The Jack8 was a 2-Door Jackaroo with a roll cage for a roof, a spare tire on the back of the cage, (it's a sloped cage), a Gen III V8 and it was painted Shanghai Red, the crimson colour on the new Commodores. Also, they doubled the ride height. I'll find a link and post it...
Anyway, Holden's sick of the Jackaroo, I personally love the vehicle but it's sales were too poor, it's older than the hills and so outdated that it's funny. Holden putting a V8 in the Jackaroo for mass production (not a one-off concept ala Jack8), wouldn't have been feasible when they'd have to make room in the Elizabeth plant to pull out the V6 or Turbo Diesel engines and then shove the V8 in. The result? A really flash truck, but with not enough width and stability to support the grunt of a V8. You're probably thinking, "But they do that with the Commodores!", not exactly. Because Holden builds the Commodore themselves, they can provide empty shells so they can just shove the Gen III in. Meanwhile, the Jackaroo is imported with engines and all, so they'd have to make the engine transplants.
They can't just build the Jackaroos here, either, because that would waste precious time, money and, more importantly, space in the factory which is running out. Isuzu aren't (at the moment), looking at designing a new Trooper (Jackaroo) so a replacement would be too far away and Holden would make losses importing the old model. IF Isuzu decides to replace the Jackaroo, then Holden might think about it but until then we've just got the shitbox Cruze, awesome Adventra, sporty Cross 8 and workhorse Rodeo in Holden 4WD range. There are rumours Holden may replace the Jackaroo with the Chevrolet Trailblazer and replace the Frontera (whcih has been gone for a year now) with the Chevroley Equinox. But neither are built in RHD. Which means Holden having to do it themselves (a RHD conversion on average costs $15k per car). It would also mean Holden having to do a 180 degree turn-round with the engine block so it'll fit with the steering (eg. that's why we can't get PT Cruisers with the proper 2.4-litre motor). That would cost Holden a shitload of money and put it well up **** Creek without a paddle financially in the process. Sure, Holden DID do that with the Suburban (although I think the block does actually fit with the steering arm on the right), but the Suburban was imported in very low numbers, one of three factors that prevent you from seeing many on the road (the others being that it was way overpriced and too big to sell well). The Suburban only lasted two and a half years and was discontinued in October 2000. That's the reason why the Suburban can't be sold instead of the Adventra. Another reason why the Jackaroo can't be sold instead of the Adventra would be because the Adventra is physically a bigger car. The Adventra is modern, based on a Passenger Car, has plenty of grunt, has V6 models on the way, just specially for the people concerned about fuel consumption. When the all-new VE Adventra, likely to lob about a year after the Commodore because 4WDs take longer to develop (that's why the Adventra is so late), there may even be a Diesel version. IF they do that, I'm buggered if I know where they're gonna get the engines from... unless they either build a second engine line or create a Diesel version of the HFV6. Just one more valid point before I finish typing this book <sorry guys>, is that despite being a V8, the Adventra is lighter and as a matter of fact uses less fuel than the Jackaroo Diesel (about a 2L/100km saving) and is around the same as a V6-powered Jackaroo.
