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| 2012 Vauxhall Maloo VXR |
Students of Top Gear will remember this as the HSV Maloo R8 but this one's a little bit different from the one Top Gear fans saw because this one now is sold in Britain as a Vauxhall.
The Maloo naming is Aborigine for thunder but HSV's former managing director, John Crennan, said they coined the naming from a book of Aborigine places. Strictly speaking because it was made in the country that hadn't signed up to the Kyoto treaty, this isn't a pickup truck, it's a ute. It was the world's fastest ute ever made, with a top speed of 168mph. It lapped an impressive 1:27.1 round the Top Gear Test Track, on par with the Aston Martin DB9.
What's a ute? With thanks to Richard Hammond from Top Gear, it started out in the 1930's when a farmer's wife wrote to Ford Australia complaining that there was no car that can take her to the church on Sunday and the pigs to the market on the Monday. The answer was the ute and the Aussies have worshiped those ever since.
For the first time, the HSV Maloo R8 has arrived in the United Kingdom as a Vauxhall Maloo VXR and it's essentially based on the E Series 3 version of the Maloo R8. You now have a two-seater ute that features a unique shockwave grille on the front, daytime running lamps, quad exhaust outlets, remote locking hard tonneau with alarm protection, cargo bay liner and lamp, rear park assist, E3 sports alloys, and the Enhanced Driver Interface that was last seen on the latest version of Top Gear's favorite muscle cars, the Vauxhall VXR8 GTS.
Under the hood lies a 6.2 litre LS3 Generation 4 Alloy V8, the engine that once powered the Chevrolet Corvette. It produces 425bhp of power and 405lb-ft of torque. It would go 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds and top speed limited to 155mph. Combined fuel economy is 21mpg and CO2 emissions is 320g/km. It is mated with a 6-speed manual transmission.
You might think that this is just a piece of farm machine with a big engine on it, drag racing is all it can do. Not so because the Maloo loves corners thanks to its incredible traction, sportscar poise, a limited slip differential, and tuned suspension. However, the Maloo can be carried away and adding weight on the back doesn't work that well either.
My Comment:
This is the first time the Maloo has finally landed on the United Kingdom where it was sold now as a Vauxhall. Since it's encounter at Top Gear, we were very sure that the Maloo is the kind of Aussie muscle that definitely give us a laugh and it's here in the UK and it's available at selected Vauxhall dealerships rather than specialist importers. We like the Performance, Ride, Handling, and the safety features (perhaps this was governed by an electronic nanny). What I really don't like was the fuel economy but it doesn't matter. The Maloo is one heck of a party crasher and this Aussie muscle really made the rain transformed. Imagine that..."I am lightning, the rain transformed"