With Australian muscle cars selling for megabucks (an HSV GTS-R W1 Maloo went for A$1.05m this year), you'd think the last-ever HSV would be worth an astronomical amount. But in fact, the final vehicle engineered, produced and plated by Holden Special Vehicles before it shut up shop in 2017 was sold by Lloyds Auctions last week for a relatively modest A$205,000.
Like that million-dollar W1, this was a ute. But a ute of a different kind: HSV's last vehicle was a prototype V8-powered Colorado Sports Cat, the start of a stillborn project to create a super-truck that would blast the Ford Ranger Raptor into the weeds.
It's not exactly showroom-fresh, either. The V8 Sports Cat is based on a 2016 Colorado LS and has covered over 40,000km, as HSV engineers tested various powertrain and suspension combinations. As sold, it's fitted with the 6.2-litre V8 engine and 10-speed automatic from the Chevrolet Camaro.
So it seems that a unique one-tonne pickup truck isn't regarded as having the same investment potential as Commodore-based models by the HSV elite.
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The anonymous buyer of the V8 Sports Cat has picked up a real bargain and an absolutely unique machine: completed after any of HSV's other models, it's the last "real" HSV and in fact the last V8-powered Holden of any kind ever produced.
To view all HSV models currently listed on DRIVEN, click here
It's even finished in Panorama Silver, after an HSV refurbishment earlier this year, paying homage to the iconic VL Group A Walkinshaw.
