While on holiday in Australia, Chris Harris couldn’t stay away from cars and decided to test drive the wildest ute on sale there, the HSV Maloo GTS.

Powered by a 577hp 6.2-liter supercharged V8 sourced from the Holden HSV Gen-F GTS sedan, the HSV Maloo GTS is a great car to drive, thanks first and foremost to the huge amount of torque the V8 produces: 740 Nm or 545 lb-ft.

Harris also found the super ute surprisingly balanced on track given that the rear axle hasn’t got much weight pushing it against the ground. Of course, like most of his reviews, this one contains a lot of drifting – but who wouldn’t do that with a RWD super ute?

Scroll down to find out what else he had to say about the HSV Maloo GTS.

Walkinshaw Performance has introduced their new W507 package for the HSV GTS and Maloo GTS.

Designed to give the cars plenty of extra kick, the package includes a cold air intake, a cat back exhaust system, ceramic coated headers and an upgraded pulley. There's also an optimized ECU, decals and a certificate of authenticity.

The package costs $7,990 AUD ($6,566 USD / €5,248) and enables the supercharged 6.2-liter LSA V8 engine to develop 689 PS (680 bhp / 507 kW) and 850 Nm (626 lb-ft) of torque.

According to Walkinshaw General Manager Tony Harris, “This is the best engineered package we have ever produced. It feels incredibly powerful, even more than the 507kW indicated, and that is due to how each component in the package has been designed to complement each other.”

Limited to 52 cars

Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) has taken the wraps off the Senator SV special edition which comes with an array of tweaks.

Based on the Senator Signature, the new limited-run model gets unique 20-inch SV Rapier five-spoke forged alloy wheels featuring a Dark Stainless finish combined with a pitch black look for the grille surround, mirror caps, fender vents, door surrounds, spoiler and badging. The four exhaust tips have received chrome tips while inside the cabin there are "Senator SV" sill plates, individually numbered plaque and HSV performance seats wrapped in Onyx leather.

Motivation is provided by an LS3 V8 6.2-liter engine developing 462 HP (340 kW) and 420 lb-ft (570 Nm) channeled to the wheels through a standard six-speed manual gearbox or an optional (without paying extra) six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters and Active Select. The HSV Senator SV also gets AP Racing forged four-piston brake calipers, Magnetic Ride Control suspension as well as an array of gizmos like Driver Preference Dial and Enhanced Driver Interface (EDI).

It will be offered in four exterior paint hues (Heron, Phantom, Prussian Steel and Nitrate), with availability limited to 50 units for Australia and 2 for New Zealand. Production is set to kick off later this month and those interested will have to pay at least the 83,990 AUD starting price.

According to Motor Trend, the engineers at Chevrolet have a hankerin' to dial in some more handling to the SS sedan. Apparently they've already mapped out what it would take to give the car the same handling upgrade that's been created for the Camaro 1LE (the two cars share a Zeta platform after all). This includes a move to a square stance for the tires, different dampers, and a rejigging of the suspension.

More importantly, those same engineers say they can make the upgrade in just three to six months. Good news, right? Well, sure if you think it's actually going to happen.

If you've paid attention to the saga of the SS, you'll know that Chevrolet likes to pretend to care about it. The engineers certainly love the car, and so do enthusiasts. It's the higher ups that need to have a desire for it to succeed, however, and that's not going to happen. Yes, they added a manual and magnetic ride for 2015, but that was just a way to stir up a bit more attention and desire for a car amongst a niche buying group before they shutter the thing (production at the car's Australian plant ends in 2017).

At the most recent Chicago Auto Show, you could get a look at the latest SS... if you walked to the far corner of the booth, and didn't mind that you were over near a row of vending machines. Oh, and basically in the dark since the lighting was awful back there. It was as if they made room for it simply because they had to but definitely not because they wanted to.

We'd love nothing more than for a car like this to flourish. It's a super-sleeper sedan with a V-8, rear-wheel drive, and you can have it with a manual if you desire. It checks a lot of boxes... for not a lot of people.

Don't hold your breath for a 1LE package SS fans*.

(*We'd love to be wrong about this)

The 2015 Chevrolet SS is almost like an inside joke; enthusiasts will recognize it immediately and get the punch line, but everyone else will just think it’s a Malibu. However, this sedan isn’t just a great car, it’s a future classic and here’s why.