New Holden 6 and Gear boxes on Holden web site.

[Turbo6man]

It's a smaller capacity motor with more power but less torque so the five speed auto will be needed to retain performance against the Falcon. Weight will go up because Expensive Daewoo have to counteract the (true) impresion that the Ford is stronger and safer in a collision. The weight in the BA is in chassis strength and NVH reduction. Expensive Daewoo are behind in both areas at the moment.

I agree that the base Falcon motor doesn't need improving - it has more than adequate performance for the market it is serving - improvements in fuel economy would sell more cars than an increase of 10kw. The XR6 motor should be tuned up to around the 200kw region - there wouldn't be much trade-off in economy to achieve this with dual VCT.

[FORDTECH]

I'm more interested in where the fuel tank will be and what type of rear end will be in it.Current legislation states that the fuel cell be mounted forward of the rear axle and it wont fit while they still have the VW rear end.

[Turbo6man]

FORDTECH> Very valid point. They will have to increase the wheelbase as Ford did for the BA, and hence the weight will increase. Also they will probably be restricted to smaller tanks like the BA. I can't see them changing the IRS they already have as they are not big on R&D - just good at importing bits and pieces from different models around the world and slapping it together - yeah, a real Australian company ... NOT.