GM's Australian automaker Holden, famous for beastly "El Camino"-style cars with pickup beds and massive engines, is shutting its doors in 2017. But before the company goes out of business, they're reportedly cranking out their fastest-ever utility car.
In Aussie vernacular, a "ute" is anything with a pickup bed; car or truck. Here in the US, if anyone even knows the term they're probably describing one of these car-based utility vehicles. Most are humble, six-cylinder vehicles that are appreciated for their practicality.
But both Holden and Ford, the primary purveyors of these vehicles Down Under, also cook up performance variants... appreciated for their ability to haul ass and haul goodies back from (the Aussie equivalent of) Home Depot.
News.com.au via Mikeado say Holden, determined to go down in a blaze of tire-torching glory, will be stuffing the 560 horsespower/545 ft-lbs of torque-churning supercharged 6.2 liter V8 from their "$100,000 sport sedan" the HSV GTS into a ute.
The result would be something, somehow, even gnarlier than the already-awesome HSV Maloo R8. That's their current range-topping performance ute which is powered by a 435 horsepower/450 ft-lbs LS3 engine.
News.com.au says Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) boss Tim Jackson "refused to confirm such a car exists" but they report Holden dealers told News Corp Australia that an ultra high-performance ute "will be in showrooms by the end of this year priced about $85,000, making it the most expensive ute ever sold in Australia."
Apparently Holden already holds the "fastest factory ute" title as validated by Guinness, set in 2006 by Mark Skaife in an HSV Maloo at the Woomera rocket range with an "average top speed of 271.4 kph/168.64 MPH.
The Australians credit the 2004 Dodge Ram R/T-10 as the prior record holder, and 2003 Ford F-150 SVT Lightning before that.
Hat tip to Mikeado, Image is of the current-fastest HSV Maloo R8