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The words ‘serial offender’ spring to mind when you meet Carol, who is an enthusiastic performance car owner
If ever there was a case for never judging a book by its cover, Carol Helmrich and her HSV GTS are Exhibits A and B. In that order.
Let’s start with the 2007 model E-Series GTS. This is a car for big, burly blokes, right? Guess again, pilgrim, because in this case, the car is the property of Carol, a lady of a certain age who absolutely drives the wheels off the thing.
Then there’s Carol herself. Now, at first glance, Carol looks a bit like anybody else’s grandmother. The white hair gives it away, along with the fact that there’s not much of her in the first place. So even if she owned an HSV GTS, it’s probably really a leftover from a former life, right? Nope. Wrong again, because it was Carol that bought the car brand-new, and it was Carol that specified the one-off interior trim and the six-speed manual gearbox. Say that again? Yep, six-speed manual. And even watching her shuffle the thing around a driveway for this photo shoot, it’s pretty clear she knows a clutch pedal from a rocking chair.
Carol’s old HSV
We got wind of this silver-haired dynamo a few months back when we talked to a bloke called Henry about his highly optioned VP station wagon (above). You’ll remember it; white paint, blue HSV interior, HSV alloys, enhanced engine and manual transmission. In fact, a total of 17 option boxes were checked by the original purchaser who clearly knew what they wanted and how to get it.
| Read next: HSV-enhanced VP Commodore wagon
Of course, that wasn’t Henry (who’s the second owner). You guessed it, it was Carol who ticked all those boxes and refused to take no for an answer when the dealers started to go weak at the knees. So, having met Henry and hearing the stories about Carol and how she deals with the male-dominated world of performance cars, we knew we had to have a chat. Oh, says Henry, you should also check out her current car. So here it is.
Carol set out to buy the GTS after selling Henry the wagon about 15 years ago.
“The wagon was getting a bit old, but I hadn’t really seen anything I liked,” Carol tells us.
“But then I spotted a Senator, but the salesman wasn’t interested in selling it to me, because I was a female. I walked out and the fella continued to talk to my husband. He eventually worked out that it was me, not my husband, who was the customer here. But I just kept walking and found myself another dealer who wanted to sell me a car.”
Even once Carol’s order had been placed, it wasn’t as simple as it probably should have been.
“HSV tried to stop me from buying this car,” she says. “They took my order including the interior trim and then tried to cancel it. But I’d paid a deposit and signed a contract. So, when they told me they didn’t have that colour (of trim) anymore, I rang them back and said if you’re not going to fulfil your contract, I have a solicitor in Adelaide and another one in Sydney. Where do you wanna start?”
No surprise to learn that Carol eventually got the car she ordered complete with its one-off leather interior. And it looks brilliant. Meantime, if you’re starting to get the idea that Carol doesn’t put up with much in the way of muppets, you’d be pretty spot on. Nor does she spare the horses when the GTS gets fired up for a gallop.
“I used to race Porsches, so I know how to drive this thing. People look at me and say: ‘Oh, you’re too old to drive a high-performance car. Yeah?’ Well get your arse out here in the passenger’s seat and I’ll show you.
“People don’t get it but I love cars. I wanted to be a mechanic but, back then, being a mechanic and female wasn’t a thing. But even today, you cut me and I bleed petrol. Only problem with the car (at which point she gives me a sideways grin) is that it seems to go through rear tyres.”
Stunning interior trim caused headaches at HSV
So, no prisoners and a healthy mistrust of role models. That’s our Carol. Right down to the first conversation she had with her regular mechanic after buying the HSV.
“He looked at it and said: ‘It’s a manual!’ I said, ‘I hope you didn’t take too long to work that out!’”
And here’s another thing Carol and folks like us have in common: She still shakes her head as she looks at the GTS on her driveway and asks herself how the hell a company that could make a car like that could ever possibly go out of business. And she’s got a pretty good point.
From Unique Cars #471, Oct/Nov 2022
Photography: Guy Allen, Unique Cars magazine