GM's four-door Lamborghini beater

The supercharged Vauxhall VXR8 Bathurst edition.

It's a hot Holden Commodore all right - but not as we know it.

The car is Vauxhall's version of the top-range Holden Special Vehicles sedan.

And British reviewers are calling it the "four-door Lamborghini beater".

Vauxhall is General Motors' UK arm. It rebadges a limited number of Commodore-based HSV models each year, with the same V8 drivetrains available in Australia and New Zealand.

The hero badge is called VXR8 - or it was until Vauxhall came up with a go-fast supercharged version called the Bathurst S, after the mountain race circuit across the ditch.

The standard 6.2-litre V8 is modified by race specialist Tom Walkinshaw to produce 420kW of power and 742Nm of torque - so it's as powerful as a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, but nearly 100,000 ($260,000) cheaper.

It's fast, with zero to 100km/h in 4.6 seconds and an electronically governed top speed of 250km/h.

The six-speed manual gearbox gets an uprated clutch and the suspension is stiffer, with adjustable springs and fresh dampers. Revised brakes with six-cylinder front and four-cylinder rear calipers are standard.

The supercharger provides amazing pull from low revs, but the best bit, say British reviewers, is the noise - a mix of supercharger whine and V8 rumble. An optional two-stage exhaust has a special "loud" setting for track use, too.

The downside is the car's economy - around 19 litres/100km, or 15mpg.

The Bathurst S's black stripes aren't subtle either. But that's the nature of the car - big and flashy.