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By
EWAN KENNEDY
28 July 2008
The Walkinshaw Commodore of the 1980s was a stunner in its day,
and has gone down in Aussie automotive history as one of the best
performance machines from HSV. Twenty years down the track there
another stunning machine from the same company and in honour of
that original it carries a name tag of W427. The ‘W’ stands
for Walkinshaw and the 427 represents the capacity of its V8 in
cubic inches.
Muscle
car guys tend to hang onto American terms for their cars, 427 ci
converts to about seven litres in metric talk. While on the
subject of conversions, the engine produces 375kW, 500 horsepower.
The
HSV W427 was shown to a delighted public at the Melbourne Motor
Show in concept format in February this year and has just gone on
sale. Though if you want to buy one for delivery in 2008 it’s
already too late. Only 90 are to be assembled this year, and there
are names against every one of them.
In
clever deference to the cars name, only 427 will ever be built. So
if you are halfway interested it might be an idea to get down to
your local HSV dealer quick smart. It may even be worthwhile
asking about the possibility of getting hold of a cancellation of
one of the 2008 model year cars, but that seems like a faint
chance…
The
Chevrolet 427 engine is hand-built by the General Motors
Performance Build Center in North America. It’s used in only two
production vehicles; the Corvette Z06 and now the HSV W427.
It
produces 640Nm of torque and this big output required the use of
an all-new clutch, gearbox, differential and exhaust for its HSV
application. These will be fitted at HSV’s Clayton production
facility in Melbourne.
It
goes without saying that this car represents a full engineering
program on all aspects of the vehicle. The W427 has a six-piston
front braking system, six airbags, ABS and ESP (Electronic
Stability Control).
HSV’s
design team, led by Julian Quincey, has created a new look for the
front of the latest HSV. This features slots for plenty of cooling
air by way of a functional three-piece design. At the back the lip
spoiler is made of carbon fibre to reduce weight.
The
price of the Holden Special Vehicles W427 is $155,500, including
LCT (Luxury Car Tax) at the new rate of 33 per cent. Should that
new rate not come into play and the tax remain at 25 per cent the
price reduction would be in the neighbourhood of $5500.
Every
buyer of an HSV W427 will be able to book into a VIP tour of
Holden Special Vehicles Clayton facility to observe the W427 build
process. When they pick up their car they will receive a
personally signed letter from Tom Walkinshaw along with a unique
vehicle build certificate.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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