HSV COUPE 4

Australians took a long time before warming to the concept of all-wheel drive, high-performance passenger cars. If those cars were Australian made and expensive, the resistance was even more entrenched.

HSV’s Coupe 4 owes its existence to Holden’s ambitious but doomed export programme for the Monaro and similar technical commitment to the all-wheel drive Adventra. For certain the latter was going to be ignored by local Neanderthals who knew that cars that gripped at both ends wouldn’t generate smoke and noise when being launched at the lights.

However, a stylish, powerful, sporty model with all-wheel grip would have been a sensation in more