HSV Maloo R8 LSA to light up Goodwood

THE supercharged HSV Maloo R8 LSA will elbow-barge its way past crowds of pommies and scream up the Goodwood hill in a cloud of tyre smoke at the famed Festival of Speed this weekend.

Announcing its arrival on the British market in the least subtle way possible – nothing less than expected from this Aussie hard-nut abroad – the V8-powered super-ute is expected to soar up the 1.9km hill-climb track in just 55 seconds.

Like any Aussie who takes a working holiday in London and comes back with a bit of a British accent, the UK-market Maloo wears Vauxhall badges in an attempt obfuscate its origins from out here in the colonies.

And, as if to take a swipe at Australia’s relative lack of old stuff like castles and Roman ruins, the motherland’s General Motors brand has drawn on its own back-catalogue to demonstrate how far the company’s technology has come in the past 113 years.

The 1903 Vauxhall 5HP fits neatly into the Maloo’s tray and at just 272kg, there is heaps of the ute’s 500kg payload left over for burly blokes, cartons of beer and Tim Tams.

Even with the museum piece onboard, the Maloo would still be faster than a pollie filing their expense claim, not least because its 400kW/671Nm supercharged 6.2-litre LSA V8 – shared with the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 – has 107 times the power output of its century-conquering cousin.

Vauxhall reckons the mighty Maloo would complete the Goodwood at least three minutes quicker than the vintage 5HP, which hits V-Max at a school-zone-friendly 40km/h.

Even with the Aussie’s 1449kg weight disadvantage, this proves there is no replacement for displacement. Especially when a supercharger is involved.

Looks like HSV is going to teach the Brits a thing or two, on home soil.