Brisbane Motor Show: Aussie muscle
Click on the image for a gallery of high-res images of Ford and GM Holden muscle cars.
At the Brisbane Motor Show, which started on Friday, Ford and GM Holden had plenty of muscle on display at their booths courtesy of their tuning groups, Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) and Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) respectively. Highlights included the HSV GTS, Clubsport R8, Senator Signature and Grange, while over at FPV, the Force 8, F6 Typhoon and others were proudly displayed.
Aggressive styling, fat alloys, huge red brake calipers, gills, rear wings, fog lamps, dramatic chrome badges, extra centre console-mounted dials and loud colours all seemed to be common elements across both ranges. Some of the highlights included the FPV Force 8 with its evil-looking black paint job, and the fully kitted out HSV Senator Signature with its circular, LED tail lights.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Accordsforall 12:26PM (2/05/2007)
HMMMMmmm
SWEET JESUS... bring this to the US, along with the HOLDEN brand.. and dump Pontiac.
This is the stuff that should be scaring people into driving.. not that GTO mess thats out now
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Sean Flanagan 12:29PM (2/05/2007)
I don't understand why all Pontiacs (with the exception of the Solstice) can't be Holdens. As long as they stay away from tried-and-true names (*cough* GTO *cough*), they'll sell like hotcakes. These are cars with virtually no competition in America. The only things that come close in terms of size and performance are $70k German sedans.
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Kris 12:48PM (2/05/2007)
Pontiacs are all ugly. Even that signature grill is ugly. This car would sell like hotcakes.
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James 2:14PM (2/05/2007)
are you joking? not a single underhood shot of the F6 Typhoon, or even the Falcon XR6?
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Mike 12:38PM (2/05/2007)
The difference is that people who buy $70k German sedans can generally afford the gas to drive them.
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W 1:32PM (2/05/2007)
Gas must be like 50 cents a gallon in Australia.
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ChrisL 1:43PM (2/05/2007)
Check out the 'sneak peak' picture of the front corner of the Pontiac G8, compare it to the Holden's front corner. I think Pontiac is getting Aussie cars while Saturn gets European cars.
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spencermfi 2:08PM (2/05/2007)
The wheels on the orange car look identical to those in that G8 sneak peek.
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MosquitoControl 2:22PM (2/05/2007)
#1s comments are interesting. I was thinking about it last week:
I can't think of a single GM brand that I find attractive. They are all damaged goods to me, and they mostly all lack more than one model I consider tolerable. People here may argue that my concerns are unfounded and ignorant, but I'd argue back that I am clearly not alone, a large percentage of the public agrees with me, and if we're wrong it's GMs problem, not ours.
However, every Holden I've seen here has been quite nice. And the brand doesn't have the taint that GM and Chevy have. It's new to us and it's got a nice ring to it.
I can't understand why they haven't been brought here, exact, with the division allowed to keep working without interference. Would anyone truly miss Pontiac if the brand was sent to pasture and replaced with Holden? More importantly, would anyone under 30 feel this way?
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Nellydesign 2:30PM (2/05/2007)
Yeah those are some great shots of parts of a car... Who was taking the pictures that day?
Ford needs to update the styling of the Falcon. Its ancient and too much like the previous gen Holden Commodore. Sure it's got great stat's but it's stuck in the 90's.
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JAy 6:09PM (2/06/2007)
#5 'Gas' (we call it petrol because its a liquid ;) - i know i know its short for gasoline) is actually $1.20 + per litre in Australia. A gallon has 3.8 litres. And the aussie dollar is 80c US.
So that would make Aussie gas prices at $3.65 Per gallon.
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chris 5:33PM (2/05/2007)
Fuel is actually more expensive (and in higher octanes) in Australia than in America, you guys get some of, if not the cheapest fuel in the world outside of the 'middle east'. These cars actually don't get that bad fuel economy because they can drive around in low revs in a high (and very long) gear. Still not great, but better than you'd probably expect.
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Jason 7:41PM (2/05/2007)
God I miss these cars. I spent 6 months in OZ and the cars are awesome. Some of the best sounding cars I've ever heard were the V-8 Supercars. Bring that to America, screw NASCAR!
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NoNameDenton 10:48PM (2/05/2007)
I wish Ford would bring its Aussie cars here, they have great versions of the 5.4 liter motor, and turbo engines, not to mention the Falcon ute
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