HOW CLOSE WAS PONTIAC TO GETTING NISSAN GTR ENGINES FROM FACTORY
Brief History
It all started back in the late 1970's. The Australian government decided to place a ban on lead being in petrol. (gasoline for our American friends) Only unleaded was to be sold moving forward. So why was this an issue? Lead Lubricates the valve seats helping engines run reliably for years, this meant new engines would have to be created or existing engines would have to be modified to run on the new fuel and meet new performance targets, that meant big $$$$$ in research and development costs. Money at the time GMH (General Motors Holden) didn't have.
Nissan RB engines in a Holden
With it not possible to create its own engine and mum and dad at GM in America not being able to supply an engine to meet the needs of the Australian commodore, Holden had to look elsewhere for engines.... Say hello Nissan and their RB series of engines!
RB30E
In 1983 Holden and Nissan signed a deal that meant Nissan would Supply engines for Holden's new upcoming VL model Commodore. These engines were:
-RB20E 2litre inline 6
-RB30E 3litre inline 6
-RB30ET Turbocharged 3 litre inline 6
The most famous and now infamous engine of the three was the mighty RB30ET. Producing 201hp in factory form, it propelled the humble family sedan to a top speed of 137mph back in 1983. This was the highest power model out of the entire range, even beating out Holdens very own 5 litre V8 engine which could only manage a pathetic 164HP. It was for this reason the police opted for the turbo models for pursuit vehicles and were given a special version of the Turbocharged beast known as the BT1. It's not uncommon today to see RB30's producing anything from 1000 to 1500 HP across Australia in street cars with some Nissan GTR's even getting RB30's dropped into them due to their ability to make large HP with great drive-ability thanks to those extra cubic inches the 3 litre offers over the 2.6 litre
RB30ET
So what does all this have to do with the GTO G8 and SS
A few years had gone by, the VL Commodore had done well and it was time for Holden to release not only a new model of car, but a whole new era of car.
Holden's new 'large body' VN Commodore sedan and the future models to come after would need a good stable economy engine to power it, and with the Nissan RB engines proving their worth in the VL, Holden saw absolutely no reason to change from the Nissan RB family which Nissan was still constantly developing and upgrading. Holden proceeded to engineer its new 'large body' design with the RB series of engines in mind. This 'large body' design is the current base design on which all variants of the Commodore are built from, this includes the Monaro (GTO), G8 and SS.
VL Commodore
VN SS Commodore
VR SS Commodore
VT SS commodore..... The Car on which the GTO was born from
VX SS Commodore
VY SS Commodore
VE SS Commodore
VF SS Commodore
So what went wrong?
Sadly like many aspects of life, it all comes down to money. In 1988 the Australian dollar fell in comparison to the Japanese Yen, this meant for Holden it wasn't cost effective to fit the highly regarded Nissan RB range of engines in its new large body commodore and once again Holden had to scramble for a new engine. This time Mum and Dad at GM had an engine that was suitable..... the Buick 3800 V6, which led to the Ecotec V6 then the Alloytec and so on. This was the pivoting moment in time in which Holden made the change from inline 6's to V6's and never went back. This is how the Monaro, VE and VF commodores ended up with V6 engines which resulted in the G8 receiving its V6. While the GTO and Chev SS never had a V6 in the USA, in Australia we did get V6 variations of both, with the Monaro (GTO) receiving the L67 and the VE and VF receiving LY7 amonst other engines.
Buick/Holden V6 3.8 litre found in the VP/VN,VR Commodore
Holden Ecotec V6 3.8 litre found in the VR,VT,VX,VY commodore
Holden LY7 Alloytec V6 3.6 litre found in the VZ commodore and some models of the VE (G8)
It should be noted Australia had multiple V6 engine choices the USA never got for the VE (G8)
To this day, when you open the hood on many models of commodores created after this deign change, you can see the evidence of where Holden's engineers had allowed for the length of a inline 6 engine vs the short V6. Holden hid this space with a large fan shroud for the radiator thermofan
What could of been
Nissan kept developing the RB engines and even released the legendary RB26DETT 2.6 litre twin turbocharged inline 6 monster, which came out in Nissan Skyline GTR's and was used until 2002. This engine in the R32 GTR chassis went on to dominate Motorsport worldwide, pretty much winning every race the GTR was entered into. So much in fact, that in Australia the Skyline was dubbed 'Godzilla' a name that is used worldwide to this day to describe the GTR. 'Godzilla' was banned in Australia's top tier of Motorsport after putting the local manufacturing to shame causing them to make it the category V8 only based of 4 door sedans. And just like that V8 Supercars was born.
In 2001 the Monaro was released in Australia as the CV8 Monaro and did come with the V6 L67 engine option. Had the Aussie dollar and Japanese yen have not caused issues for Holden, we very well may have seen the Monaro (GTO) and possibly other models of Holden commodores fitted from factory with Nissan's legendary RB26DETT.
RB26DETT 2.6 litre inline 6 Twin turbo
VL Commodore Calais with an RB30 block and RB25DET twin cam head
It all started back in the late 1970's. The Australian government decided to place a ban on lead being in petrol. (gasoline for our American friends) Only unleaded was to be sold moving forward. So why was this an issue? Lead Lubricates the valve seats helping engines run reliably for years, this meant new engines would have to be created or existing engines would have to be modified to run on the new fuel and meet new performance targets, that meant big $$$$$ in research and development costs. Money at the time GMH (General Motors Holden) didn't have.
Nissan RB engines in a Holden
With it not possible to create its own engine and mum and dad at GM in America not being able to supply an engine to meet the needs of the Australian commodore, Holden had to look elsewhere for engines.... Say hello Nissan and their RB series of engines!
RB30E
In 1983 Holden and Nissan signed a deal that meant Nissan would Supply engines for Holden's new upcoming VL model Commodore. These engines were:
-RB20E 2litre inline 6
-RB30E 3litre inline 6
-RB30ET Turbocharged 3 litre inline 6
The most famous and now infamous engine of the three was the mighty RB30ET. Producing 201hp in factory form, it propelled the humble family sedan to a top speed of 137mph back in 1983. This was the highest power model out of the entire range, even beating out Holdens very own 5 litre V8 engine which could only manage a pathetic 164HP. It was for this reason the police opted for the turbo models for pursuit vehicles and were given a special version of the Turbocharged beast known as the BT1. It's not uncommon today to see RB30's producing anything from 1000 to 1500 HP across Australia in street cars with some Nissan GTR's even getting RB30's dropped into them due to their ability to make large HP with great drive-ability thanks to those extra cubic inches the 3 litre offers over the 2.6 litre
RB30ET
So what does all this have to do with the GTO G8 and SS
A few years had gone by, the VL Commodore had done well and it was time for Holden to release not only a new model of car, but a whole new era of car.
Holden's new 'large body' VN Commodore sedan and the future models to come after would need a good stable economy engine to power it, and with the Nissan RB engines proving their worth in the VL, Holden saw absolutely no reason to change from the Nissan RB family which Nissan was still constantly developing and upgrading. Holden proceeded to engineer its new 'large body' design with the RB series of engines in mind. This 'large body' design is the current base design on which all variants of the Commodore are built from, this includes the Monaro (GTO), G8 and SS.
VL Commodore
VN SS Commodore
VR SS Commodore
VT SS commodore..... The Car on which the GTO was born from
VX SS Commodore
VY SS Commodore
VE SS Commodore
VF SS Commodore
So what went wrong?
Sadly like many aspects of life, it all comes down to money. In 1988 the Australian dollar fell in comparison to the Japanese Yen, this meant for Holden it wasn't cost effective to fit the highly regarded Nissan RB range of engines in its new large body commodore and once again Holden had to scramble for a new engine. This time Mum and Dad at GM had an engine that was suitable..... the Buick 3800 V6, which led to the Ecotec V6 then the Alloytec and so on. This was the pivoting moment in time in which Holden made the change from inline 6's to V6's and never went back. This is how the Monaro, VE and VF commodores ended up with V6 engines which resulted in the G8 receiving its V6. While the GTO and Chev SS never had a V6 in the USA, in Australia we did get V6 variations of both, with the Monaro (GTO) receiving the L67 and the VE and VF receiving LY7 amonst other engines.
Buick/Holden V6 3.8 litre found in the VP/VN,VR Commodore
Holden Ecotec V6 3.8 litre found in the VR,VT,VX,VY commodore
Holden LY7 Alloytec V6 3.6 litre found in the VZ commodore and some models of the VE (G8)
It should be noted Australia had multiple V6 engine choices the USA never got for the VE (G8)
To this day, when you open the hood on many models of commodores created after this deign change, you can see the evidence of where Holden's engineers had allowed for the length of a inline 6 engine vs the short V6. Holden hid this space with a large fan shroud for the radiator thermofan
What could of been
Nissan kept developing the RB engines and even released the legendary RB26DETT 2.6 litre twin turbocharged inline 6 monster, which came out in Nissan Skyline GTR's and was used until 2002. This engine in the R32 GTR chassis went on to dominate Motorsport worldwide, pretty much winning every race the GTR was entered into. So much in fact, that in Australia the Skyline was dubbed 'Godzilla' a name that is used worldwide to this day to describe the GTR. 'Godzilla' was banned in Australia's top tier of Motorsport after putting the local manufacturing to shame causing them to make it the category V8 only based of 4 door sedans. And just like that V8 Supercars was born.
In 2001 the Monaro was released in Australia as the CV8 Monaro and did come with the V6 L67 engine option. Had the Aussie dollar and Japanese yen have not caused issues for Holden, we very well may have seen the Monaro (GTO) and possibly other models of Holden commodores fitted from factory with Nissan's legendary RB26DETT.
RB26DETT 2.6 litre inline 6 Twin turbo
VL Commodore Calais with an RB30 block and RB25DET twin cam head