Speedy name change

A two-seater Opel, built by Lotus, will be called a Holden when it hits the streets in New Zealand. Alastair Sloane explains.

HOLDEN will enter the two-seater sportscar market for the first time late next year when the rebadged Opel Speedster goes on sale here. The eye-catching Speedster, based on the lickety-split Lotus Elise, appeared as a concept car at the Geneva motor show in March.

Opel executives, chuffed at public and industry reaction to the car, agreed last week to put it into production.

The speed of the decision didn't surprise - industry analysts in Europe believed Opel had production plans in place long before Geneva.

The open-top Speedster will be built in right-hand and left-handdrive in Britain at the Lotus factory in Norwich. Production is likely to be limited to about 3000 a year.

It will be badged an Opel in Europe, Vauxhall in Britain and Holden in New Zealand, Australia and Asia. A coupe variant is expected later, to keep the car's expected popularity bubbling along.

Holden New Zealand won't discuss the Speedster, because it falls into the

"future product planning" category, an impregnable Fort Knox-like department found in all carmakers' offices and staffed by one-syllable loyalists.

But already interest in New Zealand and Australia has centred on one crucial ingredient - the price.

Opel is owned by General Motors, which also owns Holden. GM wants to use its subsidiaries like Opel to gain a bigger share of the Asia-Pacific market.

But a limited-edition European vehicle like the Speedster is often expensive, unlike mass-produced rebadged Opels such as the Holden Barina, Astra and Vectra, and certainly more so than specials from Japan.

Therefore the Speedster is likely to cost much more than an obvious rival, the tried-and-true but less powerful Mazda MX-5, for example, which starts at about $40,000.

It will also have to cost much less than the standard $73,000 Lotus Elise, despite the fact that it is styled after the 1.8-litre Elise and is being built by Lotus. But remember that Lotus has a supercar reputation and Opel/Holden is mainstream.

Chances are, then, that the Speedster will sit around $60,000, marketed as the Holden from Lotus and compete against the new Toyota MR-S, the stylish replacement for the MR-2.

The price is purely crystal ball-gazing, with the opinion of a couple of New Zealand industry gypsies thrown in for good measure.

The gypsies, especially, like taking a punt on things like pricing and where a vehicle will fit into the market. They aren't that much interested in practical details, such as engine and chassis and suspension, stuff that carmakers sometimes confirm early in the piece.

The Speedster concept car was built at Opel's headquarters in Russelheim, Germany, and powered by a four-cylinder engine delivering 108kW, a top speed of about 220 km/h and mated to a GM gearbox.

The production Speedster will use the same engine and gearbox. The engine is an aluminium version of the unit fitted to the latest model Holden Vectra.

The chassis is bonded aluminium with composite body panels, nearly identical to that of the Elise. Bonding specialist Hydro Raufoss Auto

motive opened a factory in Britain and moved production from Scandinavia to prepare for the extra workload.

The Speedster weighs 800kg, light enough for the four-valve powerplant to propel it from zero to 100 km/h in under six seconds.

The interior, although still largely of bare-bones design, will be better-equipped and more user-friendly than that of the Elise. For example, the Speedster is almost certain to come with dual front airbags.

Lotus is owned by Malaysian carmaker Proton and its fortunes, thanks to its far-sighted engineering and chassis division, are riding high.

It is understood to be planning a new Lotus which would be lightweight, mid-engined, built around a bonded aluminium chassis from Hydro and powered by a 150kW V6. It would be priced to compete against the Porsche Boxster.