HSV has Sported its last Cat

Tuesday, 26 May 2020

The HSV Colorado SportsCat was a new direction for the Aussie company that is best known for its powerful V8s - a diesel ute with no extra power!

Holden Special Vehicles has shut its doors after 32 years of building high-performance home-grown machines.

The last vehicle to roll off the Melbourne assembly line was a white Colorado SportsCat SV and, according to Car Advice, is expected to be kept as a collector's item.

SportsCats didn't typically get build plates but this one has an engraved metal tag that confirms the finality of the ute. Incidentally, the build number of 1969 corresponds to the first year of Monaro production.

The HSV team and the last ever HSV vehicle, a SportsCat SV.

From here on out, HSV will begin transitioning to the new General Motors Speciality Vehicles (GMSV) business, which will remanufacture left-hand drive American vehicles into right-hand drive. That will include the new Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pick-up and, with any luck, the C8 Corvette at a later date.

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It's a smaller truck but still packing a 'Murican V8 under the hood. It will also be badged GMSV when it arrives here, not HSV.

* The Corvette may not make it to NZ after all

* HSV axes SportsCat and Camaro 2SS

* HSV confirms Chevy Silverado 1500 for NZ

* General Motors axes Holden operations in New Zealand

Negotiations with Detroit are reportedly still continuing about the ultimate plans for GMSV, including what US models might join the local line-up.

The 1500 should sell a bit better than the 2500 and 3500, which are larger and more expensive.

Despite HSV saying the 1500 'delivers a unique blend of performance and efficiency,' power is still sourced from a properly American 6.2-litre V8.

Performance is certainly a box checked, with 313kW of power and 624Nm of torque on tap. Acceleration stats are yet to be confirmed but we'd imagine it hauls to 100kmh a bit quicker than the diesel-powered Colorado.

In a statement to CarAdvice, HSV boss Tim Jackson said: “While it is the last Colorado SportsCat, internally we don’t view this as the end of an era in particular. Our business has been on a journey of re-invention for the last five years, and we continue down this path.

'Our focus remains where it has always been. Delivering great quality product and developing the next generation of aspirational vehicles for our customers.”