After wanting to keep its under-bonnet options a guarded secret, Holden has been forced to admit that the Holden VF Commodore SS V-Series will retain its 6.0-litre V8 engine.
“The Holden will have a 6.0-litre engine as per the current line-up,” confirmed Holden director external communications Craig Cheetham.
The response comes following a CarAdvice news story that announced the VF Commodore SS will get the same 6.2-litre V8 from its Chevrolet SS near-twin – the Commodore SS will, however, retain the 6.0-litre V8 from the outgoing VE Commodore.
The confusion was due to the fact that CarAdvice was told at the national media launch of the VF Commodore that the Chevrolet SS will be a “lightly changed” version of the Commodore SS.
Holden is running to a ‘drip feed’ timeline of releasing details of the VF Commodore. Oddly, it allowed Chevrolet to talk about engine specifications before releasing under-bonnet details to the media in Holden’s own local market.
While the Chevrolet SS – destined for export to the US – shares almost all of its bodywork and styling features with the Commodore SS sold here, Australians get short changed in the engine department and with pricing.
Not only will the Chevrolet SS cost around $10,000 less in the US than the Commodore SS sold here, but retaining the 6.0-litre V8 for the Holden-badged product means Australian customers miss out on 0.2L engine capacity, and around 30kW of power and 10Nm of torque.
Holden still refuses to confirm details of its V6 engine range, though it is understood that both the 3.0-litre and 3.6-litre versions will continue, in a lightly revised format.
