Slammin' Holden hot rod

Newswheel staff :: 14 October 2005 :: Filed under Coupe, Holden

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Sydney show concept hits the deck

With Tokyo 2005 looming, it’s easy to forget the Australian Motorshow opened in Sydney yesterday. Granted, there won’t be many high falutin’ launches down under. But even if this awesome in-house hot rod from Holden was the only car on show, it would still be worth the trip.

Based on the C5 (recently replaced by the C6) Chevrolet Corvette, the Holden Efijy (sic) is a homage to the legendary 1953 Holden FJ (well, it’s a legend in Aus, apparently). It’s also been built to showcase the talents of Holden’s local design team and relive the chrome-plated wonder years of the 1950s. But presumably not the food rationing, bigotry and wife beating. But we digress.

That’s showbiz
Clothing that Corvette chassis is a fibre-glass body that’s so curvaceous it’s almost rude. Attention to detail abounds from the gorgeous leather-lined interior, complete with a retro Dick Tracy-style information display, to the design of the steering wheel boss which is echoed in the headlight and wheel hub treatments. But the real showbiz items are surely the 20-inch front and 22-inch rear rims. Along with the one-piece front grille and body brightwork, they’re hewn from high quality billet aluminium. Lush.

Power, meanwhile, comes from a suitably hairy supercharged Chevy LS2 V8 in 645bhp, 6.0-litre trim.

Let the good times roll
According to Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney, "Efijy is all about fun, emotion and imagination. It shows what a bunch of clever and talented design people can do when they are let loose to create something really wild.”

If this is beginning to sound like a load of brochure bumpf, perhaps we should point out that there’s nothing in Holden’s current production range that’s even two per cent as classy as the Efigy. Needless to say, Holden has absolutely, positively no plans to put the car into production. It was ever thus.

That’s enough car pr0n.