Holden Special Vehicles

HSV was formed in 1987 as a joint venture between Holden and Tom Walkinshaw Racing, replacing the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) after Holden severed ties with Peter Brock and HDT due to controversy surrounding the Energy Polarizer. HSV initially operated from a facility in Notting Hill, Victoria, before moving in 1994 to a facility in Clayton previously owned by Nissan.

The first car developed by HSV was the Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV, released in 1988, badged and sold as a Holden for Group A touring car racing homologation purposes. It produced 180 kW and 380 N⋅m and was built entirely in Panorama Silver. It went on to win the 1990 Bathurst 1000. The first car to carry the HSV badge was the SV88, based on the Holden Calais (VL) and powered by a carburetted Holden V8 producing 136 kW.

The ClubSport has been HSV's highest-volume seller since its introduction in 1990, based on the mainstream Commodore. By September 2014 it had accounted for the 80,000th HSV built, and had also marked the 40,000th, 50,000th, and 75,000th production milestones. The GTS represented HSV's most powerful offering; the V8-engined GTS was introduced in Australia with the VP series in 1992 and continued through to the Gen-F series in 2017.

The Maloo is a performance utility produced since 1990, based on the Holden Ute. Its name means "thunder" in an Aboriginal language, coined by former HSV managing director John Crennan. In June 2006, a Z Series Maloo R8 set the world record for fastest production performance pickup at 271 km/h, beating the previous record held by a Dodge Ram SRT-10 by 22 km/h. The most powerful Maloo was the Gen-F 430 kW GTS Maloo launched in November 2014, originally limited to 165 units and later raised to 250 plus 10 for New Zealand export.

The Grange was HSV's top-of-the-line luxury offering, based on the Holden Statesman and Caprice. Introduced in 1997, it replaced both the HSV Statesman and Caprice nameplates and remained in production until 2016. The Senator was a luxury sports sedan based on the Holden Berlina and Calais, first introduced in 1992. The Coupé was produced from 2001 to 2006 based on the Holden Monaro, and included the GTO and GTS variants; an all-wheel drive Coupé4 was introduced in 2004.

The VT Series II (1999) introduced the 5.7-litre LS1 producing 250 kW across most of the range, with the GTS producing 300 kW. The E Series (2006) initially used the LS2 producing 307 kW; in April 2008 HSV switched to the 6.2-litre LS3 producing 317 kW, rising to 325 kW in the E Series 2 GTS. The Gen-F series, based on the VF Commodore, entered production in August 2013.

The W427 was released in 2008 to celebrate HSV's 20th anniversary and to address public disappointment after the HRT 427 project was cancelled. It was powered by a 7.0-litre LS7 V8 producing 375 kW and 640 N⋅m. The HRT 427 concept itself was based on a modified Holden Monaro bodyshell with a 427 cubic inch V8 derived from the LS6; only two road and three racing versions were ever built. The high cost meant the original asking price of A$215,000 was not viable for limited-run production.

The GTS-R concept was unveiled at the 2004 Sydney Motor Show, also based on the Monaro bodyshell, powered by a modified 6.0-litre LS2 producing 335 kW and intended for a one-make racing series, but never reached production.

HSV produced several non-Commodore vehicles. The Astra SV1800 (1988) was based on the LD-series Holden Astra, with 65 units built in both sedan and hatchback form. The HSV Jackaroo (1993) was based on the Holden Jackaroo, derived from the second-generation Isuzu Trooper, with 79 units produced. The HSV VXR Turbo (2006–2009) was a rebadged Vauxhall Astra with a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine producing 176 kW. The HSV SportsCat (2018–2020) was based on the Holden Colorado, available in V and SV trims.

A cancelled Colorado V8 project using the LT1 engine was HSV's final project before closure; two prototypes were built using powertrains from crash-tested Chevrolet Camaros, with ThunderCat among the considered names.

HSV exported to New Zealand and Singapore without rebranding. From 2006 in the United Kingdom, models were sold as Vauxhall under names including the Monaro VXR, VXR8, and VXR8 GTS. From 2008, the Middle East received Chevrolet Special Vehicles (CSV) models including the CR8 based on the E-Series ClubSport. HSV first reached the Middle Eastern market with a one-race series featuring stripped-down ClubSport R sedans in Dubai and Bahrain, the Chevrolet Supercars Middle East Championship.

In 2005, HSV provided sponsorship for the V8 Supercar team then called the Kmart Dealer Team, which adopted the name HSV Dealer Team. Holden opposed the arrangement, fearing it would undermine the Holden Racing Team's link with HSV.

In mid-2018 HSV began converting the Chevrolet Camaro 2SS coupe and Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD pickup truck from left-hand-drive to right-hand-drive to GM factory standards, boosting staff from 130 to 150. On 18 August 2020, General Motors announced the closure of HSV and its replacement by General Motors Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), which began importing and distributing the Silverado in Australasia from November 2020. The 90,000th HSV was built in December 2017.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.