A few weeks ago the automotive blogosphere was all atwitter over GM CEO Mark Reuss taking a Holden Ute to the famed Nurburgring. People wondered aloud if this wasn’t the first step in bringing the Commodore-based pickup to the U.S., in the same vein as the Chevy SS performance sedan.

We might be getting ahead of ourselves, but the Holden Ute was at the ‘Ring for more than show. Test engineer Rob Trubiani was at the wheel of the V8-powered Holden Ute to set a new lap record for commercial and utility vehicles, and they have a trio of videos to prove it.

Calling the Commodore-based Ute a commercial vehicle might seem like a stretch, as the 8:19 full lap is on par with other performance cars like the Chevy Camaro and Lexus IS-F. This shatters the record just set by Volkswagen tuner Revo in a T5 utility van. Alas, the 2.0 liter turbodiesel of the VeeDub van is no match for GM’s V8 might. The van took nearly 10 minutes to complete the same lap.

The three-part video series focuses separately on the driver, the vehicle, and the lap itself. As to whether or not this bodes well for bringing a Holden Ute to the U.S. as a Chevy, we are cautiously optimistic. GM’s last attempt at a dedicated, high-dollar performance truck, the Chevy SSR, sold well below expectations, though to be honest it was about as weird as weird gets. So if the Holden Ute comes to America, GM better make sure they get it right this time.