Motoring Friday,December27,2019
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wenty nineteen is a year that Holden is going to want to forget. Sales stumbled to their worst levels, its reasonably new CEO Dave Buttner left the building, and the Holden Commodore’s fate was finally confirmed. But there’s at least one nice silhouette on the horizon for the car-maker to look forward to, being the right-hook Chevrolet Corvette C8. And, the first of the breed has landed in Australia. Holden confirmed its Corvette Christmas on social media this week, showing the first Corvette C8 to land in Australia at its headquarters in Victoria. Given the timing, it’s unlikely that the new arrival is a right-hook variant set to go on sale. Instead, it’s most likely a test vehicle for local evaluation. Holden alluded to its plans for local tuning specific to Australian roads and conditions on social media (“You’ll find the Corvette to be tuned and tested for our roads and conditions” it said, in a response on Facebook), which will most likely concern the way the C8 rides on local roads. While American Corvette enthusiasts are picking up their new C8s as we speak, Australasian buyers are set to wait until 2021 for a local arrival. Local pricing is yet to be confirmed, but that didn’t stop us from taking a stab at guessing back in August. The Corvette’s 2021 arrival won’t just be momentous because of the fact its
Corvette coming
369kW/637Nm 6.2-litre twin-turbo V8 is mid-mounted for the first time. It’s also set to be the first right-hand
drive Corvette offered new to Australia and New Zealand. As it stands, it’ll also be the only ‘car’ in the Holden line-up alongside
the Spark hatchback when it arrives, given the scheduled 2020 departure of the Commodore and Astra.
Following in some giant footsteps
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wo young engineers from New Zealand have arrived in England to begin an internship established in honour of McLaren’s Kiwi founder, Bruce McLaren. University of Auckland students Elizabeth Grant and Harvey Merton are both following in the footsteps of Bruce McLaren who arrived in England in 1958 on a scholarship before going on to establish his racing team five years later. Bruce’s vision was always to build supercars. McLaren Automotive was established just under a decade ago to fulfil that vision and which is where Elizabeth and Harvey, who both have a passion for high performance engineering and cars, will spend the next two months. The company has produced some of the world’s most iconic supercars, most recently unveiling the Elva roadster which celebrates the renowned Bruce McLaren-designed M1A and McLaren-Elvas of the 1960s. Produced as ‘customer’ versions of the innovative and exciting Group 7 McLaren race cars, the McLaren-Elva sportscars embodied many of the pioneering design and engineering principles that are still integral to the McLaren road cars the company hand-builds today. Both Harvey and Elizabeth will be based at the iconic McLaren Technology and Production Centres in Woking, where they will have stints with designers, development engineers, the powertrain team as well as areas such as aftersales to gain a rounded understanding of the 2700-strong team.