HSV GTS E2 official image leaked
September 3, 2009 by George Skentzos
A simple glitch has allowed the first official image of HSV’s new generation E Series 2 range to be leaked onto the web.
According to members of the LS1 Forum, this image appeared shortly as an advertisement on an Australian motoring site before quickly being removed.
It yet again reinforces the fact that earlier spy shots brought to you exclusively by CarAdvice were in fact the genuine article, with the controversial new design destined to find its way into showrooms.
Officially, the new E Series 2 range is due to make its public debut in just six days time on 09/09/09.
Print it: 
Yuck! That looks terrible! The sort of car that makes you feel a bit sick to look at. It doesn’t even look mean, it just looks a bit cheap really. And if that grill gets much bigger I think they’ll be warned off by BMW.
That pic is distorted – wait for decent quality pics to surface
I don’t think it is distorted. The rest of the car looks to have the proportions it usually does. The headlights don’t look at all distorted and the HSV logo is fine too and I think this was a screenshot taken while someone was on a website so we’d notice if it was.
Bonnet scoops look suspiciously like a photochop… way too faded and smudgy
Lower intake is a little too euro Focus for my liking… the whole thing is definately overkill – Keep the LED’s, drop the foggies, and for god sakes you can’t have two twin design elements right next to each other! You either have the twin scoops or the split upper intake ONLY!!!!! Bad designers, bad!!!
If HSV want their expanded operations to be taken seriously, outside help will be needed. I’d suggest people start preparing resumes now….
You could well be right, but I think it looks smudgy because it’s been enlarged.
It doesn’t look as bad as the other pictures did to me..
still prefer current designs..
What a mess…
I like it more than the earlier images. Still, will await seeing one in the flesh to make a final verdict. I agree that the nostrils and a the bonnet scoops may be overkill.
Just when i thought the E series hsv’s couldnt get any uglier hahahah!!!
why didnt they put the LEDs “IN” the headlights rather than a RICER looking afterthought?
wait till you see it from the sides… MORE vents and scoops. rich RICE!
ive seen OTHER images leaked on other forums, and this is spot on to them.
Looks like someone got a body kit shop gift card and went nuts. Does it come with fluffy dice too? Even though I’m not a HSV fan, I’d take the current GTS over this, it just looks way too “try hard” and remember….if it is broken, don’t try to fix it. With Audi LED’s, GTO bonnet, a grill that looks like it’s from a BMW I wonder if the next model will have Lambo doors…….can’t wait to hear what Top Gear UK think about this one
Looks like a bogan with a bad mustache..
Oh my god…..HSV…..I dont want one!! This has got to be the ugliest car I have ever seen……what he hell is going on with all the crap on the front? Looks like it was designed at a local high school by a pubescent boy…….lol Another ugly ugly car from HSV.
Looks awesome!
it looks like an ugly rhino. But it MAY look better in the metal like the new lliberty so wee will see.
yuck?
Looks like a catfish with an electric mustache.
My thoughts exactly.
Looks busy and tacky, like any ’series 2′ facelift – needs unnecessary ornaments to justify its ‘new-ness’.
Bad….fullstop!
Yep, this looks ridiculous. How much more stuff can they stick on it? And you guys thought the FPV GS decals were overkill….
What do you get is you cross a Chev, Lancer, BMW and Audi??? Needs to be a little simpler in my view, too busy.
Just when I thought some American designed cars had hideous features! I thought the VE was a Euro inspired design! WTF is this? The Michael Jackson of car nose jobs?
lol hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Its funny cause its true lol
Theory: Adding bonnet vents/scoops keeps under-bonnet temps down, and helps the power-steering fluid to not boil so easily :)
Its the Pontiac G8 bonnet, which means the hood scoops are fake. Even the yanks dont like ‘em.
What is the current fascination with day time running lights (and they must be LED of course)!!??
It wasn’t that long ago that everybody used to bag Volvo because they always had their lights on….
I thought HSV were all about mature Euro style design?
This mongrel has a bit of everything, BMW, FPV, Daewoo, Kia.
What a heartbreaking mess.
This car has no FPV in it at all
The whole front air intake is shaped on the kinetic design from ford/FPV
I don’t know if I spotted an actual E2, howver, I saw a HSV the other night parked on the side of the street that looked identical to the E2 range, however I think it was the Clubsport model. Can you get the vents on the bonnet in the current HSV range?
Congratulations to HSV for using the train wreck principle to whip up attention to their forthcoming launch. Wouldn’t be surprised if the actual car looked different, but would be disappointed if it did.
I’ll wait until more official photos come out, but my initial feelings is that it does look alittle busy. Though the poster shot of the car in black looks way better than the earlier shot of the red wagon!
bir6y – the HSV you saw could have been a WPS Enhanced Clubbie which has a Louvred Bonnet Bulge; similar to that on the Original VL Walkinshaw SS Group A’s on it.
I have seen a number of VE Clubbies and Maloos – with these on Bulges them and IMHO they look alot better than the GTO Nostrils.
I don’t particularly like the Airdam either I think they could/should have used the one from the W-427.
As for the LEDs – yes they look d!cky but so to do the curly eyelashes that you see on a number of Audis.. which make the car look as though its off to Mardi-Gras.
I don’t think that sales of the VE-2 range would break any sales records as those who already own HSVs will most likely hold on the them – given that the VE-2 Looks so ugly.. HSV should have just waited until the VF is released – which is expected to be June next year.
make the mouth wider and the thing above it that looks like the bmw nostrils one thing
I agree with the majority of the comments – I don’t particular like they pics of the new front, but perhaps it will looks better in person? However, slap an audi badge on the front of it and I bet people would be praising it for its bold look etc etc… me thinks there is a degree of badge snobbery going on here…
You are so right Allan.. Yes from what we have seen in the “leaked” photographs the VE2 HSV is ugly
However; a number of European marques have also designed their fair share of atrocities.. yet the Badge Snobs on this site who constanlty criticise Holden and Ford fail to realise or accept this.. Maserati Quattroporte Sedan for example
Market research has shown how peoples reactions / perceptions can change based purely on what badge the product is wearing
Research also shows people are blindly loyal to cars from their own country too. The current HSV looks great but this one is just overdone to the extreme.
Not necessarily. If that were the case then many American execs wouldnt have chauffer driven german cars.
Yeah, but Audi wouldn’t design a big mac mobile in the first place you moron.
I think hsv has just built its version of the AU falcon lol. Na not that ugly, but damn, the VE series 1 looks better, this looks like its just been rushed. N I can tell you, that is the offical and final car. Its on the front page (behind FPV’s GS) and they did a read up on it. Has 325kws and still 550Nm. Not real impressive
On the front page of the new topgear mag
AU was never this ugly – it was just 5 years too early. If they had of started with BF and progressed to the curvier AU people would have accepted that.
This thing however is just woefull.
I think most people know what I will say about the latest range of big mac mobiles – so I won’t.
HSV sure know how to keep a new car under wraps – top secret indeed.
Aaaahhh go on Mr. Predictable .. just copy and paste the usual anti- Australian; Anti Holden statements that you have stored on your computers hard drive.. you know you want to.
I mean it just wouldn’t be the same without one of your uninformed/unfounded comments…. speaking of which I wonder where Tomas79 is?
Just stating the facts bud. Want me to list them all out for you?
I only ask the same questions because big mac eaters like you can’t give me answers.
Anti-Australian? Don’t know where you get that from.
That’s awful… I’m not a Holden fan at all, and this certainly is not going to change my mind in the slightest…
What are the designers at Holden/HSV thinking!!! That is NOT a nice looking car.
Once again, Holden have taken a piece of every other good looking car out there, smashed those parts together, and made it look bad!
It’s no wonder that GM are constantly heading towards bankruptcy with monstrosities like this…
Look Holden build crap. So I don`t why so many people are surprised at they way it looks. I`m not its what you expect from Aussie cars, isnt it? I mean HSV are just glorified Omegas.
Maybe you could point out to us, in your wisdom, which drivetrain parts HSV GTS shares with Commodore Omega, Jon?
Exactly – To say that HSVs are just Glorified Omegas is like saying the Audi R8 is nothing more than a Glorified Skoda.
For a start the VE Clubsport GTS Maloos and W-427 are based on SS-Vs.. whilst the Senator is based on the Calais
UGLY!
Hell thats ugly – though who cares what it looks like its only going to fall apart anyway. You should read the horror stories on the ls1 website about all the electrical gremlins, driveline problems ect. on the VE. Holden loyalists will still blindly buy it though even though the Ford FG range (particularly XR6T) is superior.
That HSV looks like a Xmas tree…jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way
I hope this pic shows the new accessories that you can put on the car, and not the new basic product. HSV had an awesome car to start with and then they f@cked it up. Im a loyalist and this is going too far.
If this is what the short wheelbase n=models look like, What is the grange going to look like. That car is on the brink of design confusion and doesnt need a HSV job done on it. I like it the way it is. HSV should have just waited till VF and then created a new design for that.
The front page of TopGear AU has a great looking GS Falcon and behind it is a red HSV with a mess of a front, too many bits and pieces just messing up the look. It is a good advert for Ford as I like the twin front lights on the Falcon, (looks better than the raccoon look of the GT).
Only thing missing to top off the ultra ugly look is a big boot wing. HSV have lost the plot.
Yeah – like the one from the VL Walkinshaw SS Group As – that would really finish it off wouldn’t it.
Mind you if the W-427 was to commemorate 20 years of HSV [which was started by Tom Walkinshaw] they should have used a modified VL Group A bodykit on it instead and made it come in the same unique colour – Like FPV did with the BF Cobra
I’ve just purchased a Series 1 R8 Tourer. Thank F@#K I didnt wait for the series 2!! Its just trying way too hard to have any real credability