Anyone ever heard of Austrailia's Holden Car Co. ?

My wife and I have been watching Mcleod's Daughters on Netflix, which is a long running Austrailian tv series. Around the third or forth season one of the characters buys a vintage car which looks like a 50's Chevy Belaire but is actually made by Holden Car company. I was suprised to hear of the brand name with never having actually seen one. I guess in the late 50's and early sixties Holden was making designs to emulate the Bel Air. Here are some shots of vintage Holdens and one of Holden's new concept car.
http://www.classic-car-restorer-and-...den-sedan5.jpg
http://richardlewis.is-a-geek.com/pi...n/04-fc-02.jpg
http://www.gdaywa.com/themes/holden/750/fb_sedan.jpg
http://www.autocult.com.au/img/galle...oitAuto402.jpg

holden is part of gm from 1930s and that is what they used the holden platform for the new release of the gto

Thanks Pat. When I first saw the Holden on TV I said, something is just not right! It looks like a chevy but not! They never zoomed in enough to read the name on the front of the car. I do like the new Efigy!

Holden has a bunch of neat cars!!!! Seems to be where GM plays with some of their new ideas and builds a few things that their US based assembly plants can't handle....as Pat mentioned, the GTO is one example... I think Holden had a couple others, and a few concept type cars...don't remember much about them, after all, they're JAC.....(just another chebbie):LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Holden has a bunch of neat cars!!!! Seems to be where GM plays with some of their new ideas and builds a few things that their US based assembly plants can't handle....as Pat mentioned, the GTO is one example... I think Holden had a couple others, and a few concept type cars...don't remember much about them, after all, they're JAC.....(just another chebbie):LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:

---

better look out them holden will bite you down under:eek:they are in to racing them big time

The Effigy is one of the coolest concept or factory customs in years. I have had it for a desktop off and on for a couple years now, reminds me a bit of Cadzilla.

There was a Holden or two in the Mad Max movies.

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/cars/mad...der/index.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

There was a Holden or two in the Mad Max movies.

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/cars/mad...der/index.html

---

one of the last of the V8s max:D or some thing like that if it was on tv now i be watching it :3dSMILE:

Holdens are cool cars. Here is a '50 Coupe Utility (Ute) that I restored for a guy a few years ago. This is not a custom (except for the GM station wagon accessory tail lights and the skirts). GM built the chassis, driveline and front clip, and the rest was fabricated by Holden in Australia. This one was known as a "Chevrolet by Holden." I asked some guys from Australia about the authenticity of this car...they said it was "dinky di."

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t.../IMG_3305s.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...TF/UTERear.jpg

Nice job Joe. I was looking at some of the classic Utes and also the new ones they make, and thought I'd bet there are a few people in the states that would love to have one!

Nice Ute, any slopers?

The Holden company was originally a coach building business in Australia. At the turn of the century when cars were becoming popular, the Australian government was charging high import duties on cars to encourage an Australian auto manufacturing industry. Lacking the technology for producing chassis and engines in those years, "rollers" were imported from Canada at a reduced duty rate because of being a British member country. Having the skilled coach building craftsmen, the transition to car body building was easy. General Motors bought shares in the company and Hoden built bodies for Buicks, Cadillacs, Pontiacs, Chevrolets, Williys, Essex and many other brands including European and Ford until Ford built it's own factory in 1925. Holden produced unique body styles for its domestic market and after World War Two, General Motors bought the company outright and produced the Holden car in 1948 which was based on a compact economy Buick. designed in Detroit during the depression for the U.S. market. Since that time Holden styling was influenced by American trends and shared some mechanical components including engines.

Here's a couple more ute shots from Holden, I like the looks of them, reminds me of the 70's when Rancheros were the thing!
http://www.caradvice.com.au/wp-conte...eshsvmaloo.jpg
http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/...den%20utes.jpg
http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/...te_resized.jpg
http://www.holden.org.au/images/new_VE_ute_2.JPG

Holden was into the V8 cars when GM was doing V6's. I understand that GM turned to Holden to help design the LS powered GTO and now the Camaro.

here is few more Holden classics
http://www.users.bigpond.com/smoothi...scotts_car.jpg
http://www.holden.org.au/images/member31.JPG

And a back view of the Efigy
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3251/...d5b9c2.jpg?v=0

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Evolvo

The wife and I went on holiday in New Zealand a few years ago. We where walking around the town of Dunedin on the south island when a 55' chevy UTE, all slammed and painted went flying by. Happened so fast I didn't get a pic and never saw it again, the wife got tired of me trying to track it down.

---

hey dude this woulda been the ute you saw wouldnt it? its on the site www.trademe.co.nz for $38000 NZD if you keen to import it haha, thatd be cheap as chips in your currency haha ;)

and heres what its got:
This Custom Chevy sits on a Holden 1 tonne chassis, dropped spindles, sway bars, it is truly an amazing ride, turns heads were ever it goes, Cragar mags, runs a 305 with a turbo 350.
Has been in the Top Ten Street Machine NZHRA Nationals

his numbers 0064 3 4821411 names peter. haha the wife will probably be glad you finally tracked it down and can stop goin on about it i bet haha

the 40s holdens are basically what i refer to as big british morris minors, like in the first pic which is an FJ holden
then the 50s ones were basically what i call 50s chevy ripoffs but slightly smaller see second pic
then in the 60s they had the monaro which they imported the 327 chev engine from canada at the last minute to put in it against fords ghto falcon with 351 cleveland. they woulda got wasted if they put it in with the 186 6cylinder engine like planned. i think the 327 gave clearance problems with the steering box in them being the 327 was intended for the lhd cars and monaro was rhd and the rh bank of cylinders was further back if you know what i mean. after the 327 they released it with a 350 chev as per the one in the 3rd pic
then the torana in 7o replaced the monaro as the main race car with the LC Torana GTR XU-1 equipped with a 160 brake horsepower 186 in³ (3 litre) six cylinder engine, fitted with three Zenith Stromberg CD-150 carburettors, cast iron headers, a performance cylinder head and camshaft and an Opel four-speed manual gearbox. This car featured a rear spoiler, guard flutes, wider steel rims, full instrumentation and front disc brakes as standard as in 4th pic haha
then the torana was turned into the 5th pic and called the SLR5000 with an all aussie designed 308cui v8

in the 70s they kept the monaro going with an option of the all aussie 253 v8 or 308 v8 as shown in coupe and sedan forms in the next two pics the coupe having a holden caprice front end. during this time they started releasing these ones as more cruisers as they werent doing bathurst so werent race cars. they had a 350 chev statesman too in the next pic which along with the caprice was holdens full sized luxury market.
then they went through the commodore which was just a re released european opel release down under, i dont really care about then fron then on as i like pre emissions cars the most aye. im by far not an expert and am more a fors man with aussie cars than holdens and this is a real quick history, if youse wanna check it out better look up wikipaedia or holden heaven at www.holden.itgo.com they got a more complete history and seem to have alot more about the performance ones and options which yous would be more into so you can compare the technology of them to the american stuff at the time. a for sale site aswell they were released in various variants including ute sedans and coupes. the modern HSV holdens have been released in the usa as the pontiac GTOs with a different front bumper (i hear they didn take off well) and in europe as the vauxhal monaro. down in oz they are pretty serious about building tough cars. early on the company were assembling cars for australasia for GM and set up a division putting them together in trentham in wellington new zealand where my RHD 66 impala was assembled by fisher bodies imported from canada. this is just a brief history that doesnt show every version of the cars just pics of all the different ones so you can have an idea of the different shapes etc. youtube holens and have a looksee

Time for some more holdens introducing the Colorado!
http://www.caradvice.com.au/wp-conte..._greywhite.jpg

you blokes are alright , usually us aussies get a bagging of the yanks. anyways i,ve had a shitload of holdens including one of them utes, but my favorite is the xu1 torana .it was just a pommie vauxhal 4cyl that gmh decided would be fun with a stove hot six running triples , these things are worth over a hundred grand now and most of us dickheads cut these things up and raced them. cheers big wad