THE FACTS: VE COMMODORE

• Despite Holden’s success over the previous decade, GM requested several studies to ensure there was no preexisting platform that the VE Commodore could utilise • The most likely candidate, Cadillac’s Sigma platform, was deemed too small and costly • The VE Commodore became project Zeta, which was planned to underpin an array of new, rear-wheel-drive GM models. All were cancelled except for the 2010 Camaro • The platform owed nothing to any previous or current Opel model and, engines aside, was the first clean-sheet design undertaken by Holden since the HQ model released in 1973 • VE sedans, wagons, utes and long-wheelbase sedans were exported to NZ, USA, South Africa, South America, Middle East and Korea, and to China as a CKD kit