VL COMMODORE
NISSAN ENGINED COMMO, COP CARS & HDT TO HSV
When you look back, the time of the VL Commodore was littered with milestones and turmoil. Unleaded fuel was introduced, Holden’s six-cylinder engine was axed and replaced by a Nissan six, then a turbo – a first for an Aussie made family car, Peter Brock launched the Energy Polarizer and the Director and lost HDT Special Vehicles, then Holden Special Vehicles was born. There were two SS versions, one Brock one Walkinshaw, a couple of Bathurst wins and victory at the first round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship. That’s a lot.
So let’s start in the early 1980s and the Federal Government’s decision to rid lead pollution from vehicles and introduce 91 octane unleaded fuel on January 1 1986.
While many imported brands could achieve this relatively easily, for GMH this presented a major obstacle.
The much-loved Aussie-made 202ci six needed re-engineering in order to drink the new brew and whichever way Holden looked at it, the numbers didn’t stack up. So after 38 years Holden straight six-cylinder engine production ceased.
After scouring the GM divisions globally and finding nothing Holden looked at its rivals, even banging on Jaguar’s door and enquiring of their new 3.6-litre six, before making their decision.
Into the VL – the last iteration of the firstgeneration Holden Commodore went with an imported 3.0-litre fuel injected
straight six designed and manufactured by Nissan in Japan and codenamed RB30E. It featured an overhead cam, alloy cylinder head, produced 114kW and 247Nm and with only 1300 kilos to shove along gave the Commodore unprecedented performance.
Despite the power gain Holden execs were fearing sentimental backlash, but must have slept easy following the national media launch of the VL Commodore February 1986 with overwhelming positive reviews. Not only had the Commodore’s new powerplant received the thumbs up, so did the new (Nissan) transmissions – a five-speed manual and four-slot auto.
Importantly, buyers also warmly embraced the VL Commodore and its Nissan engine boasting new levels of smoothness, quietness, economy and performance, along with improved ride and handling due to revised dampers, new springs and smaller anti roll bars giving better balance and handling and a firmer ride without any discomfort. All up approximately 151,000 VL Commodore sedans and wagons were built.
But it was more than the new engine transmission combo that made the VL Commodore a stand out. It was the recipient of the biggest styling and interior makeovers since the Commodore made its Australian debut in October 1978.
The VL bodylines were softened where before there were sharp angles, and a small built-in rear spoiler became part of the bootlid. Every panel forward of the A-pillars was new and the new 85 per cent brighter (on high beam) homofocal headlights became rectangular, with the range-topping Calais featuring semi-retracting headlight covers, a first for a production Holden. Two-spoke steering wheels featured on the SL and Berlina with the Calais having a single-spoke design, along with new design front pews. The cabin was markedly quieter and upmarket compared to the outgoing VK.
Drivers looked at a new dash with round instruments replacing square ones, touch switches either side of the instrument binnacle operated the wipers, rear window demister, electric antenna and the headlight switch moved from the right-hand lower dash to the indicator stalk.
The graphics were all new and the centre console was redesigned for more storage space.
At the time of the VL launch, Holden was struggling to get its V8 to digest the unleaded nectar, but for racing purposes it was vital to have a V8, so Holden persevered and the five-litre vee eight finally saw the light of day September 1986.
It was still fed by a Rochester four-barrel carburettor and put out 122 kW and 323Nm, a mere eight kilowatts more than the Nissan six but around fifty more newton metres.
Holden had contemplated following Ford and dumping
the V8 rather than modifying it to suit unleaded fuel but didn’t and, with continual developments, Holden’s V8 lasted until 1999, before being replaced with the LS1.
But the big news on the performance front for the VL was the turbocharging of the Nissan engine, a first for an Australian made family car.
If buyers thought the standard six was quick, they were in for a treat with the turbo version with power ramping up to 150kW and 296Nm. A Garret turbo sat inside a water-cooled housing for longevity, while new pistons lowered the compression ratio and an updated cam reduced overlap. The turbo also wore its own intake manifold and exhaust. Bigger disc brake rotors were fitted to turbo models with local company Girlock providing the same front calipers as on the Corvette, necessitating a switch to 15-inch wheels. The turbo VL was offered in all variants
"AROUND 200 CALAIS WAGONS WERE BUILT FROM MARCH TO AUGUST 1988"
and with manual and auto transmissions.
The front cover of the
August 1986 edition of Wheels magazine had the headline Off theClock–theCommodore
Turboat217km/h, with the photos showing the tacho at 6000rpm and the speedo needle wound around to the stopper. Impressive.
The turbo Commodore was a tantilising proposition, an Aussie built family hack capable of 220 kilometres per hour (137mph) and the first to feature a turbocharger.
With such impressive out of-the-box performance it was little wonder police forces around the nation leapt onto the puffed Commodore as their highway pursuit car of choice.
The cop-spec VLs, coded BT-1, were based on the base model SL. Underneath they were fitted with the FE2 sport suspension so they sat a bit lower, some with a long-range fuel tank and all with multi slot steel wheels. By far the most popular colour was Absinthe Yellow, though some state forces opted for more subtle white or pale blue.
It wasn’t just Victoria and South Australia where the VL was made. New Zealand also assembled them and offered two Nissan sixes: A two-litre (RB20) and the three-litre. As in Australia, they could be bought with the manual and auto boxes, while the carbureted five-litre V8 got the three-speed auto.
South East Asia was another market, with both Singapore and Thailand taking Australian-built cars. The VL was also assembled in Indonesia with the last of them being the “Holden Calais 2000”.
Electronic Fuel Injection made its V8 debut in the VL Commodore on the Walkinshaw version of the Group A SS in 1988. This milestone car heralded Holden Special Vehicles as GMH’s new performance car partner. Sitting behind the EFI V8 was either the existing three-speed Trimatic auto or a Borg-Warner T-5 manual.
The VL Commodore lineup was a familiar one with SL, Executive, Berlina and Calais badges slapped on the new bootlid. Holden dumped the name Holden Commodore Calais in favour of Holden Calais.
Around 200 Calais wagons were built from March to August 1988 and are highly prized. They were offered with the six, turbo six and V8 and was an exercise in reducing the stockpile of wagon bodies before the VN. There was a bicentennial special in 1988, a limited-edition Series 200, with unique two-tone champagne paintwork and other goodies, but only offered with the naturally aspirated six.
The VL Commodore Group A SS has the distinction of being the only model made twice in the same body… and by two different outfits. The first 500, painted Permanent Red were assembled by Peter Brock’s HDT Special Vehicles with the second 500 the first effort of Tom Walkinshaw’s Holden Special Vehicles after Brock and Holden parted ways. If the Brock Group A looked mild the Walkinshaw version was wild with its over-the-top bolt on bodywork.
As for VL Bathurst wins, chalk up one a piece to Brock in 1987, as a privateer with HSV picking up the win in 1990. But the biggest VL Commodore win was by Allan Moffat and John Harvey in a Rothmans-backed racer, built by HDT and acquired by Moffat early 1987 after leaving the racing division of HDT.
With a tiny budget the Commodore lobbed for round one of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship at Monza, Italy. It crossed the line seventh but the top six cars in front failed post-race inspection and were disqualified, handing the victory to the Commodore.
Yes, a lot happened in the time of the Holden Commodore VL.