Torana not in never never land yet!

[Stoney!]

Torana hopes still alive

Andrew Heasley, The Age, 09/08/06

Holden wants a small performance sedan, writes ANDREW HEASLEY.


The Holden Torana in the large foyer of General Motors Holdens new Headquarters in Port Melb. which was officially opened last night. Picture: John Woudsra


Holden's boss wants the company to make a smaller rear-wheel-drive sedan to rival the BMW 3-Series.

"I would tell you for a fact that we're still very interested in that," Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney said. "I wouldn't mind at some point in time trying to build a smaller performance rear-wheel-drive car."

The idea comes from a recognition that buyers are choosing smaller cars but still desire, Mr Mooney says, the driving attributes of a performance sedan that's affordable. "Quite honestly, there aren't any rear-wheel-drive, affordable performance-oriented cars in the market. If you want to buy a smaller rear-wheel-drive performance car you've got to buy a BMW. And they're not inexpensive cars. They're not affordable."

Such a car would be a logical fit, Mr Mooney adds. "I think it would be absolutely within the Holden image: a rear-wheel-drive, more performance-feeling kind of vehicle, with great ride and handling, but make it affordable."

That "performance" he says, is not a narrow definition measured in the sprint to 100 km/h, but a car that is responsive in handling dynamics as well, Mr Mooney says.

"There are plenty of people out there that love cars, love to drive cars, like to go out on a country road, drive a car and have it handle. That's what I think our heritage has been. That's why I think it would be a market we could do very well in."

How affordable? Think mid-$20,000s to mid-$30,000s, and powered either by a four-cylinder or six-cylinder engine, he says.

"With a four-cylinder you get fuel efficiency, but with rear-wheel-drive you'll get better weight distribution. You put a world-class suspension in there. It hits a market that, frankly, isn't there today."

The new Commodore is built on a flexible architecture that allows for short and long-wheelbase manufacturing, but it can't shrink small enough, cheaply enough, for a 3-Series rival.

That's because all the associated tooling and hardware has been made for the Commodore-sized car, Mr Mooney says.

"I don't know that you'd try to shrink this (Commodore platform) down. We've looked at that, but you've got to get the cost down if you want to hit the price points."

Instead, Holden would scour the GM "parts bin" to find a suitable donor chassis, he says.

Holden whetted the appetite of compact sport sedan fans at the Sydney motor show in 2004 when it took the covers off a metallic hot-pink Torana TT36 concept car. It was built on a modified Pontiac Solstice chassis, a rear-wheel-drive compact convertible sports car in the US.

"We were looking at that (Solstice) hardware as a potential base . . . to do a sedan off that. That's fundamentally what we'd do," Mr Mooney says.

The small car could be built in the same Adelaide plant as the new Commodore, he says, occupying up to half the factory's capacity.

Holden is now recognised within the GM world as expert in rear-wheel-drive car development.