Many years before some bright spark at Vauxhall realised there may be a market for a cut price super saloon from Australia, an Aussie bloke called Rod decided that he was going to bring the Antipodean equivalent of a BMW M5 in to the UK for us Brits to enjoy. When I discovered this was happening, there was only one thing I could say….. I Just Want One!

My love of Holden started one rainy Saturday afternoon, when the BBC broadcast what I believed to be the best motor racing I had ever seen, the Hardies 1000 from Australia, a race petrol heads would come to know as Bathurst. Racing round the track were not only the Rover SD1’s I supported at the time in the British Touring Car Championship, but V8 engined Fords and Vauxhall Senators with big spoilers! The noise, even on the television, was fantastic and the racing was close. I was in heaven!

My quest for knowledge at that age was endless and within weeks I knew all about the cars, the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon and the legendary drivers such as Peter Brock and Alan Grice. The cars were different and far more interesting than the bland Sierra Cosworths that were starting to fill the European grids. Over the years I continued to watch the Bathurst race and follow the fortunes of then Holden Racing Team.

Roll forward a good few years. I had spent the best part of six years driving Peugeot 306’s and I wanted something different. Business was good, company car tax rules were different and it was suggested that I buy a new car, to prevent the tax man taking too much from the company. The itch to own a V8 had never gone away so I looked around at what I could get. Aside from anything uber expensive, I was really only left with two options, a left hand drive officially imported Chevrolet Camaro or a used BMW M5. Unfortunately, neither really did it for me. Then one day, in a quarter page add in the back of Autocar came my answer, the Holden Special Vehicles GTS.

I contacted HSV UK, who at the time were the importers and to my luck one of the original demo cars had just come up for sale, a Blue VT1 model of which there were only three in the country. A quick trip to Milton Keynes where they were based and a test drive later, the Holden was mine!

The VT1 was the first of the “new shape” cars, effectively a Vauxhall Omega with a couple of inches added. Fitted to it was a 5.7 litre LS1 Chevrolet engine from a Corvette. This engine was a simpler than the later models, but still kicked out 300bhp and made the most incredible V8 noise. Being an earlier car, the body trim was highlighted with a goldy silver paint. Initially I was a bit put off by this colouration, but as time went on it grew on me to the point where the later models that were all body coloured looked almost a little bland.

It attracted attention every where it went. It was very different from anything else that was available at the time, and the noise was just stopped people in their tracks. A little bit of research also revealed the car I had was actually the press car, most famously driven by a Mr J Clarkson in one of his videos (yes, they were still video’s at the time).

Sadly though, as the months went by, the dynamics disappointed. The steering was dead, and the suspension a little too soft for my liking. Don’t get me wrong, in no way did the car handle anything less than perfectly, it just lacked involvement in every day driving, unless you were travelling at speeds way in excess of the national limit. In some ways it was boring, and far too sensible for me, after all it’s a little anti social to go sideways (one of the HSV’s best party tricks) in to Tesco’s car park. Perhaps my jump from hot hatch to super saloon was a too bigger leap?

Recently I drove one of the race prepped HSV’s as used in a one make series in the far East, at the Rockingham Circuit in Northampton. Certain items such as the gearbox and steering had been retained for these particular cars and driving it was like being taken back eight years. The speeds used were obviously higher than on road use but the underlying feeling of frustration was still there.

Despite all of this I still look back on my time with the HSV with fond memories, to the point where, on long journeys, I miss it refined long legged nature and big comfy seats. Would I have another one, or even its grandson, the VXR8? You bet. Still beats an M5 for me every day.

HSV