We've all seen people in V8 Commodores who've dropped their Holden badges for Chevy ones.
And you may think, ever since the death of the Aussie built 5.0 litre in 1999, "What's wrong with sticking some big Plusses on Chevy engined Holdens?"
Well, nothing. Unless the chevvies replace Holden badges.
Which, from experience, is all the time.
Really, just how proud should we be of our Mexican built Chevy eights?
After all, Holden's had chevy small blocks since 1968.
But did Bruce McPhee's 1968 Bathurst winning yellow 327 Chev Monaro have a Chevy badge on it?
Did Colin Bond's 1969 Bathurst winning 350 Chev Monaro have a Chevy badge on it?
I don't bloody think so!
What's lacking here? Aussie pride, that what's lacking here!
You drive an all-Aussie designed and manufactured car, but its got a yank engine so "Strip the Lions off an slap on the Chevy's!". Really, in an age of political correctness, 'muti-culturalism' and all that rot, I thought V8 hoons would be a strong bastion of fervent Aussie nationalism.
Why, when the new VE Commodore platform is so good that it has become the centrepiece of the GM empire - exported across the globe, not to mention underpinning the much vaunted new Camaro - how can there be so much attraction to rip up the Lions to make room for some Chevvies?
The Holden badge is a symbol for Australian engineering prowess that's dominating the globe.
The all new Chevrolet Camaro will inevitably be better than the all new Dodge Challenger, because unlike the Challanger, it will actually have handling, because the Camaro is underneath an Aussie designed VE.
Do you think there will be any yanks who go buy new Camaro's and stick Holden badges on? No. Firstly because he'll be too busy watching NASCAR. Which sucks, now that you mention it, driving around in a bloody circle constantly is boring - now V8 Supercars, that's real racing. Oh, and while you mention it, American football is for pooftas, Aussie rules FTW! Oh, and did I mention that I'm biologically half Californian? Yeah, so I can take the piss outta all you Americans all I like.
Secondly, no American will ever put Holden badges on his Camaro because he'll never know that its Australian because Americans are too stupid. I talked on the net to a seppo once who owned a 2004 Pontiac GTO and didn't even know that it was built here in Australia!
If I owned a nice new SS, sure I'd slap a Chevy badge on the skirts - next to the SS badges - but you'd have to pay me to take off my Lions. Anyone who does needs to grow some testicles.
Buy a Mustang if you like America so much. Or better yet. Move there.
I know a bloke who for several years owned a Subaru WRX Sti called 'SIRIX' - upon which he spent far too much money on all sorts of performance upgrades and kits. However, no matter how much power he squeezed out of the asthmatic little boxer-four, it didnt stop the computer and the precocious diff taking over through every corner - it's like one of those anoying 12 year old boy geniuses who know everything - and irritatingly, there is no way to stop this.
While this delivers what many ginger-beer motoring journalists will describe as 'fantastic handling' it delivers what the rest of us describe as "Bugger-all fun."
So, quite sensibly, SIRIX sold the jap junker and walked across the road to Holden where he collected a loverly black VE SS Ute. This makes me think, "Wow! He's a pretty good bloke!"
However, just today I noticed that SIRIX has made his first modification to his SS. Yeah, you guessed it. New gold Chevy badges where the proud Lions used to be.
I think something different about SIRIX now.
