Video: Chevy SS Is Australia’s Gift To Us, And Is Already In The 10s

Before it dropped out of sight, Pontiac gifted us with some truly remarkable late-model sports cars, such as the G8 and GTO. Aside from the power numbers, what truly makes those cars great is the fact that they’re so rare. They’re sort of the red-headed step children of the GM performance car lineup.

As such, they have a certain nonconformist vibe to them. They’re different– outside-the-box– and that’s what makes them special. The only dilemma is that neither of these fantastic cars are produced anymore. Not in the US, that is.

SS 7A few continents away, however, lies a land overflowing with G8 and GTO dopplegangers. This land (commonly referred to as ‘Australia’) has a rich car culture of its own, chock full of burnouts, big V8s, and a family of GM’s foreign performance models.

If you’re a fan of the Australian car scene, it probably has something to do with their exoticness. It would seem that most car enthusiasts here in the States have long been desensitized to the exotics and performance cars of Europe. Australia, on the other hand, has an entire world of car culture that we’re not as often exposed to. Where as the flagship performance cars of Germany or Italy are simply commonplace nowadays, the Australian car scene is still relatively taboo (case in point: you’re a lot more likely to turn heads with a Holden than a BMW).

Unfortunately, the taboo aspect is literal– you can’t (easily) get your hands on GM’s Australian division cars in the US. As a substitute, however, you can pick up a Chevy SS as seen in the video, and we don’t think that’s much of a compromise.

The Chevy SS is essentially an Americanized Holden Commodore with an LS3 under the hood. From what we’ve seen of it, it carries itself much the same as its Australian counterpart. Hell, it even looks identical– its awfully difficult to tell the two apart, especially with the Holden badging that the SS in the above video has. This may very well be where most of this car’s appeal comes from; it’s the United States’ taste of the kickass Australian machines we can’t have.

Top: 2016 Chevy SS.
Botom: 2016 Holden Commodore – see what we mean about identical looks?

But just because it’s based off one of Australian’s most popular sport sedans doesn’t mean it’s not an American at heart. From the factory, the SS comes with a 415-horsepower, 6.2-liter LS3– the very same in the C6 Corvette. This affords it a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds, which isn’t too shabby for a 4000 pound sedan.

This recipe makes for what we can only imagine is a wickedly-fun, quiet-looking sleeper straight from the factory. But throw 15 pounds of boost, a cam, methanol and an upgraded torque converter at it, and you have yourself an almost 9-second car.

That’s what the owner of this SS did in the video, and it resulted in the fastest in the world. He states that he did nothing more than add the above-mentioned go-fast parts to it, and those are the results he’s getting. We can’t wait to see what kind of quarter-mile times he’ll be making if he chooses to keep feeding his SS parts.

But what do you think– are you a fan of Australian car culture and the Chevy SS, or is old-school muscle more your cup of tea? Voice your opinions in the comments below!

SS 3

About the author

Joshua Phillips

Josh has always been captivated by cars, from legendary classics and late-model American muscle to European supercars.
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