Words - Joe Kenwright
In Holden's own words, "the new VE Commodore is the most homegrown development project in almost 60 years of Holden vehicle production." Joe Kenwright looks at why Holden might rate the VE as more Australian than a large and much-loved procession of Holden icons before it
Holden employees who have been with the company for almost 40 years are adamant about the unprecedented Australian input in the latest VE series. For most Australians who have always believed that all Holden family cars are Australia's Own as the slogan says, this can come as a shock.
If all Holdens are all-Australian, how can one be more Australian than another? The reality is that the since the Chrysler Valiant ended in 1981 and the final WB Statesman sold in 1985, Ford has been the only company building a unique Australian family car not related to an overseas model.
This is all about to change as Australians are offered a choice of two up-to-the-minute family cars that have no equivalents anywhere else in the world for the first time in 21 years.
How Australian were our Holden icons? Does it matter? How is the VE different from any Holden before it? It's worth a quick trip down memory lane to identify the most Australian of Holdens and those that were changed by outside interference. It's a fascinating trip when the most Australian of Holdens are not always the ones you think.
1948 Holden 48-215 Holden veterans still talk of the days when local engineers at the end of World War II could take up to two months just to reach GM headquarters in Detroit. Most had to catch a steamer to the west coast of the US then take a train across to Michigan to work alongside the Americans on their new car which was not yet called a Holden. At the close of 1946, the first prototypes were complete. The whole project along with a large team of engineers then headed to Vancouver by rail where it was loaded on a steamer bound for Australia. Only then, could local development and manufacture start.
Its big achievement was the first family car unique to Australia. Also unique was the fact that Holden and its Australian suppliers built virtually every component. However, Australian input in design, styling and engineering was relatively tiny.
1953 Holden FJ Surely that most Australian of Holdens, the FJ was all-Australian. Not so. The first proposal for a 1950 FJ included a full-width grille and one-piece windscreen that was rejected by Detroit as being too close to Chevrolet. The actual 1953 FJ was a US 1950 prototype that retained the two-piece windscreen and a grille that could not be confused with any other GM product then held over until 1953. It was no more than was needed in a highly protected market that kept more modern rivals out of Holden's patch. The FJ's only local claim was the big lift in refinement made by the Holden team.
1956 Holden FE Is it a coincidence that the first Holden with the most local input shares a similar model code to the VE? The FE was a huge advance in 1956 ready to stop visitors to the 1956 Olympics in their tracks. The first to be styled entirely at Fishermens Bend, the FE reflected the latest US styling trends as production caught up with demand. Cars such as the Humber Hawk/Super Snipe, Volvo 122 and Peugeot 403 which drew on the same influences, would continue well into the 1960s. The FC facelift was even more of a good thing. Under the skin, local engineers could do little about the extra weight and less performance when it was still mostly FJ except for the 12-volt electrics. The less said about the 1960 FB/1961 EK facelifts the better when both took Holden back to 1955 at a time when Holden faced modern new rivals for the first time.
1962 Holden EJ/1963 Holden EH The Americans were finally shocked into action by local spy photos after they revealed what Holden was proposing for the EJ. Knowing what was coming with Falcon and Valiant facelifts, the Americans quickly transformed the EJ's looks even if it was still basically FJ under the skin. The popular EH facelift was also a US design and introduced the much loved Holden red engines. Promoted heavily as the first modern all-Australian six-cylinder engines which they were, there are now strong suggestions they were intended for a baby Chevrolet that was abandoned after Chevrolet went down the flat-six Corvair route. This would explain why they shared almost identical capacities with the Falcon's two sixes and later peaked at a similar 202/3.3-litre capacity to Ford's Super Pursuit 200 from this era.
1965 Holden HD/1966 Holden HR The HD was a Holden low point after Detroit delivered what should have been a bigger and crisper new design from the ground-up. Tied to the EH footprint with engine propped further forward, the HD was instead a nasty exercise in cheap packaging to make a Holden look and feel bigger. The kidney slicers that were part of this deception were the final straw. After Australian protests were ignored, these sharp front guard extensions went into production confirming that Holden's own design centre was the way of the future. Their removal for the HR facelift was one of the first major local design projects since the aborted EJ proposal. Although completed locally, the HR was still under US supervision.
1968 Holden HK What should have been Australia's first all new design since the FE, was also undertaken under close Detroit supervision. The HK started out as Holden's more compact variation of the curvaceous 1965 Chevrolet milestone but had to be quickly abandoned in its final stages. Originally designed around HR dimensions, it had to be stretched in most directions to match Ford's shock release of the much bigger XR Falcon in 1966. Hence its slabbier proportions never looked quite right and its tail lights seemed too small. The dreadful HK Brougham which relied on a stretched boot to take the battle to the long wheelbase Fairlane highlighted the compromises. Subsequent HT and HG facelifts returned some proportion and detail to the design with reasonable success. Despite the growth in size and compulsory safety features, specifications and equipment still read like the FJ's.
1971 Holden HQ If any Holden model is in a position to challenge Holden's latest claims for the VE Commodore being the most Australian of any Holden without argument, it should be the HQ. After all, it was the first all new clean sheet design like the VE Commodore. It was also the first to owe nothing to the 1948 Holden. It was designed, engineered, developed and manufactured in Australia. It was also an important export project and some were badged as Chevrolets. Unlike the VE, it featured six-cylinder and V8 engines unique to Australia. Most of its transmissions were also Australian and unique to the HQ. Only the biggest V8 option and the heftiest transmissions were imported but they accounted for only a tiny slice of production.
To an outsider, Holden's latest claims for the VE should look ludicrous on comparison with the HQ. What Australians outside Holden didn't see, was the pervasive and almost terminal influence of US appointments that killed the all-Australian Holden Kingswood before doing the same to the LH Torana. This process ultimately sent Holden bankrupt.
Visiting US stylists with their young Australian trainees did a brilliant job of designing the HQ, a car that looked sportier, classier, more modern and smaller than its large car dimensions suggested. Holden's body manufacturing and structural expertise was now second to none in the industry. Despite the absence of rust-proofing, it took more to kill even the basic HQ than virtually any other car on Australian roads. Detroit had generously sent over Howard Field who engineered a new front end and Holden's first multi-link coil spring rear end, not cart springs. With local expertise gathered from successive Bathurst wins, Holden's local engineers were ready in 1971 to add radial tuned suspension for the ultimate ride and handling package of any Australian car.
At this point, another US engineering manager then insisted on taking the whole package back to early 1960s US-style ride float and terminal understeer. The combination of the fresh new styling and heavy criticism of the handling caused HQ sales to falter before they recovered to become the best selling Holden ever. In the meantime, slick new HQ updates were abandoned and the HQ fell victim to a succession of ugly, scaled-down US fronts and the cynical fitting of the prestige Statesman bootlid as a facelift. After visiting US engineers queried how Holden could sell such a poor-handling range, the Radial Tuned Suspension program was hastily implemented under German engineer, Peter Hanenberger, but it was too late to save Holden's last all-Australian family car.
1974 Holden LH Torana Holden's switched-on sales force recognized that a new youth market was not yet ready to follow their parents into a full-sized Holden Kingswood. The first post-war empty nesters were also ready to downsize and there were enough Holden loyalists who would not trade their EH or HR models on a bigger car to support a new model.
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