FPV vs. HSV is basically Australian for “Ford vs. Chevy,” but on steroids. The two performance divisions have elevated the production of the muscle sedan to an art form, with audacious looks and big power ruling the day. It’s as if the original American muscle car era never ended, but got a passport and moved Down Under. Granted, we in the States don’t have much to complain about lately, with Aussie muscle now available in a Pontiac wrapper, as well as the 21st century editions of Camaro, Challenger and Mustang waiting to wreak havoc at stoplights.

Still, the sweetest fruit is that which is forbidden, so you might be interested in the Motoring Channel’s super acronym showdown: FPV GT-P vs. HSV GTS. The FPV is based on the new Ford FG Falcon, which arrived earlier this year, while the HSV’s Holden Zeta platform underpinnings are now a couple years old. Both have V8s, both look evil, and tires break into cold sweats at the mere thought of being mounted on either machine’s rear axle. With these two rides, the differences are such that picking a winner is akin to choosing between porterhouse and prime rib. It’s not as if you’re going to be disappointed either way, but deep down, you do have a preference.

Despite the fact that capping the cost of gas didn’t work out so well for Chrysler in the U.S., General Motors’ Australian arm, Holden, is launching a new incentive that guarantees gas will be 99¢/liter for two years after your vehicle’s original date of purchase. The system works much like the one Chrysler used: buyers get a debit card that they use when filling up their tanks. That debit card will be tied to the purchasers bank account, which will be debited a few days later for the reduced rate, regardless of how much the fuel had actually cost. If all of this sounds a bit confusing, click here for the details from Holden. We’ve also pasted GM’s official press release after the break.

As we mentioned, a similar promotion wasn’t too successful for Chrysler. There are a few differences, though. Chrysler’s vehicles aren’t quite class-competitive while Holden’s generally are. There were also more fuel efficient vehicles to choose from in the U.S., thereby making the gas card savings a bit irrelevant. In Australia where the V8 is still king, that’s not really the case. Will this new scheme make Holden’s V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive vehicles sell quicker? We don’t know… but we’re positive that a similar deal could go a long way towards putting an Pontiac G8 GT in our own personal garages.

“You guys are obsessed with rear wheel drive,” Alan Mulally mused to the Australian press after a browbeating about which pair of wheels might propel the Falcon into the future. Try as they might, the Ford Chief would not be pinned down about the chassis architecture of future Falcons, saying only that the choice would be customer driven, and plugging front and all-wheel drive vehicles as “pretty spectacular.”

Mulally is right that Ford’s global push to put exceptional small cars in showrooms is what the automaker’s focus is and should be. The Falcon has long fallen off its sales peak from the halcyon days of two decades ago, and while Mulally agrees that it’s “an absolutely dynamite vehicle,” small cars in the future will prop up the more niche-y vehicles like the FG Falcon. Mulally went on to say that Australia will serve as an engineering and product development outpost for Ford, and the big-vehicle prowess in Oz will be useful regardless of layout. As Ford pulls its global platforms together, the Ranger and Focus will come at us from Australia, too.

Although we carefully enjoyed the fleeting second we exhausted in on the Pontiac G8 GT, how whith its 361 horsepower and 385 pound-feet of torque and all, it is the following GXP perfect which actually looks as if it’s to catapult the Australian-bred sedan returning to musclecar territory. We, along amidst just recently regarding most any !no! gearhead, are actually seeming pass on to the six-speed stick and clutch pedal among that the 6.2-liter LS3 V8 writing 402 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque can be paired. Of course, the rest of the car needs to be up to snuff too, so we are content to take a gander at such spy photos of a pre-production prototype in Australia the suggest the nineteen-inch GXP-specific wheels and big Brembo disc brakes are up to date and accounted for. A faintly altered front fascia through a reduced splitter accumulate amidst the rear diffuser to funny things signify so now is the high-zoot version of Pontiac’s sport sedan.

Only, properties will not — when anything and everything you see there is virtual. Both the backdrop and the cars are CGI. The photo-realistic car tendencies got came up with utilizing the true cars’ CAD data. It’s all for a kind new FPV TV spot the current premieres in Australia the present Sunday. If you do not make a home in Australia, no warnings — FPV sent us a follow of the spot, that is now embedded once the jump for your enjoyment. And you should enjoy it. Right now, there is a void in our lifestyles shaped covet an all-black FPV F6, and right now commercial’s as conclusion as we are forecasted to turn up to filling it.

According to the recent reports. The efficient Australian automaker is legendary chiefly for causing Lotus/Caterham 7-style classic roadsters, among the new example replacing the outgoing Type-3 Clubman kit car and joining the V8-powered MS8 Streamliner (pictured above) in the company’s line-up.
The info was revealed by the company’s owner Tom Walkinshaw, the Scottish racing driver behind the eponymous Tom Walkinshaw Racing outfit. According to Walkinshaw, the new lightweight sportscar – that has yet to be named – is able to feature “electrifying performance and go-kart handling” surrounded by an atmospheric power-to-weight ratio thanks to a 1500-pound curb weight and 260hp approaching out of the turbocharged two-liter uni based on information from the Pontiac Soltice GXP. A six-speed manual is able to sweet out the package, along among ABS, energy steering and traction control. The new vehicle, that can be purchased for underneath $60k, is foreseen to be rooted on a tubular chassis in a composite person such a eschews the classic design of the Type 3 in favor of up to date styling, additonally continue to integrating open wheels among cycle-style guards. The new example promises to separate Elfin from what i read in the myriad firms churning out Caterham replicas and distinguish the firm as a competent sportscar-maker.

They are in posession of a strange conversation in Australia as opposed to we are holding up here, and we look for in on it. Holden has only announced who the limited-edition Holden W427 would hold 500 hp and 471 ft-lb of twisty motion. Sure, we experience the Corvette Z06 — that donated its engine for the W427 — but Australia’s alone got 20 million peeps. And a group of them do not dwell in homes at which you serves to provide the current Holden a best whipping.

The car might be foreclosed to clearly 427 units, and such housing and such a screaming red interiors could be coming at dealerships through an MSRP of $AUD 150,000… additonally taxes. Dealer allocation may be established on transactions figures from what i read in survive year. The W427’s limited run should make it easier for it, to be sure, but the values is larger amount of as opposed to dual the price levels of the Ford FPV F6, that goes for $AUD 65,990. The Falcon is low just about 80 horsepower vs. the Holden, but it is as well lowered on weight. We figure it is able to be while for Holden to invite Autosblogusa Down Under to concur the present after and for all.

[Source: Car Advice]

Toyota established today who it should engender the Camry Hybrid sedan at its Altona plant in the State of Victoria in south-eastern Australia on the coming up of 2010. Currently, the hybrid Camry is created one and only in Japan and the United States. The Japanese carmaker plans to engender 10,000 hybrid Camry vehicles every year for the Australian market. This would add to the pre&wshyp;existing four-cylinder Camry and six-cylinder Aurion vehicles designed at the Altona plant.

“We resolved to craft the Camry Hybrid in Australia as Australians are keenly informed of environmental questions and also overseas warming, and we are confident who the Camry Hybrid am able to be decently received. Toyota intends to form a large amount of efforts toward popularizing hybrid vehicles”, declared TMC President Katsuaki Watanabe at the drive conference attended by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

A man in Australia pulled out of a garage in his Ferrari 360 Spyder, took his chance to impress some gathered folks at cafes lining the street, and floored it. The car, as they say in the business, got away from him. The pole in the median did not. We’re never happy to see (another) wrecked Ferrari, or to see a man carted away from his toy by the police, so to you kids with Ferraris, please learn from this and stop the madness.

[Source: EHOWA]

Back when North American markets shunned RWD cars in the ’80s and ’90s, Australians couldn’t get an adequate amount of of them. That sentiment has been heard hastily impacting as the blokes low underneath are increasingly appearing to integrate a greater amount of miniature transportation to the Outback. The Australian municipal is in on the hybrid game, too, and has promised overly any domestic automaker the present produces a hybrid is planning to be greeted amongst a fist-full of orders. Toyota is listening, and the Japanese automaker has green-lighted the generation of 10,000 Camry hybrids per year at its Altona plant in Australia, construction it the principally automaker to form a creation hybrid in the front yard of Oz. The announcement comes one and only a few days subsequent to an Aussie legislator singled out Ford of Australia and Holden, GM’s Australian division, as corporations so desire to attain hybrids domestically so the authorities does not hold to buy imported Toyotas and Honda hybrids. Looks as it is period for the Australian federal to issue out in the checks. Its domestically made hybrid is on its way service of the Japanese.

[Source: Car Advice]