HSV GTS Maloo

The "REASON"

Over the 20 plus years of HSV we have tried on several occasions to procure an 'Extra Special' Maloo . . . in the late nineties we tried to get a VS with the then 5.7L 220kw option and I was knocked back by chief engineer John McInerney at the time.

My timing was poor as he had the pending LS1/Gen 3/C4B upgrade on his hands . . . although I thought that if HSV wanted to do it they could have, it would have been the only Australian delivered 220kw Maloo ever . . . and a rare collectable HSV indeed.

Move on to 2009 and I had another try this time with current MD Phil Harding. Essentially with the arrival of the W427, I suggested that it would have been a coup for HSV to offer W427 owners a matching W Maloo with all the W fruit less the LS7. HSV may have sold 10 or 20 and W427 owners would have had something really rare to drive as a 'Daily' . . . well, after a chain of emails between Phil Harding and myself and a lot of keyboard lip service I finally asked for a YES or NO . . . and got a NO . . . whilst we believed this was an opportunity lost . . . that exchange was the catalyst for this project.

We believe HSV Management need to build a few more 'OSO' (off standard order) vehicles to create a deeper heritage factor for the future instead of just thinking of today! These 'one off' vehicles ensure my sons families will have something to relate to in the future and will ultimately help tie the next generation to the HSV Brand when occasions arise that enable a reflection in motoring history. . . Magazines like 'Australian Muscle Car' & 'Motor' have readers that thrive on these type of articles that ultimately make the consumer stay associated with the Brand. These vehicles need to be built for GM Execs, HSV Execs, Valued Customers, Celebs or the Media that have uniquely requested something extra special and once used they can be made available for sale to existing HSV owners or Collectors that will ensure their place in history is preserved much like cars from yesteryear that were specially built for people like Bill Bourke at Ford and John Bagshaw of Holden.

I sometimes wonder if there is much 'Soul' at the upper level of HSV management since John Crennan's retirement! In the end I had pretty much given up on a 'Special' Maloo from HSV and decided that at some stage we would do our 'Own Thing' based on a Maloo. 2009 saw a number of advancements in the base Holden & HSV Donor (Core) vehicles that played straight into our hands - namely an upgraded clutch, the TR6060 manual transmission and the HSV Bi Modal rear mufflers . . . more about the relative importance of these 3 revised components later.

The "VISION"

With the introduction of the HSV E2 we believed that HSV had taken some steps forward and some steps sideways BUT could see that the GTS (with optional AP 6 spot brakes) certainly made a statement and apart from some unnecessary fussiness in the styling, overall it was a good start.
We wanted to then create a GTS Maloo and then take it to the next level . . . but having taken delivery of a W427 we also had another consideration to address. The W427 is the first car from HSV to perform in the way we had expected, but had never been delivered . . . and the GTS Maloo had to match or exceed the performance of the W427. I recall my eldest son Mark driving the W427 home and on arrival stating - that's how all HSV's should go . . . his daily driver at the time was an E1 Maloo

We required 5 fundamental criteria for the perfect Holden/HSV . . . Handling - Appearance - Brakes - Seating - Engine Performance.

In addition to the base Maloo, the HSV Parts Department and the Australian Aftermarket made this happen. . . . as for the seats, we think HSV nailed it with the E series premium seats . . . as a daily driven road car seat.

But most important the GTS Maloo had to match or excel over the W427 and still retain all the 'Nice' things from HSV including Excellent Ride, Comfort and Low NVH (Noise/Vibration/Harshment) levels from Engine, Exhaust & Chassis.

The "SPECIFICATIONS"

HSV E2 GTS Wheels.
HSV GTS AP 6 Spot Front Brakes.
HSV GTS Styling Enhancements/Graphics/Paintouts.
Digital HID Xenon Headlights.
PCA/JBL Premium Sound.
Adjustable 'Coil Over' Suspension.
Rear Suspension Bush upgrade.
Exhaust Headers and 'Midpipe'.
Revised exhaust appearance at rear (Tips).
Revised Gear Selector - GM Ripshift.
Performance Engine Combination & Tune . . . including GM Motorsport 'OTR' Air Intake.

. . . and if we achieved all 11/11 we would have success.

The "STRATEGY"

We are not new to HSV's and especially HSV Maloo's. We have owned 27 HSV's inc 7 Maloo's over the past 21 years and this has given us a good feel for both what we want and what we expect. The GTS Maloo is our second E Series Maloo so we had a couple of years to get our thoughts & development up to speed!
We also have the advantage of personal access to some the finest "Holden" brains in Australia.
But before we started the project we had our standard E2 Maloo, our W427 & our E2 GTS dynoed at the same workshop on the same day using the same operator and settings that we personally checked as we needed accurate baseline data to use and analyse over the development of the GTS Maloo.

Then we broke development into separate categories
Concept & Delivery.
Product Sourcing.
Exhaust Development.
Chassis/Brake Development.
Cosmetics/Paintout Front Bar.
HID/Xenon Headlights.
Audio.
Spare Wheel Relocation.
Rip Shift installation.

At this point we could and would check all facets of the Vision Statement to ensure we still had a 'Nice' factory car that matched or exceeded the W427 in the categories completed to date.
LS3 Engine Enhancing and Tuning
Dyno Checks - Power/Torque/Emissions
Final 'On Road' Validation testing to set up Suspension Geometry/Tyre Pressures, check Fuel Economy plus the all important 'Drive By' noise level test.

The "DEVELOPMENT"

The "Concept to Reality" of our GTS Maloo certainly was easier than first anticipated. Sourcing all the parts to execute this project was a breeze and 2 years of research and thought certainly paid dividends.

The Looks

Obviously the Appearance/Cosmetics were easy and the sourcing of ID Graphics, Painting the two tone Front Bar, Brakes and Wheels was just a few phone calls and a 'Stack' of money!

The Exhaust

Far and away the most important concern was Exhaust and HSV made this easier with the recent E2 Release of their 'Bi-Modal' option & and this feature played right into our hands as we wanted to have the factory sound of the W427.

A set of Pacemaker Headers (Tri-Y 1.75") and the new Pacemaker Midpipe section (2.5") featuring V-Tex with Euro 3 Hi Flow Pacemaker Catalytic Converters created the desired result when coupled with the original HSV Bi-Modal rear mufflers and this enhancement itself resulted in a torque gain of 41nm & 11kw at the wheels with no tuning a great result in performance & kept NVH levels at the same as W427.

At this point we need to state that the HSV pipework from the Pacemaker Midpipe section to the rear Bi Modal mufflers is 2.25 inch . . . and that is a fair restriction in itself but I wanted to persevere with the original mission statement so that stayed in place (see pic). The other exhaust problem was the tips as we have never been a fan of either the 'Largish' rear bar on the E Series Maloo or the 'Smallish' exhaust tips that HSV have been using over the past years . . . or for that matter, I personally think that HSV have never really 'nailed' exhaust tips with the possible exception of the C4B tip and the current E2 SWB sedan tips so the 'pea shooters' had to go in the bin and new larger Chrome tips were sourced with some inspiration from SLP in the States.

The Spare

Next was the spare wheel issue - with the HSV 6 spot AP brakes came the necessity to have a spare that cleared the front calliper. On the GTS Sedan it is mandatory to buy the 'full size' GTS wheel as a spare but on the Maloo this doesn't mount in a satisfactory manner so we modified a space saver and had it accurately machined and balanced - then for additional safety we have set the max speed rating at 60kpm if or when this wheel is installed. . . . this was also a good weight saving exercise!

The Chassis

From there we moved onto chassis development as we had a delay whilst two of the 'Engine Tune' components were made available.

Chassis development proved to be time consuming and rewarding and the 'Coil Over' package used is very user friendly but still quite difficult to get the level of ride required to exceed the W427 . . . having said that, when development was completed this spring/shock combination with a set of urethane rear end bushes certainly is a 'Must Have' for a performance orientated Commodore owner.

Having a large variation in weight (Front to Rear) in the Ute made for a fair amount of adjusting and readjusting to get the rebound right . . and with the Longacre scales set up on all 4 corners we quickly gained the knowledge on where we had to go with the settings & tyre pressures . . . and we pretty much ended up with 'Sedan' type settings on the Ute . . . the result was a Chassis that suits us . . . and that is perfect . . . but I must say that the MRC settings and the overall suspension set up on the W427 is very difficult to improve and the HSV Engineers have done an excellent job! On the flipside HSV engineers should have developed a better tyre combo for the W427 with 'run flat' technology to save weight (See R35 GTR 'Bridgestone RE 070R's) and gain extra Grip. This would have also given the W427 even more separation & kudos from other HSV Models. . . . the full size spare alone weighs 31kg! . . . and please HSV, consider a 3.9:1 Differential Ratio option at your earliest convenience.

The Diet

It is also an advantage that the GTS Maloo ended (after modifications) 93kg lighter than the W427 and most importantly we gained a little advantage with the 'sprung weight/unsprung weight' ratio along the way and this ultimately helped make the GTS Maloo quicker point to point than the W427 on a typical Classic Adelaide Rally 'Special Stage'. Our home is located in Stirling - 20 mins from Adelaide and 20 mins from many of the Classic Adelaide special stages - and it doesn't get any better than that for a testing environment! The weight variation between the W427 & the Maloo before we started development was 51kg with the ute being the lighter.

The Powertrain

Then it was time for engine development and tuning and this is where the revised TR6060 Gearbox from Holden and the 'Revised Spec' LS7 type clutch introduced for E2 HSV came into play - essentially we could, with these two advances create the level of power required and have the durability and driveline refinement that this project demanded - and a big thanks to HSV & Holden for these two advances!

The Engine Tune factor in the GTS Maloo would require some clever thinking as the criteria for our LS3's performance was set to a high standard with difficult to achieve parameters - i.e. smooth quiet idle.

To achieve this required plenty of thought on our behalf and the expertise of Eddy Tassone from Active Automotive in WA - Eddy is one of the great thinkers/experimenters/developers in the Automotive Performance Industry and having had a long association with Ed, it was our immediate decision to call on his expertise . . . but Ed is in Perth and we are in Adelaide so this gap has to be bridged - enter Simon Podlewski from Morpowa in Adelaide. Simon has a close working relationship with Eddy so the result was a given! Our brief to Ed was clear - More Power & Torque than the LS7 with a smooth Idle . . . the GTS Maloo had to behave like a Stock HSV to ensure the ever increasing attention that the Government Authorities in all States is not drawn to the Ute.

With that challenge set, Eddy put the mechanical & tuning package together back at Active Automotive in Perth before the Team at Morpowa set about executing Ed's engineered package! . . . and with the new Camshaft, Valve Springs, Timing Gear, Harmonic Balancer, Ramjet etc installed , Ed's tune file only needed a final touch up to compensate for the unique (2.25" Bi Modal) rear muffler specs used & they (Ed & Simon) joined forces to create the final tune. . . . which ultimately exceeded our set targets for both Power & Torque.

Under the bonnet all looks original apart from the Ceramic Coated Pacemaker Headers and the latest OTR (Over the Radiator) cold air intake from GM Motorsport. This device designed and engineered by Phonsy Mullen in Melbourne is a 'must have' to complement LS3 Tuning and in itself made a huge contribution to the final Power & all important Torque of the GTS Maloo.

The Trans

Finally, one of my favourite items - The GM Motorsport 'RipShift' that makes driving a manual an absolute pleasure.

The Ripshift is one of those things that once you have tried it, there is no going backwards . . we are on our 3rd 'Ripshifted' car . . the Ripshift is almost an addiction!

The Results

The resulting engine performance numbers as measured on a Dyno Dynamics Chassis Dyno are. . .

Before

Std HSV LS3 Maloo - 254.2kw/571nm - Odometer Reading 291kms
Std HSV LS3 GTS - 267.7kw/589nm - Odometer Reading 2143 kms
Std HSV LS7 W427 - 311.3kw/642nm - Odometer Reading 1523 kms

After

GTS Maloo LS3 Optimised - 322.8kw/681nm (432.5hp in the old money)
. . . or if you want to use manufacturers stats - 388kw/521hp @ the flywheel !
The GTS Maloo Odometer reading at the final Dyno Session was 797kms.

N.B. These numbers have been used by us for comparison/validation only, the Dyno Dynamics Dynamometer provides a KW figure at rear wheels and calculates the torque at flywheel - which in itself is both interesting and accurate as HSV quote a torque figure of 640nm for the W427 and that is virtually what our W427 achieved - see table above.

The Dyno Graph also shows when the HSV Bi Modal Mufflers open (3200rpm approx) there is a slight associated spike in Torque & KW to match, which on this data - may - suggest that HSV/GM Powertrain may be slightly underquoting the 'advertised' Torque figure when the LS3 is used in conjunction with the Bi-Modal HSV option! . . . Hmmm.

There is also little doubt in my mind that the revised Midpipe & Tune on the E2 GTS 325 is a useful enhancement by HSV - see table above.

Please note that there are varying dynamometers on the market that calculate their power and torque figures using different data and calibrations. It was our intention to use the data gathered to compare the GTS Maloo with the W427 and realise the gains made in percentage terms . . . and with that said; we gained a 27% increase in Power and 19% and more torque across the majority of the rev range.

At this time we gave the Ute up to David Morley @ Motor for the Magazine Article before doing a final list of finishing touches that included more final tuning & a change to the Cam timing, braided brake lines (huge gains there), another 'corner weight' check as we had the full size spare in place when Motor did the road test and a little more shocker tuning on the front end.

We thought the Ute was pretty good when David Morley drove it . . . but now it is even sweeter!

The "PARTNERS"

A project like this requires a good combination . . . of both Product and People.

I cannot explain the advantage & value of 'positive' partners in this project

Pacemaker Headers
Ceramic Coat Australia
Eddy Tassone - Active Automotive
PPG - Automotive Refinish
Mark & Daniel Rutgers - JBL Audio
Phonsy Mullen - GM Motorsport
Alan/Mark/Simon - Morpowa
Paul Cushway - Suspension Components

SV Tech - Chassis Tuning
Procare Epoxy Paint Coating

. . . and if you want one just like this, (exactly) it will cost you $25,400.00 on top of an E2 Maloo with HSV Pack (Bi Modal/Leather/20's) and you get your old wheels, brakes, exhaust and all other parts removed to keep.

That works out about the same money (or less) as an E2 GTS with optional Brakes. . . . and delivers LS7/W427 performance . . . and some!

We have NO intention of making this package commercially available . . . but should you want to get hold of a machine like this,
contact us and we will 'steer' you in the right direction.