During Car Showroom’s week with the Holden Commodore SS we had a function at our daughters’ kindergarten – in a heartbeat nearly every dad was out in the street, checking-out the bright green Holden…the mums stayed inside.
Sums up the SS.
With the mighty 6.0-litre Generation 4 V8 churning out 270kW of power and a massive 530Nm of torque and driving the rear wheels through a sporty six-speed manual (or 6-speed auto), the Commodore SS is part of our automotive folklore, and it keeps getting better
Outside is a beautifully crafted body kit with large spoilers front and rear, side skirts and SS badges plus four tailpipes.
Inside the story continues with bold SS embroidery on the sports seas (leather optional), a thick leather-bound steering wheel, a six-stack, seven speaker sound system and trip computer.
Underneath are meaty 18-inch alloy wheels with wide 245/45R 18 tyres and sports suspension comprising a limited slip differential, reduced ride height and firmer springs and dampers.
Holden’s Electronic Stability Control package includes ABS (anti-lock braking system), EBD (electronic brakeforce distribution) and TCS (traction control system).
All very impressive, especially when you consider it just comes down the assembly line at Holden’s Elizabeth (South Australia) plant like any other Commodore (although the very first SS was created as a limited production run car by Holden Special Vehicles).
And at $45,790 for the manual or $47,790 for the auto, the SS is absolutely great value-for-money.
In fact we would say it is one of the best all-round best high performance sports sedans to be found anywhere on the planet.
That’s a bold statement considering earlier models of the Commodore SS didn’t really tick the boxes for precision and refinement.
Subtlety isn’t the strong suit of the SS and living with one would not be easy – for starters every Boy Racer in town wants to line you up at the traffic lights. Then there is the clutch which – understandably with all that power and torque – gets very heavy in stop-start peak hour traffic. And the front spoiler would scrape on just about every Melbourne city carpark we encountered.
But give the SS its head out on a good open road and you quickly get what this car is all about.
Yes it’s raucous, yes it is heavy and not fuel efficient, but it goes hard and the chassis is actually very nicely balanced. Holden’s self-developed sports suspension provides just the right combination of firm ride and feedback without becoming intrusive or harsh.
We could not fault the brakes but some critics have suggested the SS does need some extra stopping power.
And remember you get all of this in a full-size four-door sedan with ample room in the back and a massive trunk. Yes, a high-performance V8 sports sedan that is actually practical.
To be honest, the Car Showroom team would be willing to accommodate the daily ‘burden’ of owning a SS Commodore. We would ignore the blokes wanting to race us, we’d carefully plan the approach angles at carparks to avoid scraping the front spoiler and we would smile each time we pressed that heavy clutch again in the peak hour traffic.
