General Motors has given Holden the green light to use the Corvette ZR1's LS9 V8 engine on a very special, final edition of the Commodore by HSV, before it kills the series along with its local manufacturing plant next year. The supercharged LS9 from from the C6 Corvette ZR1 will definitely be the swan song for the loved Commodore.
As we know, the last Commodore-badged HSV will be the fastest and most expensive vehicle ever and will be called the GTS-R W1. In the ZR1, the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 produced 638 hp and 604 pound-feet of torque. The car will be built on the 2017 Commodore's chassis. The standard vehicle will be built at Holden's Elizabeth plant and then shipped to HSV's facility in Clayton where the performance company will install the LS9 engine and go-fast goodies. The last Commodore will only come with a Tremec TR-6060 six-speed manual transmission. We expect the GTS-R W1 to be able to reach 62 miles in 4 seconds. This will make it roughly half-a-second slower than the ZR1.
The Commodore is sold in the United States as the Chevrolet SS. Currently, there's no indication that Chevy will send off its four-door muscle car with a ZR1-powered limited-edition model. It is expected that only 250 models will be built and the sedan will be an Australian-only affair. With the Chevrolet SS's abysmal sales figures, it's unlikely that GM would give the American sedan the same touches. The price will start at roughly $128,000. This will make the car even more expensive than the HSV GTS.