Mark Fogarty

Mark Fogarty

IT COULD have been very different. Had an ironic twist of fate not intervened, the Torana A9X wouldn’t have been Holden’s last official homologation special. A Super Commodore version of the original

VB model was not only proposed, but a prototype was actually built. The idea was to go head-to-head with Ford’s 351 cubic inch V8-powered XD Falcon on the racetrack and the road with a Chevrolet 350 V8-propelled high-performance Commodore.

The factory-fit small-block Chevy would have been accompanied by A9X-style flared fender extensions, front and rear spoilers, and bonnet scoop penned by legendary Holden designer Leo Pruneau. Of course, a VB Commodore with the 5.7litre Chev V8 never happened. The all-Australian Holden 308 (slightly shrunk to 304 ci/4.9-litres in ’85 for the international Group A rules) remained the biggest motor until replaced in the mid-1999 VT II by the imported Gen III 5.7-litre Chevy. But the fact that a big-engined VB could have come off the then Dandenong production line in Melbourne back in 1980 is an untold story.