# GTO turns heads



## 05GTO (Oct 6, 2004)

*GTO turns heads*








*HSV's limited edition GTO has incredible street presence* 
13 April 2006 - Chris Riley​
About the only thing you need to know about this car is that it's guaranteed to turn every head in the street.

That's before you even fire up the 6.0-litre V8.

Bearing in mind that it's one of 100 limited edition HSV GTOs and one of just 25 red ones (the ones that go faster), we can't say that we're surprised.

The GTO LE (ours was number 81) could be the last hurrah for the coupe which is not part of the new VE Commodore lineup due for launch later this year.

Holden is still exporting the GTO to the States which guarantees supply for a while, but for how long is anyone's guess.

According to HSV, production will continue in a "limited fashion" in 2006. 

"This is possible because the HSV Coupe shares certain powertrain components with the export Pontiac GTO for the US Market," it says.

After the run of special editions is finished, HSV's Paul McDonnell said production will return to normal, but stumps have been called for August.

There's already talk of a new Monaro and of course that means a coupe from HSV to go with it, but even if there is – it's not likely to be a ridgey-didge Commodore based one.
"That's the end of the model," McDonnell said. "The HSV GTO is effectively the last Aussie coupe." 

We spent the weekend in the HSV GTO LE only to find ourselves the centre of attention wherever we went.

It's an accolade that soon wears thin, especially when every man and his dog wants to race.

As an owner you'd also grow paranoid pretty quickly about parking the thing anywhere – but it's all part of the fun.

As well as the you-beaut red paint job with white accents, our GTO LE came with matching red Indiana leather trim, enough to put any self-respecting Alfa to shame.

There's also a discreet roof spoiler over the rear window instead of the usual boot mounted job, stainless steel dual exhaust system with quad tail pipes and the car sits on spectacular 19-inch 10- spoke alloys with ultra low profile 35 series rubber.

This car just oozes machismo.

Inside, you get Bluetooth and premium dash highlights as part of the package.

Brakes, meanwhile, have been upgraded to an AP Racing 4 Piston Premium System, with adjustable APS suspension system optional – front discs are 343mm are rear are 315mm.

Just to cap things off our car came with the Victorian number plates "LSTWO".

Power comes from HSV's 297kW LS2 V8.

The 6.0 litre LS2 is a lift from the American Corvette and produces 297kW of power at 6000rpm and maximum torque of 530Nm at 4400rpm.

Fitted with a Tremec six-speed manual transmission, it accelerates from 0 to 100km/h in 5.2 seconds.

That said, it didn't feel anywhere near as quick as the Senator we drove recently which in auto form is good for 5.1 seconds.

A four-speed auto is also available.

Like the Senator, it will spin the wheels going from first to second gear, regardless of whether traction control is turned on or off.

For such a large engine fuel consumption during testing came in at a respectable 13.8L/100km, with plenty of freeway cruising thrown in – but it will chew through the juice as quickly as you want to go.

Our passengers were surprised to find the coupe seats four, not five, people – so it's worth reiterating.

For night driving we found the standard lights even with the fogs turned on lack lustre and would have liked to have seen xenon lamps part of the package.

The optional sunroof fitted to our test car restricts headroom and the 260 watt Blaupunkt 10-speaker sound system is a bit ordinary when it comes to handling the low notes.

The HSV GTO LE is priced from $83,990.


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## SloTymer (Sep 16, 2005)

Woohoo, for $50,000.00 I can have white stripes on my hood and bigger wheels. Oh I forgot it’s got “Blue Tooth”. :confused 
Well I can have green teeth if I stop brushing them.


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## 6QTS11OZ (Mar 27, 2005)

$83,990?  Can you say '06 Z06 boys and girls? Since mine is an '05 with 14,000 miles I would sell it for around $50,000 if anyone's interested. You'll save $33,990 + sales tax, license, luxury tax, etc. With that you could easily get all of the same mods done as this one with cash left over. PM me if you're interested :rofl: .


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## Clueless (Mar 2, 2006)

Just ran it by a converter (XE.com) out of curiousity:

83,990.00 AUD Australia Dollars = 61,194.90 USD United States Dollars

 

I don't know how much is reflected into conversions though (like in some countries certain items just run cheaper or more expensive than in the US). Either way, that is a big premium to pay just to get stripes, bluetooth, a different spoiler, bigger tires, and better brakes. The better brakes was the only thing out of the list that even sounded interesting to me, personally.

I think I'll stick with my half-price, stealthier Goat.


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## Mad_Dan_Eccles (Mar 25, 2006)

Clueless said:


> Just ran it by a converter (XE.com) out of curiousity:
> 
> 83,990.00 AUD Australia Dollars = 61,194.90 USD United States Dollars
> 
> ...


There's little point in trying to equate vehicle costs over different markets - whether the product is gas, cars, a tall skinny latte with extra shots or pharmaceuticals the cost will be whatever the market will bear. That's why the _Economist's_ reserch departent developed the Big Mac index since this gives a pretty fair indication of the actual cost of living in different cities around the world.

http://www.economist.com/markets/Bigmac/index.cfm

Since this is a limited edition of just a few cars it's going to sell to those who just have to have one and the price will be whatever they will pay. It proabaly won't have much correlation with local prices for junk food, takeout coffee or dog shampoo


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## Groucho (Sep 11, 2004)

Nice.

Much prettier snout than what we get.


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## Kingsford (Sep 30, 2005)

*No thank you!*

I think the new snout makes it look more like a ricer and the wheels look like $hit! I don't like stripes and don't care about bluetooth. All you're getting is an expensive brake upgrade. The Aussies can keep that one.


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## Xman (Oct 31, 2004)

Kingsford said:


> I think the new snout makes it look more like a ricer and the wheels look like $hit! I don't like stripes and don't care about bluetooth. All you're getting is an expensive brake upgrade. The Aussies can keep that one.


You could have at least waited a post or two after Groucho's before you launched those comments! The beauty of the GTO goes more than skin deep.


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## Kilboy (Mar 17, 2006)

I like the looks of the car but for the price I would never purchase it... I couldn't be happier with my Baby... and knowing that I paid about 1/3 the price just makes me


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## Kingsford (Sep 30, 2005)

No disrespect to Groucho intended. I love the clean, flowing and simple lines of the Monaro and GTO and still think it's a miracle this car made it to our shores. I just don't like the snout or wheels and think this example offers too little for way too much.


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## I Stall Automatics (Aug 10, 2005)

Why waste a dollar on looks when you can waste it on performance? 

And you can get AP Racing 6-piston 14.25" front brake & 4-piston 13.5" rear brake kits for much less than 30 grand. :cool


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## slowride (Sep 2, 2005)

Kingsford said:


> I think the new snout makes it look more like a ricer and the wheels look like $hit! I don't like stripes and don't care about bluetooth. All you're getting is an expensive brake upgrade. The Aussies can keep that one.


 I agree. Way too much Mitsubishi in that one.


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## nanood62 (May 24, 2006)

Well nothing like peoples opinions to rev up the day and to keep it interesting.
Some ussie web sites, they may be worth a look. 
http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/
http://www.hsv.com.au/index_new.html
http://www.monaro.com.au/intro/index.htm

Have a great day guys


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## hunter35 (Jun 28, 2006)

I still like the looks I get from family guys while packing the kids and the wife back in the mini-van.....:willy: :cheers 
Still very nice...


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## HotRodGuy (Jan 9, 2006)

I wish we got the aussie Climate control setup, one of the few things that bug me about this car


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