CarAdvice embarks on Aussie V8 showdown
April 20, 2009 by Paul Maric
Key Dates:
Wednesday 22nd April, 11AM – Spingy Motors dyno testing.
Tuesday 28th April, 6AM onward – Economy drive to Tarcutta, first live feed at 6AM from South Yarra.
AMD versus Intel, Labor versus Liberal and AFL versus soccer – er that should be football, lifelong rivalries that rarely ever reach a conclusion. Passionate followers will never be swayed and future generations follow on with what their elders have taught them.
Well, with baited breath CarAdvice is stepping into the fight, putting Holden’s new Active Fuel Management (AFM) SS Commodore up against Ford’s BOSS XR8. The gloves will be removed in earnest to bring readers a duel worthy of boast.
CarAdvice will set out to see not only which vehicle is the most efficient in a long distance drive, we will also performance test the cars on both a rolling road dynomometer and with our VBox measurement equipment.
It WILL be the ultimate showdown.
The following diagram illustrates where we will drive. Unlike some other publications that go to the effort of taping gaps and folding mirrors during economy drives, we will simulate genuine driving conditions, just as average drivers would normally undertake.
In addition, you will be able to follow our journey via live Google Maps updates and four live video updates from South Yarra, Glenrowan, Tarcutta and Glenrowan again.
So, make sure you log on to CarAdvice on Wednesday 22nd April from 11AM Eastern Standard Time for some live video from our dyno day and again on Tuesday, 28th April from 6AM for the main event to see how we’re going on our economy drive.
In addition to the live video, you will be able to chat to us – live – as well! So if you have any questions that you must have answered right away, we’ll be on hand to answer them.
We have no idea how the results will pan out, we are genuinely very keen to see the results!
Print it: 
Look forward to it! But maybe disable the comments section of that article when you publish it, just to save your website from going into meltdown….
everytime there’s a duel between holden and ford, the comments section were always in meltdown. i’m expecting the same this time round, can’t wait til the results are publish. i always like reading the comments section, especially the personal attacks against each other ;p
CA, it might be a good start to the upcoming review if you make sure you have a picture of the SS rather than the SV6 above :-)
Gambler88 /The Fact/Star , heres a tip for you, if your going to continue to change your name on this site you need to change your writing style .We can spot you a mile away.Oh and usual you will be the one that will start the attacks.
On topic look forward to the test.So is it a marathon drive between 4 drivers or a 2 day trip between 2?
Economy hey,so I guess no racing boys ;)
AFL v Soccer? That’s an odd rivalry. One of them definitely can’t be compared to a V8.
League v Union maybe…Power and Strength v Power and Strength with some recent gains in agility.
Perhaps save the AFL v Soccer comparison for the Toyota Echo v Holden Barina shootout :-)
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I should qualify the latter with the fact that alot more women like these two sports than say, League or Union which, like V8s, are a bloke’s domain. Same may be said for the cars I mentioned.
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HAL, the picture is a SS! What are you talking about!?
Yep Duck, you are right. massive egg on my face…..
oh, and apologies CA.
If this comparison doesn’t interest you why bother even making a comment? simple as that.
You do have a choice to read or not to read, believe it or not…
I look forward to the results, particuarly fuel consumption.
Perhaps an economy contest on the way up to Sydney, and a race on the way back to Melbourne?!
haha.. Your bad HAL
This should be great, apparently ford has put some work into improving the v8’s fuel consumption. Have the cars done similar kilometers? (in regards to breaking in)
Will be an interesting read… the article that is, not the rubbish comments damning V8’s to Hell, or whining because its not modern, or doesnt have a fake flower on the dashboard.
Considering i have to sell the XR8 i will be very interested to see how they go. I have a customer that regularly buys Fords and Holdens, he has always thought the Ford product to have better consumption and torque, but the Holdens have handled better…
already 15 posts and the actual article hasnt evn started yet. Im actually going to be watching the comments instead of the article for free entertainment.
Didnt we just have the Aussie v8 showdown on the weekend?? Correct me if im wrong but i believe the outcome was quite obvious there.
Bavarian Missile, i seriously don’t know what you’re going on about The Fact/Star are certainly not me. i think you got mixed up with our writing style….
I am not being critical, but what could be good is the economy run followeed up by thrashing them around a track – see which one is the best all rounder. Banging them on a dyno isnt really that helpful
This one will be a good read.Go The Blue Oval.
“…and AFL versus soccer”
I dispute to that, AFL versus NRL maybe.
I wonder how well the Falcon’s V8 will go against the new de-tuned V8 in the Commodore? I know the Holden’s V8 used to be a little faster than the XR8’s Boss 290, but I’m not too sure about this A.F.M. V8 update in the Commodore. Interesting to see what happens…
Minnow,
great question in that have they both done similar k’s prior to the test???
That is a big factor.
I reckon both models should have at least 10,000k’s on the clock to give a more accurate idea of what a prospective owner can expect
harmful81,
Yes the showdown did take place on the weekend.
How did it go again? I forget ha ha ha ha ha
Here’s a shout out to DJR…….top job
Guys, was the XR6 Turbo also considered in this test?
I think it would make a very very interesting competitor in both performance and fuel economy stakes, against the V8’s from both stables. It’s own brother in the XR8 and the AFM on the new SS.
Would be a very interesting review as nobody appears to have done this before – nonetheless I’m looking forward to this one.
AMD vs Intel – wow you guys are bigger nerds than me for bringing up rival processors in a car comparison. How bout ATI and Nvidia or Microsoft or Apple next time… nonetheless, bravo. I suppose this is why you are indeed a website and not a magazine (yet).
Should be good, but I agree with Bob in that the XR6 Turbo should be included. I’m expecting the SS to narrowly win, but with both cars having worse figures than given in ADR81 or whatever it’s called. Should also win in handling, which is why the lack of XR6T is strange.
Andrew M, yeah thats what i meant. I would imagine the Falcon would take slightly longer to break in as the block is iron and the commodore being an alloy block. So the falcon might be relatively tight at around 10000k’s compared to the commodore.
Minnow……….what difference does the iron block make to the engines running in? The Commode block is alloy but do you think the cylinders are alloy?? You are kidding arent you?
Same old boring thing again with ford vs holden. Theres nothing special about this.
BK – The Tida Vs Corolla Showdown is on drive.com
Minnow it has nuthing to do with the ford having an iron block its the softwear in the ECU that ford used they do it to protect the engine and upgrade it at every service sorta like a flash tune thing.
“harmful81 Says:
April 20th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Didnt we just have the Aussie v8 showdown on the weekend?? Correct me if im wrong but i believe the outcome was quite obvious there.”
In all fairness Harmful81, what happens in the V8 Supercars has no real relevence what-so-ever as they are SO FAR removed from the road cars it is not funny. For example, they even said during a telecast earlier this year that there is hardly a panel on the road car that would fit on the “FG” racer. I am also lead to believe that the “VE” racer is not much different in that department.
What would make this the ultimate test is having an XR6T and and SV6 along for the ride as well doing exactly the same thing. I know I wouldn’t be surprised if the V8s were just as good as the 6s on the open road, or at least very close. It will be interesting to see the results none the less and am SO looking forward to reading the comments. I know I will get a good laugh and a few head shakes/eye rolls! :-)
“Troppa Says:
April 21st, 2009 at 1:11 pm
BK – The Tida Vs Corolla Showdown is on drive.com”
Gee Troppa, that is a really imaginative and original response!!! LOL. ….and some people wonder why….
I know I will be interested in the result, however it is hardly what you call a world stopper and/or a war starter. However there are some that think that way…. ;-)
well, the audio in that video is useless.
@Devils
On an economy test wouldnt using an XR6 be a little fairer than using an XR6T?
As pointed out the first video posted is useless….try using a proper mic next time boys
Well maybe actually using a proper camera instead of a phone is more like what I’d be thinking. ;-)
What kind of terrible phone did you record that on. Even a $50/month n95 takes better video than that. Can’t hear anything. Also if you want us to watch live updates, why are the updates just teasers? Thats not an update.
Sorry Car Advice but………………..I can’t hear a thing! I can’t hear stuff but not words clearly!
I can hear words but I can’t understand it.
I agree Duck, the quality is so bad I’m having trouble understanding what they’re saying. But if this is from a mobile phone, well, you can’t expect much better.
Why were the results covered up?
These dyno tests are taking a while…
Devils advocate………you are right ……….the panels from an FG roadcar and V8 supercar may be the same shape but they are different. On the FG roadcar the whole side of the car is one piece and the V8 supercar has its panels riveted to a subframe for ease of replacement and to save money on expensive body repairs as it is much quicker and easier to remove and replace rivets the to cut and weld panels on. I dont know about the Commode.
Very sorry guys.
We had a monumental technical stuff up with the live streaming bizzo. It’s something new we’re trying and it didn’t work as planned and as tested earlier.
KC – it actually was an N95 8GB…thanks for the technical advice though.
We are working to rectify this and had an actual video camera there on standby which taped the dyno testing and results. So that will be available on the site at a later date, so it wasn’t totally fruitless.
Again, apologies for the stuff up. It will be fixed and ready for part two of the test which is the economy drive on Tuesday from 6AM.
The dyno results were very interesting. We’ll hold back on publishing those until the weekend when we have the video to go with the results. Either way, the results surprised even us!
The dyno we were using was brand new and Springy Performance were using new DynoLogic software which approximates to an accurate degree the flywheel kilowatts.
If one shows different power to the claimed, does that bring into play the argument of who uses what system to rate them??
I remember ford and holden use to use different scales for measuring KW, do they still??
I remember Wheels doing a dyno test on the XR8 and SS and the Ford actually put more power to the wheels than the SS. And that was before the AFM Holdens.
Wonder if it will be a similar result.
Good thanks for the info
Andrew M:
It’s irrelevant which system either Ford or Holden uses.
There’s one way to compute torque and power on an engine dyno and likewise on a rolling road arrangement like the one we have used.
If either manufacturer wants to bluff figures, they will be caught out when the cars are actually tested using industry standards.
Either way, both the SS and XR8 were within 10% of their claimed flywheel power figures. It’s just that one was further than the other in terms of the accuracy of the claimed figures.
There was also an interesting discrepancy with torque.
Either way, you guys can check out the figures and discuss it amongst yourselves once it all goes online.
I agree with the other’s who have noted that it would have been nice to see the XR6T included.
Interestingly I note that the claimed ADR fuel consumption figure for the XR6T is 12.1 litres per 100Km’s significantly better that either of the two here on test and I suspect the fact that maximum torque is made from as little as 2000 r.p.m all the way out to 4750 r.p.m.. means in real world conditions it wouldn’t just be in fuel economy where the XR6T would be ahead.
Buck:
We’re XR6T converts – trust me.
The basis of this test was to find out if AFM (Active Fuel Management) was really worth all the time and effort Holden has spent on the project.
If we wanted an all out performance war, the XR6T would have been at the top of the list.
Paul,
just firstly,
I thought one was using what could be termed a metric system for measuring power and the other an imperial scale.
Both scales were considered to within industry standards.
Dont know if thats still the case. Perhaps someone who has had more to do with that side of things can elaborate.
Also, if this test is to see if the AFM is worth it, why isnt it an SS Commodore versus an AFM SS Commodore.
Thats the only true indicator
Andrew M:
We used the same dyno, the same tester and the same conditions for both cars. It cannot possibly be any fairer than that.
The XR8 is a direct competitor to the SS, the AFM SS competes in no way with its manual sibling.