General Motors' international headache has turned out to be good news for Holden V8 fans, as David Thomson discovered when he slipped behind the wheel of the Series II Commodore SS V Redline.
It'S an exporter's nightmare: you invest heavily in customising a local product for a big international market, that market turns sour, and you are left carrying the can.
That, pretty much, was what happened to Holden when General Motors did its back-from-the-brink restructure and put the Pontiac brand out of commission in the United States last year.
Holden had been exporting an Americanised version of the Commodore to the US, where it sold as the Pontiac G8.
The flagship model in that Pontiac line, the GXP, featured an up-rated sports suspension, special 19-inch alloys, and Brembo performance brakes.
With Pontiac gone, Holden was left holding an inventory of GXP parts, not to mention the research and development costs that had been sunk into this specialist performance model.
All this happened as the finishing touches were being put to the series II version of the current VE Commodore.
For most Commodore models, the series II upgrade has been a pretty minor.
The cosmetic changes are underwhelming, and the major mechanical innovation, flex-fuel E85 ethanol capability, has far more relevance in Australia than here in New Zealand.
That stock of spare Pontiac parts has, however, provided just what is needed to spice up the Commodore SS V: add the sports suspension, special wheels, big brakes, plus chrome window surrounds for further visual distinction and the standard $71,590 SS V saloon morphs into the $74,490 SS V Redline.
Redline editions of the Commodore Sportwagon and Ute are also available, but since the sports suspension tweaks were designed solely for the sedan, it's the latter - as tested - that gets the full treatment.
A little extra chrome and unique polished alloys (with plenty of space between the spokes to show off the four-pot Brembo brakes to full effect) hardly add up to a major visual change from the standard SS V.
Still, given that the overall Series II facelift is pretty light on visual tweaks (a new bumper and grille and slight changes to the boot are about it), these further points of distinction are welcome.
So, too, was the fact the test car was finished in Sizzle Red, one of four new colours introduced for VE series II.
The interior dress-up also plays in a low key: for the VE Series II, almost all the focus goes into a pretty successful redesign of the console-centre stack, which is topped by Holden's new and very user-friendly iQ multimedia display.
As well enabling touch-screen access to key controls, this acts as a display for satellite navigation, and for the car's rear-view camera.
Mechanically, the Redline is identical to the standard SS V model: Its 6.0-litre V8 is rated to produce peak outputs of 260kW and 517Nm, and as before delivers its power and torque to the rear wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission.
Alhough we don't have access to E95 blended fuel, the active fuel management system, introduced on V8 VE Commodores from 2009, carries over to VE series-II models, including the Redline.
This seamlessly deactivates every second cylinder of the V8 during light-load conditions in the interest of improved fuel consumption: using this system, the SS V Redline has a standard cycle economy rating of 12.3 litres per 100km.
Settling in behind the wheel, you pull away, with the somewhat soulless note of the engine at idle showing welcome hints of a traditional V8 growl under load in the transition from light to moderate throttle openings.
A hint of that reworked Redline suspension - which uses firmer damping and a thicker rear stabiliser bar than the standard SS V - is immediately apparent in a stiffening of the ride.
Given that the focus of this suspension is sports performance, there is only one way to put the SS V to the test - finding a suitably demanding stretch of winding road.
Driven hard over such a road, the Redline impresses.
As well as cornering flatter and faster than a standard SS V, it turns in more sharply and resists being thrown off-course by mid-corner bumps far more effectively.
The extra stopping power engendered by those big brakes is also apparent.
These attributes put together give you a car that is a notably quicker and a more satisfying point-to-point machine than a standard SS V.
This is both because it is equipped with the suspension, tyres and brakes which allow it to cover the ground more quickly, and because its improved handling manners give the keen driver the confidence to push that little bit harder.
Yet, unlike its flashier and even more potent HSV cousins, the Redline delivers superior handling without the uncomfortably firm ride that is a feature of the entry-level Clubsport model or the high price of the more expensive HSV models with magnetic ride control.
Looking to a future when fuel is so pricey that V8 enthusiasts take their cars out only once or twice a year for special occasions, it's easy to imagine the SS V Redline becoming one of the most highly sought-after collectable Commodore variants from the VE era.
That's quite an achievement for a project that started as an answer to a problem generated by unexpectedly leftover bits in an international spare-parts bin.
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