I thought at first this was supposed to be some hero model along the lines of the HSV W427, in which case its headline power figure would have been embarrassingly uninspiring. But having actually read the article

I retract my previous statement. The supercharged 5.0 will make an excellent bread-and-butter motor for FPV.
The logic makes sense. The performance has to go way up to avoid being a miserable waste of fuel like the current XR8 and GT (relative to the XR6T/F6). Forced induction is clearly being pushed by Ford across the board, including turbo four cylinder base model. I would not be surprised if the 5.0's fuel economy is superior to HSV's LS3. Despite the apparent apathy of buyers in the segment, fuel economy (at least as a token effort) is an important PR factor due to the danger of being viewed by the public as wasteful. Politically incorrect cars like the current HSV E-Series simply will not exist in several years, unless fuelled by ethanol or LPG.
I look forward to seeing the beast in action.