum.

With a 5.0-litre V8, performance headers, a lowered suspension and bodykit, it’s the VS Magnum load-lugger that today’s Magnum, based on a VF Redline SS-V, harkens back to.

So, in naming terms at least, the odd one out in Holden’s special-edition trio is the Motorsport Edition.

Slapping on a ‘Bathurst’ badge was an option available to Holden – and one it’s used in the past on the VN Bathurst Group 3 – and the company gave serious thought to applying the name of Australia’s most hallowed race to the rump of its track-focused special edition.

The intent was real enough that Holden even applied for a trademark on the Bathurst badge back in mid-2015, but in the end company execs felt the Bathurst label ignored the Commodore’s broad-ranging motorsport success at circuits around the country.

For Mount Panorama die-hards, that may smack of a highly rational, slightly passionless decision. But Holden is banking that the Motorsport Edition will have the broadest appeal of its limited-edition triplets – there will be 1200 built, compared to 360 Directors and just 240 Magnums.