Jamie

from carsales.com.au

There's a long history of Holden using design cues from GMNA vehicles. The original 48/215 (aka FX) Holden from 1948 was designed in the US and both it and its replacement FJ model had strong Buick styling cues, and used a 2.2 litre six cylinder engine that was developed for an abandoned post-war Chevrolet compact car project (Earle MacPherson's revolutionary Chevrolet Cadet). The "all new" (except for the engine) FE and FC models from the mid to late 50s were essentially a 7/8 scale '55 Chevrolet, and the follow up FB and EK models from the early 60s were the earlier FE/FC models re-engineered to resemble a 7/8 scale '57 Chevrolet. The mid-60s EJ and EH models had some Chevrolet styling cues but were locally designed, with the EH model receiving a new engine that was very close to a scaled down Chevrolet inline 6 of the era. The US design studio hated the EH design, and was a bit wary of the Australian stylists, and when they saw the clays for the proposed EF replacement model, they called a halt to the model and sent US stylists (mostly from Oldsmobile) to Australia to take over the Australian design section and the HD model (nicknamed "Hastily Designed") was the end result of the GMNA stylists work. The HD is probably the most unloved Holden model. The US stylists ran the new Holden's Technical Developement Centre, that was established in 1964. It's worth reading this page and some of the following pages on the Monaro development to get a feel for the work of the US stylists and the GMNA styling cues that they incorporated into to the Holdens of the era.

4.0 litre DOHC Inline 6 with variable valve timing. Unfortunately Ford has decided that the Australia only engine will soon be discontinued and replaced by one of Ford's global V6 engines.

From drive.com.au

It is a fact. The designer that brought the GTO cues was John Schinella who at the time was on loan to Holden. Some of the 70/71 GTO cues that he brought to the HQ models were the the pronounced 'tumblehome', the horizontal bulges above the wheel arches, the headlight surrounds on the quad headlight models, and the styling of the rear deck with the tail lights inserted into the bumper. The cues are hard to see on the Van and Ute, but have a look at the Monaro and 4 door models and you'll see them. The first HQ update was supposed to add an even more Pontiac like soft nose piece, but market research (AKA focus groups) indicated that the HQ design was too far ahead of the competition and before the HQ styling had a chance to gain public acceptance, a decision was made to abandon further Pontiac styling cues and graft an upright Chevelle styled nose onto the HQ body for the replacement. John Schinella was also involved with the Oldsmobile Toronado styling cues at the rear of the first generation (HK/HT/HG) Monaro.

It's simply pronounced Ute. Ewe (as in female sheep) pronounced "U" plus a "T"

The 71 HQ series Holdens were styled using the '70 and '71 GTO as the styling inspiration, with some of the original GTO stylists being directly involved with the HQ design. At the time the HQs had the thinnest A pillars of any production car in the world. The Sandman series of Utes and Vans had a very strong cult following in Australia in the early 70s.

Sure are.If I can leave the hatch open or partially open, I can lug a lot of large stuff home in the back of my car ... full sized dish washer, 4 drawer filing cabinet, etc, although with the hatch closed and the rear seats raised, the very high rear floor means that mine has barely enough space in the back to fit my weekly shopping. On the other hand, the high floor means that there a lot of hidden space under the floor. Mine always carried a rather large cantilevered toolbox and a lot of other crap, and I always had a 2 man tent plus camping gear packed around the spare tire. One of the first things you discover is that if you store the spare tire upside down, you get extra storage space inside the wheel hub area, although at the cost of not being able to easily check the tire pressure.

The Hatch Hutch was a popular option ... but it only sold to people that were shorter than about 5ft8, or who had never actually tried to sleep in the back of the car. The car is quite small (think Vega sized ... and I think the hatches are exactly the same size) so the car was really too small for a normal sized adult to lie down in the back. I just measured mine, and it's only 5ft2 from the back of the car to the front of the folded down backs of the rear seats. I'm 6ft4, and there's no way I could lie down in the rear of my Torana unless I folded the passenger seat forward, and came up with some sort of padded block to fill the space between the folded down rear seats, and the folded forward front seat.

The wrecked Diablo SV is already up on an auction site that specializes in wrecked cars.

I've had no car insurance claims in over 30 years (last one was in 1974), so that eliminates the first 2 points ... and I sure don't plan to live in Toronto, so there goes the third point.Just to ruin your day, I'm currently paying under $300 per year for my car's full insurance ... although they don't consider a near 30 year old car to be worth all that much (even if I've already had collectors offer me more than 5 times the car's official book value).

With my pending relocation to Canada in a few months time, that's not something I want to hear.A member of an Australian Performance Forum that I'm a member of, posted that his brother pays AUD$7K on his Lamborghini Murcielago (with a AUD$450K insurance valuation).

This happened a few days ago in Sydney. The uninsured lightweight Lamborghini SV (no ABS on that model) left 80 metre skid marks. All people involved are OK, but sore. (According to a somebody in the know, the yearly insurance figure on that Lambo would be around AUD$7000)

When it comes to doing real work, even Toyota prefers a Chevy.

That won't happen. USD$50K might get you an ENTRY level HSV ... but with the 427 having an expected local price of AUD$125K, unless there was some serious price subsidization by GM, the US price would be somewhere around the USD$100K figure.

This was found on the Wheels Magazine web site, and it may be the "Biggest Moment in HSV's first 20 years" that HSV is currently teasing people with on their web site.

Have a look at the shape of the wheels in a side on shot. It's a 16:9 aspect ratio video that YouTube is displaying in a 4:3 window.Looks like it was all filmed at Holden's Lang Lang test track.

Update: The engine has been run in and after the first day of serious tuning @ 15 psi boost ... There's still some work to be done on the timing, mixture, and exhaust ...

I thought you guys might be interested in the engine that one of the tuners I know on an Australian forum has built for his street/strip car. The engine isn't run in yet, so the revs have been limited to 4500 and the boost is currently capped at 10 psi, but even with those restrictions it's producing 455 rwhp at 4500rpm running through a T56 6 speed. Once its run in, he'll be winding up the boost and the revs. He's aiming for 700 rwhp on pump fuel and 10 second 1/4 mile times. He runs this place: http://www.castlehillexhaust.com.au/ and there's lots of other interesting stuff in the picture gallery.

Super Oscars are professional rally driving lights that were developed by the French lighting company Cibie. Look at any professional rally car in the last 3 decades, and you'll probably find Cibie lights and they'll usually be either Super Oscars or the smaller Oscars. The Super Oscars are their biggest lamps (9" diameter x 6" deep case with a 7" diameter lens) and can be fitted with bulbs that range from 55 watts to 130 watts. Back when I used to do a lot of long distance driving, I ran a pair of the standard versions (over a mile reflective range) and a pair of the long range versions (around 2 miles range). When I was working on airports, I used to get clearance to use the runway at night to align my lights. This is from 1974. The four lights (shown above) are currently not mounted on any car and I have another pair of Super Oscars fitted behind the grill of daily driver. As for Newfoundland. My wife currently works in Newfoundland, (moved there from Northern Manitoba last October) but the company that hired her isn't what she expected, so she's currently investigating another job opportunity in Ottawa. Most of the Newfies are further west than Ontario. Lots are in Alberta.

It looks like I'll be moving to Canada in a few months. I don't yet know if I'll be moving to Newfoundland or Ontario ... that really depends on the job application that my wife has for a position in Ottawa. One thing I need to ask about are regulations dealing with after market driving lights. I have a couple of sets of Cibie Super Oscars that I've been using on my cars in Australia for the past 35 years. I'm wondering if I should sell them before I leave or pack them up and bring them with me.

Just something to think about. The US dollar is going down in value. At the moment the AUD$ is at around USD$0.85 and going up. The AUD$100k~$125k price they are quoting for this car will put it at the USD$85k~$105k price range if it comes similarly equipped. Even if they change nothing else on the G8 GT and just add the LS7, then I'd expect something like a USD$15k~$20k price premium for the LS7 engine option. The only way I can see this working for Pontiac is if they do a high dollar "halo" car that's basically a top of the range HSV vehicle with Pontiac badging. Forget about pricing this for the average consumer. This should be a no compromise performance car that would tempt M series BMW or AMG series Benz customers. For the same reason, there should be no automatic option, so that it doesn't become a "look at me" boulevard cruiser for the Rodeo Drive set.

The story over here is that one has already gone down the production line, and suppliers are quoting on the supply of items for the car ... however there is also some suspicion that the car may be a smoke screen to distract the press so some other development project can continue under cover. If it does get built, there is also some debate on how many will be built. One report says that production will be limited to 100 per year (based on leaks of what the parts suppliers are being asked to quote on), and another report says that there will be a total of 20 built to match the 20th anniversary of HSV.

Test from Fifth Gear (note: the audio is a bit out of synch)