HSV aiming to import hot Opels
December 18, 2008 by David Twomey
There’ll be a little less Holden and more Special Vehicles in the future of Holden Special Vehicles – HSV – if the company’s boss, Phil Harding, has his way.
Opel’s OPC Corsa is hot
-David Twomey
British-born Mr Harding, who’s been involved with HSV for years in various roles, and is now Managing Director, told CarAdvice at a media briefing yesterday that the company was actively negotiating to import two Opel models to add to its line-up of performance vehicles.
The cars in question are the hot-hatch Opel Corsa VXR and the Opel Performance Centre (OPC) version of the Insignia, which uses a turbocharged V6 engine.
Even in standard trim the Insignia is a hot look
Mr Harding confirmed that the company was actively negotiating on pricing for both vehicles and he believed they would make an excellent fit with the current range of HSV vehicles.
He said the business case on both cars had been done, the projects had the blessing of parent GM-Holden, and the only issue now was getting the pricing right.
“We’ve shown an interest recently on the Corsa VXR, but we would be on our own to introduce that into Australia so the business case is pretty demanding.
However, as the second iteration of the VXR treatment in Europe it’s more of a VXR than Astra,” Mr Harding said.
The move would see HSV move away from strictly Holden based product, a trend it began in March 2006 when Mr Harding, then marketing director, set up the import of the Vauxhall Astra VXR as the HSV Astra VXR, along with the more recently added Nurburgring limited edition version of the Astra.
Revealing the interest in taking this a step further with the two Opel vehicles Mr Harding said; “We’ve got to the point where we like the product, we’ve understood how much it’s going to cost us (HSV would have to bring the cars into Australia on its own) and we’re now trying to get the right price,”
“The challenge obviously is we’ve got to support the car’s completely, that means spares and servicing, whereas if you’re riding the back of Holden, you only have to do the ‘incrementals’.
“It’s a bigger issue and decision to make; to actually support the whole product as opposed to the equivalent,” Mr Harding said.
It also means that HSV has to work on different sales volumes to those that were the case with the Astra imports, which needed about 100-150 units to make the project viable.
Mr Harding said that in the case of the Corsa pricing was very critical as it needed to be around the $30,000 mark, which meant the company had to be able to sell 300 vehicles.
He said that with the OPC Insignia, spy pics of this testing at the Nurburgring have alreadyy been shown on CarAdvice, there was a little more leeway as he expected a price point around $55,000 and this meant fewer cars would need to be imported.
“That price point is a little more relaxed. It’s a really good car, but it should sell for less than a Clubbie (Clubsport R8). Probably around the mid-$50s,” he added.
Mr Harding said that HSV was working with its dealer network to see if there were customers at that price that would give the company the volume to import the vehicle.
He said that finally the success of the business case for either vehicle would not see them necessarily linked and one, or none could succeed.
Mr Harding reiterated that HSV continually reminded itself of its brand pillars – performance, driver enjoyment and ‘unique’ HSV design – when evaluating which direction it should take with product.
He said any new vehicle had to tick all three boxes and if it didn’t then it wouldn’t wear the HSV badge.
Print it: 
You’re right Trent you would be spinnin your wheels in your 5 litre Clubbie – going abasoluely nowhere trying to get traction whilst the GT-R with its AWD etc would be past the next set of traffic lights.
Ease up Andrew he could be some entertainment for the night !hahaha
Remind me again how much grunt does a VN 308 have ? Fullyschick maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate!
I thought chicks of today {in your age group,12}went for ricers ?
You should be ashamed of yourself thinking of treating a great Australian collectable Muscle car like that!
Quote[Trent]: Wheelnut – nah nah nah mate!!! I know there are fast porsches and stuff, buts that cos there V8’s!
The only V8 Porsche make is the Porsche Cayenne Toorak Tractor – and even then its 90% VW Touareg
Whereas the Regular Porsches such as the Carrera p11s use “boxer” inline 6 cylinder engines and yes some have Turbos..
wheelnut,
i wasnt being sarcastic,
i honestly found Trents comments quite funny and entertaining.
Hey Trent,
Maybe i could take you on with my Hyundai Excell.
its got a fully sick bolt on exhaust from autobarn.
its an automatic too, so once i turn overdrive off, you wont stand a chance.
its soooo freaking quick it spins the rear wheels too!!!!
It was me Andrew ,I know it was you being sarcastic !
Ill go the home boy………….bring it on tampon!
hahahaha .
yeah right-o Dingo……..
Trent – your beloved VN Clubbie won’t be devalued because HSV have made/sold both V6 and 4 cylinder cars wearing the HSV badge like the VT XU-6 or the current VXR Astra.
The main thing that will de-vealue the VN Clubbie is the fact that there are so many other VN Clubbie replicas with similar HSV bodykits being driven by people like you who want a $30-40K Aussie performance Car like a Clubbie but are on a $3-4k budget.
Remember parts of the HSV VN Bodykit are interchangeable with VP VR and VS Commodores [and vice versa]
(Quote Trent) “Nothing as powerful as an Aussie V8″. You are obviously forgetting the Euro V8’s with less capacity but more power. You are forgetting V10’s, V12’s and V16’s (Veyron), and technically there is no such thing as an Aussie V8 as the Holden engines come from Chevrolet (USA) and the Ford BOSS engines come from the States.
my god this trent guy gives fanboys a bad name.
Trent you do realise that the VN Clubsport had about the same power as a base falcon has today right how the hell do you expect to beat a GTR with that when the old EB XR6 was almost quicker ?.
ooooh ooh steady on fellas. Doesnt matter anyway, got me V8 finally with the govy handouts, couldnt afford the VN Clubbie anyway. Got a sick as VK with a 308 mate. Does sicko burnouts! Was out side punchy station doin dowies in the gravel mate, dust all over the place, chicks checkin me out. Might not be the fastest car on the roads like the new Aussie V8’s, but still faster than any ricer 4 cyl cars! ahhh sick ayy. merry xmas everybody.
trent i have a V8 calais 5.0L dule fule and i can tell you my 2.0L OHC 4 cylnder escort destroys it and mate and car can do donuts on gravle
bloody had the car for a few hours, and I got yellow stickered already. doing max dowies in the gravel mate and cops pull, wtf?! say my cars not roadworthy, get stuffed, its got a few different colored panel sure, but they are all stuck on the car mostly, so whats the problem. and there is not too much rust. now i have to blow the last of my govy handouts on fines, and i dont have enough to fix it like they want it. so my investment is now gone, bloody great christmas mate, you think they would be a bit nicer. and escrot ghia, your v8 calais (you must be rich mate!) must be broken if it cant beat a 4 cyclinder. it probably has 4 broken silinders, making it like the escort. if i had an V8 calais, ohh maan, i would be doin max dowies in it right now in front of chicks and stuff hey.
i reckon those cops were just jelous, that why they did it. they knew if i had of taken off, i would have left there little V6 commo in the dust! i woulda been poppin through the gear, buuum buuuuuuum booooooooormm, go trent go trent! shoulda done it hey, woulda been sweet as hey, sweet as! hoooh maaate!
its a vk calais and there lucky to have 140kw and no the cops v6 commodore would destroye your vk the old 5.0L are slow in standaerd for compared to todays base cars even the XR5 turbo foucuse would leave you in the dust.
as for my vk’s v8 begine brock its not when its up against a 203 hp car that way just over 900kg it has no chance
Trent – unless your 5 Litre VK is Formula Blue with a SS Group A sticker on the front 1/4 panels or an HDT sticker on the back; HDT “Letterbox” grille; 16 inch Irmscher wheels [and Bridgesyone Potenzas].. I don’t think its an investment – it cant be if you were able to buy it with the Govt Christmas Bonus
Trent, you’re pure entertainment fodder.
Threads about HSV using decent euro tin with little engines and puffing wastegate turbos smacking a HSV badge here and there then flogging it at a premium.
Adding another baby 4 cylinder car to HSVs line up makes sense. Because its one way of introducing more people to the brand
For Example: If they start off in an “HSV” Corsa and they like driving it; in a couple of years they might then trade it in on a “HSV” Astra then could move up to a “real” HSV in the form of a Maloo or Clubbie – where they can choose from a regular V8 [be it a 5 6 or 7 litre]or even a Turbo Diesel.
Wheelnut the Corsa is the equivalent to the Barina, so it would compete against the likes of the Yaris, not the Corolla.
I’m all for it! I hope they listen to Phil Harding!
FPV’s got nothing to compete against them!…………………… Yet!
hey trent my 2008 Giant montain bike can easily out run yu VK 5 litre. My 24 speed shimano will blow yu 3 speed tranny off anytime.
This is great news. We need to diversify and offer a greater range of vehicles.
Now we just need access to the the supercharged V8 Vauxhall (Holden) that is readily available in Britain.
They bring the Opel Corsa VXR.. I’ll be getting rid of the Barina XC for that.. definately. hah