Holden Commodore limited edition build numbers revealed

We all know that Holden’s VF Series II limited edition models are rare on our roads, but which colour and transmission was the rarest of them all?

Well, Holden has now offered up its build numbers for its 1800-unit production run, and it makes for interesting reading.

Starting with the Commodore Motorsport Edition sedan, and of the 1200 units produced 608 were manual, and 592 were auto. The most popular colour? Red Hot with 214 manuals followed by 174 autos, together accounting for 32.3 per cent of the production run.

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Heron White was a close runner-up, with 173 auto and 159 manual for 27.7 per cent of production, while the next most popular colour was produced at almost half that rate – Son Of A Gun Grey with 91 auto and 86 manual, combining for 14.8 per cent of production.

From here the title of ‘rarest’ MSE gets interesting. Spitfire Green with 76 manual and 54 auto tally 10.8 per cent of production, just losing out to Phantom Black with 62 auto and 51 manual for 9.5 per cent of production. But Nitrate Silver ultimately romps home as rarest – with just 38 autos and 22 manuals, together making up just 5.0 per cent of production.

It’s the same for the Magnum ute. Of the 240 produced – 127 manual, 113 auto – the rarest colour was again Nitrate Silver with just two manuals and four auto for a 2.5 per cent production slice. This time the most popular ute colour (over 10 times more popular) was Phantom Black, however, with 39 auto and 31 manual totalling 29.2 per cent of production.

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It was followed closely by Red Hot with 32 manual and 18 auto making up 20.8 per cent of the run, and Heron White with 25 manual and 23 auto for 20.0 per cent of deliveries. Spitfire Green was next with 24 manual and 10 auto for a 14.2 per cent slice, then Son Of A Gun Grey with 19 auto and 13 manual for 13.3 per cent.

While a greater number of Director sedan models – 360 units – were built compared with the Magnum, they were not available in manual nor in Red Hot or Spitfire Green colours.

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Half were produced in Heron White, or 151 units and 41.9 per cent, followed by Son Of A Gun Grey at 128 for 35.6 per cent. Then it was a sizeable drop to the other two colours, with Phantom Black next at 43 or 11.9 per cent of the production, coming ahead of the rarest colour – for the third time in a row – Nitrate Silver with 43 units produced at 11.9 per cent.

So there you, and presumably investors, have it. For Holden’s VF Series II limited editions, a Nitrate Silver Motorsport Edition sedan, Magnum ute and Director will be the rarest of all.