Would you pay $363k for "the real last HSV V8"?

A one-of-one prototype that previewed a new era for Holden Special Vehicles – one that would never come to fruition – is once again for sale.

Young Timers Garage (YTG) in Australia have listed the one-off 2019 HSV Colorado SportsCat V8 prototype for a cool AU$299,000 (~NZ$363,000) before on-road costs.

Its creator, Walkinshaw Automotive, put it up for auction in 2021, when it went for AU$205,000 before the 7.5 per cent buyer's fee.

While HSV did sell a SportsCat version of the Thai-built Holden Colorado dual-cab 4x4 ute, it came with an unchanged 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine.

The Colorado SportsCat V8, in contrast, features General Motors' naturally aspirated 6.2-litre 'LT1' petrol V8, mated with a 10-speed automatic transmission. YTG claims it produces outputs of 350kW of power and 650Nm of torque, and can do the 0-100km/h dash in under five seconds.

This engine was used in the sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro, which Walkinshaw converted to right-hand drive for the Australian and New Zealand market.

To accommodate the V8 engine, the Colorado received a new airbox, engine mounts, fuel system, ECU and wiring loom, while the hot ute also received new front and rear prop shafts and a new 4x4 transfer case said to come from the larger Silverado pickup also converted by Walkinshaw.

The one and only Colorado SportsCat V8 is finished in Panorama Silver, a tribute to the VL Commodore SS Group A Walkinshaw that was the first HSV built, with a two-tone red and black interior and promotional plates reading 'SV8CAT'.

“The Colorado was a product we were really interested in,” said then-Walkinshaw commercial director Chris Polites in 2021.

“In terms of our HSV and Holden relationship, it was core. Colorado was going really well for Holden when they left, and we certainly had some plans around powered-up diesels and the petrol V8 engine."

Mr Polites said the business case had been made and it had received engineering sign-off, which meant all that was left was to work out how it was going to be made.

Development was said to have started in 2016 but, in February 2020, General Motors announced it was shuttering the Holden brand and selling the Rayong plant in Thailand that produced the Colorado (and the related TrailBlazer SUV) for our market. Combined, those actions slammed the door shut on a production run for this new V8 ute.

The V8 SportsCat would have been priced around the AU$80,000 mark had it entered production – putting it right up against the Ford Ranger Raptor, which at the time only had a 2.0-litre bi-turbo four-cylinder diesel engine.

It would also have given HSV a V8 ute again after Australian manufacturing ended, when the hot HSV Maloo ute was terminated.