ANOTHER ’DORE OPENS
PART TWO OF OUR THREEPART COMMODORE HISTORY OUTLINES THE VN’S DIFFICULT, PROTRACTED BUT VERY LOCAL GESTATION
LAST issue, we took you on a journey through Holden’s rocky transition from producer of ‘Australia’s Own’ car to GM global team player. We tracked the Commodore’s shift from its Opel roots as Holden’s engineers corrected suspension, steering and interior issues not apparent overseas. The Aussies steeled the Commodore for local conditions, adapted it to accept Holden’s big, boofy drivelines and, model by model, tailored it to our tastes.
Sales-wise, it’s true Holden played catch-up during the first Commodore’s production run; the company’s gamble on the V-platform ‘world car’ was born of escalating fuel prices, a crisis that dissipated the moment the small Commodore appeared. Ford’s similar yet opposite wager paid off, the fullsized ‘Blackwood’ Falcon almost immediately toppling Holden from the peak of the sales charts.
It’s telling that Holden blasted out five different models (VB/VC/VH/VK/ VL) across the Commodore’s first generation to the Falcon’s three (XD/ XE/XF), with the local GM arm left smarting to the tune of $700 million in losses. But for all the updates made to differentiate the Commodore from its German heritage, the one thing Holden could not address was the most important: space.
As early as 1981, the boys in the backroom knew that the next-gen Commodore had to be bigger in order to regain lost fleet, taxi and police sales and put Holden back on an even footing with Ford. But could they afford it?
THE FINAL PROPOSAL FOR THE VN WAS NEARLY 100MM WIDER THAN THE OUTGOING VL
CHUCK Chapman, then Holden’s managing director, understood that a true Falcon competitor would need a massive investment from General Motors, something far from guaranteed given the losses of the previous decade.
With Opel working on a high-tech, aerodynamic replacement for the Rekord and luxury Senator, Holden looked again to leverage off its German cousin. Things were promising, with the new Opel twins, Omega and Senator, resting on a big 2730mm wheelbase – up some 62mm on the previous generation. Nevertheless, the lack of width remained a problem.
Holden brass attempted to influence Opel into creating an Omega wide enough for everyone to share, but it was not to be. In October 1982, the boffins in Germany informed Holden that any further increase in girth would negatively affect aerodynamics, something they were not willing to concede.
Around the same time, Ray Grigg, Holden’s director of planning, laid out four directions for the new Commodore to the company’s strategic planning committee, the most costly of which was to splice the Opel down the guts and plonk it on a widened VL floorpan.
Executives at the meeting were acutely aware this would create an enormous amount of work and expense, but equally, set the company’s course and profitability for years to come. Yet despite a swift schooling by fleet managers and the buying public, Chapman still needed convincing that the new Opel Omega wouldn’t work here as it was.
The planning department’s Roger Gibbs worked with design staff to sway the Holden boss; in March 1984, they sat Chapman in an adjustable seating buck, along with a procession of Holden executives, and set the structure to mimic the proposed widths of the Opel and the wider Commodore. Still to be convinced, he countered: “This is static; you’d get a different impression of size if you were moving.” After all, it would be his buck-testing arse that would have to beg for GM’S money.
Cue an 80s montage and the purchase of one XE Falcon, cut, shut and restructured to replicate the proposed interior dimensions of the new Commodore, then loaded with said executives for a thorough back-seat road-test. This also included a standard Falcon and current, 80mm-skinnier VK Commodore for good measure.
Following the test, the decision was unanimous: Chuck would take the proposal for a wider Commodore to GM. Not only that, it needed to be wider than originally planned! If GM would pony up the cash for 80mm, then 90mm would cost no more, ensuring the new Commodore’s header rails sat a sufficient distance from the rear passengers’ eyes. The final proposal was nearly 100mm wider than the outgoing VL and, unbeknownst at the time, 3mm wider than the forthcoming EA Falcon.
On 23 January 1985, Chuck Chapman and Ray Grigg gave a 15-minute presentation to GM heavies at the Warren Tech Centre in
Detroit to convince them of the idea. They were granted $200 million for the new Commodore, $50 million of which would go towards creating the new car’s desperately needed increased width. So how to build a Falcon-sized car starting with an Opel-sized butt?
Phil Zmood and his design team had free reign, but for cost reasons still referred back to the Opel twins where possible, especially for the trick flush glasshouse. The Senator donated doors and roof, while the Omega offered a template for rear quarters, albeit with some revisions. At the pointy end, the Opel’s slippery but controversial frontal area was also up for review. The German car’s drag coefficient was 0.28, making it the most aerodynamic sedan in the world at the time, but Chapman knew that Aussies cared about width more than wind! Zmood’s altered frontal treatment also had to hide the new Commodore’s VB-VL chassis origins; 19mm extra grafted to each sill did not translate to suspension geometry and there wasn’t enough cash to widen it to match. Zmood’s solution was a masterstroke. By ditching traditional integrated wheelarch flares, the car could sit comfortably over the narrow VL’S 1451mm front end and blend subtly outwards to meet the wider body, leading to a 1478mm rear track, up 45mm on the previous model.
Releasing Holden’s designers from the constraints of the Omega’s major datum points meant the pitch for a long-wheelbase wagon, with costs to be shared across a long-wheelbase luxury sedan and ute, was relatively easy. The consensus within Holden was that the Omega’s wagon variant was too boxy, and when combined with the longer wheelbase became positively hearse-like. “We restyled the wagon completely; we still have a massive rear cargo area, but we also have a total vehicle rather than a sedan with a box on the back,” Phil Zmood said at the time.
While stylists were busy revising the Opel shape to suit Holden’s underpinnings, drivetrain engineers were sweating over the engine. With the deal to purchase Nissan’s RB30E motor for the still-upcoming VL signed in 1983, the silky-smooth six was the obvious choice; furthermore, Nissan Australia was keen to build the motor locally as a 3.3-litre, but needed Holden’s long-term commitment to seal the deal.
It was the marketing department, rather than the engineers, that saw a problem: The big, new Commodore needed a big engine to suit, and the Nissan’s capacity simply didn’t look butch enough on paper to match the Falcon.
With time ticking away and no serious alternatives to the RB30E locked in by mid-1986, Chuck Chapman and Don Wylie, director of engineering and design, flew to Detroit to check on the progress of Buick’s 3.8-litre V6, an engine previously dismissed for the VL as being too raucous! Testing it against a spanking-new, Rb30e-powered VL Commodore specially flown to Detroit, the boys were impressed with the motor’s newfound refinement and approved it for fitment for the upcoming VN, backed by a four-speed auto and five-speed manual. Knowing the new Commodore was only two years away, they hedged their bets, not cancelling the Rb30e-powered project until mid1987 when they could be sure the V6 was on track for a 1988 release.
While the path of Holden’s mainstream six was fairly convoluted, the development of the V8 was far more linear. Decimated fleet sales aside, the smaller Commodore had forged a considerable reputation as the sportier alternative against the big Falcon, especially after Ford officially cancelled their V8 option in late 1982.
Buoyed by the Commodore’s successes on the race track and Street
Machine’s own emotive ‘V8 ’Til ’98’ campaign launched in 1984, the 5.0litre was officially green-lit in mid-1986.
Launching in early 1989, the VN V8 ran new heads, inlet manifold, exhaust manifolds, camshaft and more internal stiffening ribs to eliminate bore distortion. The big news was the port fuel injection controlled by a Delco engine management system. All up, it returned 165kw; not much by today’s standards, but enough to propel the new Commodore to 100km/h in the low sixes. Optional across the range and standard on the new Commodore SS, it forced Ford to rethink its lack of a V8 programme.
So was the VN Commodore just a regurgitated Opel? Doors aside, not really, and even less so than its predecessors. Six years, 19 prototypes, 150 pilot production cars and hundreds of stylists, engineers and line workers point to it being a true Holden.
FOLLOWING the death of the HZ Kingswood in 1980, Holden’s beloved chassis soldiered on as the WB in luxury sedan and commercial form only. By 1985, they were gone too, leaving a long-wheelbase-sized hole in Holden’s range.
Although seen as a return to form for Holden, the VQ Statesman and Caprice luxury twins, released in March 1990, were heavily criticised for sharing too many parts with the VN Commodore. As spectacular and un-opellike as the unique hidden C-pillar appeared, the front quarters, bonnet, headlights, boot lid and tail-lights were all Commodore – a trap Ford avoided when designing the NA Fairlane and DA LTD, which used only the windscreen and front doors from the EA Falcon.
While the 14-speaker stereo cassette system in the Caprice was pretty speccy, it was the long-awaited introduction of Independent Rear Suspension, a first for an Aussie luxury car, that upset Ford’s apple cart. The VQ and VQII previewed several other mechanical upgrades that would see their way into the 1990 VN Commodore update and 1991 VP range, including Holden’s first local ABS braking system.
Riding high on the success of the VN and VQ, just five months later Holden returned to the lucrative commercial market with the VG. Essentially a VN ute, it reintroduced the columnshift auto with a bucket-bench-bucket seat that would filter back through into taxi-pack sedans and wagons. More importantly, by way of a V8 option, it established the Commodore ute as a performance player. Interestingly, there was no Opel equivalent.
ALTHOUGH SEEN AS A RETURN TO FORM FOR HOLDEN, THE VQ STATESMAN AND CAPRICE WERE HEAVILY CRITICISED FOR SHARING TOO MANY PARTS WITH THE VN COMMODORE
REFINEMENT and quality fixes slipped quietly into production during the VN’S lifecycle were heralded as new upgrades with the 1991 introduction of the VP facelift. The VP Commodore was the first to include ABS and IRS – standard on the SS and Calais, but optional across the range. Also fitted to the Calais was Bosch’s Body Control Module system, designed to control speed alert, auto headlights off and the Variatronic power-steering system.
In mid-1993, the VP gave way to the VR, a major re-style and re-engineering project good enough to win Wheels Car Of The Year that year. Holden altered the glasshouse for the first time, taking the design further away from the Opel donor, as did a new nose and tail. Holden stylists reintroduced wheelarch flares over the front and rear guards, made possible as engineers finally addressed the suspension geometry, adding 40mm to the car’s front footprint. The Statesman and Caprice, having forgone a Vp-model upgrade in lieu of an official VQ Series II, received all new rear sheet metal for the VR, mimicking the rear styling of the early-90s Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
The visually similar VS of 1995 saw Holden concentrate on engine upgrades for the final model of the second-generation Commodore. The V6 was given a thorough re-engineering and rebranded Ecotec, receiving a new block, heads, manifolds, sump and a sequential EFI system freeing up an extra 17kw, with six per cent greater efficiency. The L67, a supercharged version fitted with an Eaton blower, appeared as an option with the VSII Calais. Casting an eye to safety, the VR and VS respectively saw Holden introduce driver and passenger airbags to complement the ABS system s filtering gradually through the range.