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To Americans, there’s a weird mirror-world aspect to cars made by Detroit car companies in Australia; you can tell you’re looking at a GM product when you see an old Holden, for example, because you can usually spot a little Chevelle/Nova/Impala influence in the body lines, but everything just seems a little… off. Let’s watch the ’70 Holden line conquering the Outback and wowing the ladies.
Country music, Monaros hauling ass, an HG equipped with a genuine 3-speed automatic. This ad has everything.
Meanwhile, GM at home compared the ’70 Nova to O.J. Simpson. Upshot: The Nova is a better automobile than O.J.
I think if I were crazy enough to look for an Australian car to bring to these shores (and I am), I’d go for a Valiant Charger instead of a Holden, if only so I could have a car with a Hemi-6 engine.
23 Comments on “GM Down Under, 1970: And the Rollin’ Wheels Are Holden!...”
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That Valiant Charger looks a lot like the Mitsubishi-built Plymouth Arrow.
Nope, its much bigger, its based on a Plymouth Valiant only with a bigger 245 cu in six or a 5.0 L (I think) V8.
The Holden uses the suspension of the Opel Rekord, with the fleet auto being a screaming two speeder.
The Commodores started life as the bastard marriage of the Opel Rekord and Opel Senator, namely the Senator was the donar car all the way upto the CD pillar and the rear was from the Rekord.So the suspension under the “H” was not opel based. The G8 was (for you) the latest iteration of that design. The “H” series suspension design could be traced all the way back via the “E” and “F” series to the original 48/215 (FB)
They are 105″ WB, 180″ long, 74.2″ wide
Somehow, a merging of European design with American design just doesn’t work – diametrically opposed. With very few exceptions, the result isn’t good.
BTW, a hemi won’t help, either – it’ll still be ugly, fast or not.
Odd, I never even saw anything from Europe in any of these three videos.
My dream is to go to OZ and return with an armful of right-hand drive Aussie muscle cars, utes, and other unusual (at least here) autos.
I thought O.J. was more of a Ford man…
When I think of Aussie muscle I think of Mad Max’s blower equipped Falcon. One of my favorite car related movie scenes involves the police station mechanic showing off the Falcon to Max: “The last of the V8 Interceptors… a piece of history!”
The first pic reminds me of an Opel. I remember my Dad looking at one, then buying an Impala.
I’ve seen some amazing aussie cars but these aren’t them. I’m sure that there’s some really nice big blocks over there worth somebody’s time though.
Can you believe the size of the panel gaps on that Valiant?! Even from way back here I wouldn’t want it!
There weren’t any big block Aussie cars, the largest engine available was the 360ci in 1970’s Chryslers.
Apparently quality control wasn’t lost between the two continents. Check out the fender paint shade at 23 seconds on the Holden commercial.
The other great Holden product of the era was the Torana, affectionately known as the ‘Torry’, and probably the most respected Falcons down here are not the XB’s of Mad Max fame but the earlier XY GTHO Phase III followed by the XC Cobra.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Torana
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTHO_Phase_III#GTHO_Phase_III
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Falcon_Cobra
Love the Holden’s LSDNRP gearshift pattern!
But remember,the O.J. has “killer” performance, “cutting edge” engineering and “glove-soft” leather
One wonders if the writers for the Simpsons had seen that Holden ad before they penned the spot for the Canyonaro.
I wouldn’t mind having a 265 Hemi 6 with 3 big Weber carburetors and all the tricks, but I’d rather bring it over without the car and then install it in a 1971 Scamp so I can relive some high school hijinks without being reminded that the car I drove my junior year was actually slow.
If you look at Mad Max’s Australian Ford Falcon XA, it looks like an odd cross between a ’69-’70 Torino and a ’71-’73 Mustang.
Mad Max’s Falcon was an XB (both the black Interceptor and his yellow MFP sedan), although one of the other MFP cars was an XA
It’s fun to hear the instant cries of “there was no such thing as a Hemi Six-Pack” and then showing the naysayers how region-locked their knowledge is.
Umm.. this isn’t a Hemi ‘Six-Pack’ he’s talking about, it’s a ‘Hemi-6’.
The ‘Six-Pack’ was a performance option giving Mopar cars essentially a six-barrel carburetor package (Three two-barrel carburetors working in tandem), the Hemi-6 is/was an inline-6 engine with hemispherical heads like the V-8 Hemis available in North America.
The 265ci 6cyl was available with three two-barrel Weber carbs in the performance options too. The E49 homologation special was the most powerful, with 302hp and 320lb-ft – 0-100mph in 14.1sec which was 3sec quicker than a Porsche 911S.