IT wouldn’t be a very correct analogy to say the HSV Maloo R8 LSA is the food equivalent of a good, old-fashioned Aussie meat pie.

Sure, it might look that way from the outside, but peel back the Australian pastry and you’ll find American beef (that 400kW 6.2-litre supercharged LSA V8) and some added spice thanks to not pepper, not chilli, but jalapenos.

Hanging off the back of that big slab of donk is a Mexican six-speed manual gearbox. And Ford fans, you might want to check the ingredients on the back of the Falcon’s label before chuckling at Clayton’s own odd recipe. You’ve got jalapenos, too.

HSV Maloo rear driving

Rated to as high as 950Nm it’s not hard to see why. Plus, it’s not a bad jigger. We’ve as many memories as this thing has synchros of clunky, cranky TR6060s. Its shift action has been compared to stirring a bucket of gravel with half a broomhandle but it’s come a long way; in fact for apparently inexplicable reasons it seems a much sweeter thing in VFII than VF.

In “MG9” spec, the Maloo R8 LSA’s TR6060 is rated to 747Nm, bolts to a twin-plate clutch and comes with its own oil cooler. And in Gen-F2 guise the heavy-ish clutch feels to bite a little less abruptly than Gen-F, the shift feels like it’s been regreased and banging up the gears is just a bit nicer than it was before.

HSV Maloo steering and dash

Not that we tried, but it could probably still pull from a standstill, though. Unsurprisingly, the Maloo R8 LSA is the ‘torquiest’ car here, its 671Nm more than the Polo and Peugeot put together. Enough to pull even the biggest dill’s head in.

And lord is it fast. There’s grunt a-plenty, such that the gear ratios feel just right – a tad tall, but in a way that feels bang-on in a car like this. And it’s not like the Maloo R8 LSA is all engine, either. It absolutely has the chassis to match the power, cornering confidently and never getting scrappy, the tyres giving up the ghost before the chassis does – which is how it should be. The rest of the car absolutely keeps up with the engine to the extent that you need to remind yourself what it is you’re actually driving – an 1887kg ute with a three-metre wheelbase.

HSV maloo looking mean

Extra points for the brilliant brake pedal feel, and for being easy to heel-toe. But minus points for at times simply being unable to conceal its bulk and an exhaust that sounds better outside the car than in. Oh, and the thirst. You’ll be treated like royalty at the local servo.

But the most impressive part is, you forget you’re in a ute. It drives better than it should. And you would absolutely take the manual over the GM-supplied six-speed 6L90E auto (which merely does the job).

Hsv maloo driving

YES, you would absolutely grab any HSV in manual over auto in Gen-F2 guise. It wasn’t always this way, the manual formerly just a little too heavy and clunky. But these days the clutch is friendlier, the gearchange slicker and the enjoyment higher.

SPECS 2-door, 2-seat ute rear-wheel 6162cc V8, OHV, 16v, supercharger 103.3 x 92.0mm 9.1:1 400kW @ 6150rpm 671Nm @ 4200rpm 212kW/tonne 6-speed manual 1887kg struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar multi-links, coil springs, anti-roll bar 5112/1899/1480mm 3009mm 1616/1590mm (f/r) electrically-assisted rack-and-pinion 367mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers 372mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers 20.0 x 8.5-inch, 20.0 x 9.5-inch (f/r) 255/35 ZR20 (f); 275/35 ZR20 (r) Continental ContiSportContact $76,990 Supercharged grunt; practicality; handling balance Fuel thirst; tyre wear; rear vision