A right-hand-drive version of the Chevrolet Camaro is just days away from hitting showrooms in Australia, at long last. The two-door performance car, which will be rebranded as an HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) model, will begin appearing in dealer showrooms in late-August or early-September, GM’s Holden division says. Previously, the car had been planned for launch in July of this year, but the date had to be pushed back as GM made its final preparations.
Initially, the car will be available only in top-of-the-line 2SS trim with an eight-speed automatic transmission, but a manual transmission option will become available from late-2019, Holden says. It’s uncertain how much power and torque the sole available engine – GM’s famed 6.2L LT1 V8 – will put out in the Australian market. In 2015, Ford’s V8-powered Mustang GT lost some amount of output in the course of being converted to right-hand-drive as the exhaust had to be redesigned to accommodate the steering gear.
Regardless, figures shouldn’t be too far off from 455 horsepower (339 kW) and 455 lb-ft (617 Nm) the Chevrolet Camaro SS produces here in the US.
As for pricing, it’s currently unknown, but one dealer site has suggested an MSRP in the vicinity of $90k (approx. $66k US). The high price tag is largely a result of GM’s decision to let HSV convert LHD cars to RHD rather than building RHD examples from the factory. The price tag could make the HSV Camaro a much tougher sell than the RHD Ford Mustang GT, which can be had for around $30k less.
(Source: CarAdvice)
Comments
V8 Mustang costs $75k before you get it on the road, about $85k on road.
Somewhat good they are getting better products in the Australian market. But design the vehicles LHD and RHD from the beginning itself. Same old GM…..
It’s great to see GM sharing vehicles between the US and Australian markets but when are they gonna get their act together and bring the Holden Ute to the US and rebadge as an El Camino as it so deserves to be. I mean c’mon if the Aussies can get 450+hp 2SS HSV badged Camaros we should get a Chevy El Camino badged Ute, it’s only fair. Bring v8 powered RWD truck/cars back.
The Ute is gone, along with all Zeta based Holdens. Production ended in Oct. 17. The alpha platform (ATS,CTS, Camaro) could have been developed with RHD from inception, but budget cuts eliminated it. Ford spent the money, developed the current Mustang with RHD and now sells the car around the globe, all of them are assembled in Michigan.
Muscle/Sports Cars are in lower demand and therefore must be engineered for a global audience.
Mustang also has a global vs American design language borrowing cues from BMW, Aston Martin and Honda. Chevrolet should look at Avista for next gen inspiration.
You can’t change the branding of a Camaro, it’s a Chevy and always a Chevy, nothing else. HSV, leave the name alone.
HSV never had any intention of rebranding the Camaro as a HSV.
It is a Chevrolet Camaro, converted by HSV.
It says in the story above “… will be rebranded as an HSV …”
The story is wrong. If the car wears the Chevy bow-tie on the grill. it’s a Chevrolet.