Table of contents for November 2017 in Wheels

What is it? A conceptual suspension system dubbed LIFT (Lightweight Innovative Flexible Technology) that replaces conventional springs and dampers with a simpler, flexible wishbone suspension arm. The revolutionary technology is being developed by a UK consortium comprised of computer-aided engineering specialist Simpact, the Ariel Motor Company, and Warwick Manufacturing Group – a branch of Warwick University. It’s not quite ready for production cars, but British ultra-light sportscar manufacturer Ariel is developing a prototype to test the technology on its front axle and evaluate the potential for production vehicles. How does it work? Regular double wishbone suspension layouts require a coil spring to support the weight of the vehicle and absorb wheel movements, while a damper is necessary for dissipating the absorbed energy. The LIFT system hands all of these jobs…

Model Range Rover Velar P380 First Edition Engine 2995cc V6 (90º), dohc, 24v, S/C Max power 280kW @ 6500rpm Max torque 450Nm @ 4500rpm Transmission 8-speed automatic Weight 1884kg 0-100km/h 5.7sec (claimed) Economy 9.4L/100km Price $168,862 On sale Now IF THE Evoque prepared a brand-obsessed world for a bitumen-biased Range Rover, then no one will have a problem with the Velar. Styled like a concept car and finished to an even higher standard than its larger siblings, this could be just what the Doctor orders in our blue-ribbon locales. Sharing the Jaguar F-Pace’s D7A architecture and 2874mm wheelbase, the slightly longer Velar delivers a counterpoint to its more overtly sporting British cousin. This is a luxe-focused SUV that also happens to be a decent drive. A $71K wad gets you…

Model Renault Zoe Life Engine Synchronous electric motor Max power 68kW Max torque 220Nm Transmission Fixed single-speed Weight 1480kg 0-100km/h 12.0sec (estimated) Economy 13.6kWh/100km Price $44,470 On sale November ALTERNATIVE energy may still be kryptonite to Aussie pollies, but as photovoltaic panels have crept across our rooftops, so too has awareness of the virtues of fully electric motoring. However, awareness is one thing; access to product is entirely another. While Europe, Japan and the USA’s most progressive state, California, have embraced electric cars of all kinds, our EV segment isn’t even in its infancy yet. It’s still gestating. But there’s an occasional kick from within the womb. Five years after its European debut, Renault has finally introduced its all-electric Zoe hatch to Australia, giving the French automaker’s local operation its…

IN THE cliched language of a funeral, in the pages that follow, Wheels celebrates the 69-year life of Australian Holdens. We’re left to remember the Holden story: the great cars, the visionary people, the against-the-odds creative and manufacturing efforts, the dramas and, not least, the heroic drives across this magazine’s involvement with indigenous Holden cars. Wheels, just five years younger than Holden’s iconic 48-215, first road tested its successor, the FJ, a year after it was launched. Increasingly, especially from the 1970s, Wheels’ editors learned that a Holden cover sold magazines, just as Holden and HDT and, later, HSV appreciated that comprehensive coverage in Wheels helped sell their cars to enthusiasts. How the loss of local automotive content, specifically the performance variants, impacts car magazine sales is one of the…

ON THE back of the almost cult-like following for the sweetly powered VL (which sold strongly to private buyers but was deemed too small for proper fleet volume), the wide-bodied VN instantly made an impact, knocking the Falcon off its number-one-selling perch for the first time since 1982. But what is more remarkable is that the VN’s success was born out of Holden’s near-bankruptcy – and subsequent $700 million bail-out by GM in 1986. Left with having to stretch the least amount of development coin the farthest it could, Holden managed to engineer the revival of its evergreen 5.0-litre V8 with multi-point fuel injection (1989) , the return of long-wheelbase luxury models (VQ Statesman and Caprice in 1990) , and a first-ever Commodore Ute (the VG in 1990) , all…

THE VT was the most successful Commodore of all time, not only because it set the sales charts ablaze like no Holden since the HQ, but because it sired a vast model range featuring some of the greatest lion-badged cars ever. At the top of that list sits HSV’s brilliant VTII GTS (2000) – a Callaway-engined 5.7-litre V8 muscle sedan producing a then unheard-of 300kW (more than a contemporary E39 BMW M5) and packing a level of sophistication like no fast Holden before it. The svelte V2 Monaro (green-lit thanks to the uproarious reaction to Holden’s 1998 Sydney Motor Show ‘Coupe Concept’), also owed its provenance to the VT, offering Aussies a homegrown two-door for the first time since the late-70s. And the variants kept coming. Beyond the long-wheelbase WH…

COMMODORE numero uno marked Holden’s first serious shift in direction. The VB introduced a significantly downsized, heavily European design that still packed the toughness (and large-capacity engines) that Aussie buyers craved, while being housed in a sleek, handsome, incredibly modern body that no longer reflected a Detroit-inspired design aesthetic. Things began well for the VB. Launched in October ’78, it initially sold up a storm and Peter Brock’s Repco Round-Australia rally win in 1979 proved that this German with a thick Aussie accent wasn’t just brilliant on blacktop. A VB Commodore SL/E 5.0 won a Wheels comparison test against a Mercedes-Benz 280E, Rover 3500, and Volvo 264 – the Benz costing more than three times the SL/E’s price – while bread-and-butter VBs made the domestic opposition feel flabby and/or dated,…

HURRICANE 1969 THE ICONIC Hurricane concept was GM-H’s first, and came about via American inspiration and Australian engineering nous. In the late 1960s there was a growing appetite for affordable sports cars, which led General Motors to consider the development of a halo model for Holden. After a succession of production models, including the EJ, EH and HD, were snatched from the Holden design department and redesigned in Detroit under GM’s then-Vice President of Design, Bill Mitchell , the local design team needed a confidence boost. In 1966, 18 months before the introduction of the HK series, a small work space was dedicated where young designers, including Ted Schroeder and Phil Zmood, developed a series of front- and mid-engined sports car themes that progressed from sketches to tape drawings and…

ON MAY 1, 2016, Mike Simcoe became Vice President of GM Global Design, the first non-American appointed to the role and only the seventh since Harley Earl established GM’s Art and Colour section in 1927. Simcoe joined Holden in 1983 as a designer and quickly rose through the ranks of the GM global design community. Before assuming the top position, Simcoe twice previously worked in the US as a senior designer in the advanced studio between 1990 and 1992, and then as the head of American exterior design from 2004-2014. He then returned to Australia to run GM’s international studios in Port Melbourne, South Korea, and India. What the formal CV doesn’t tell you is Simcoe’s crucial role in the creation of the all-new VT and VE Commodores, his passion…

MIKE SIMCOE is at the wheel, cruising Woodward Avenue in the last Chevrolet SS on the Tuesday evening before Saturday’s Woodward Dream Cruise proper. We’re talking cars (what else?): Detroit muscle, Detroit fantasy, Detroit influence, decades of Holden styling and his favourites. I’m absorbing car-styling wisdom from a master, a precise, honest tutorial that’s gold for anyone, like me, who loves Detroit cars from the 1950s and 1960s. The SS, the badge-engineered, Chevrolet version of the VF Commodore SS-V Redline, is an appropriate stand-in for the 1959 FC Holden Special I’d hoped to use for this story. After now-executive vice president of global product development at GM, Mark Reuss returned to Detroit in 2009 following his stint as Holden CEO, he brought back an FC sedan. The FC now lives…

DESPITE AN AWKWARD TIME FRAME AND AN ALMIGHTY RUSH, ITMADEIT TO MONZA WITH NO SPARE ENGINE AND MINIMAL SPARES. WHAT WAS MOFFAT THINKING? THIS is a strange story of how Allan Moffat, former Ford hero, entered a brand-new Peter Brock VL Commodore in the opening round of the inaugural 1987 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at Monza, Italy. Due to be Brock’s 05 race car that season, the Commodore was put up for sale by the desperate-for-cash race ace in the aftermath of the Director and Energy Polarizer fiascos. Using a front man, Moffat, an HDT driver the previous year, bought the car. He had an audacious, perhaps deeply flawed, plan to get funding from loyal sponsors, ship the Commodore to Europe, find some mechanics and crew and, with his…

“I BELIEVE THAT’S THE BEST RACE I’VE EVER BEEN INVOLVED IN,” WHINCUP SAID LATER JAMIE Whincup has won more than 100 races in his stunning driving career. Yet the memory Whincup treasures over all the other countless wonderful moments is the Saturday 250km leg of the 2012 Clipsal 500, the opening salvo of the V8 Supercars Championship of that year. He went on to win the golden double in 2012 – the championship and the Bathurst 1000. The remarkable victory in the opening leg in Adelaide set up his standout year. But first, some context... Six days earlier, Whincup’s father David had passed away. David had been a long-time supporter of his son’s motor racing. Father and son were very close. Whincup called his dad “my best mate”. Though he’d…

PROTESTS LEFT THE RACE RESULTS IN DOUBT WELL INTO THE FOLLOWING YEAR WHEN THE SIERRAS WERE ULTIMATELY RUBBED OUT FOR THE first time (and only time), the 1987 Bathurst 1000 was a round of the World Touring Car Championship for Group A cars. A big deal. The entries were loaded with European teams and gun drivers aboard the favoured Ford Sierra RS500s and BMW M3s. Aussie hopes were the Sierras entered by Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat. The only Australian cars in the field were a bunch of VK and VL Commodores, but seemingly lacking their past potency in this international Group A guise. Emerging shakily yet defiantly from an awful split with Holden over his belief in the mystical powers of the Energy Polarizer, Peter Brock – now a…

BROCK SMASHED THE LAP RECORD ON THE FINAL CIRCUIT, ARM ON THE WINDOW SILL, NONCHALANTLY WAVING TO THE APPRECIATIVE CROWD ONE MONTH after winning the Repco Trial and washing the dust out of his coiffe, Peter Brock was back doing what he did so brilliantly: driving a touring car at Mount Panorama in the Hardie-Ferodo 1000. It was touted as another classic contest between the Brock-led Holden horde of LX Toranas and the big Ford Falcons headed by the XC GS500 Hardtop of Allan Moffat. Ultimately, though, it was a no contest and a horror day for the Blue Oval. Sharing a 308ci V8 Holden Dealer Team Torana A9X Hatchback with Jim Richards, Peter Perfect won the one-lap shootout for pole position and then on Sunday the pair led every…

JESS Bala happily admits she queued to be one of the first with an iPhone. The self-confessed techno-nerd studied to be a lawyer, but two years’ internship left her knowing law didn’t appeal as a career path. Instead, she joined Holden in after-sales and was quickly promoted to work in New Zealand in logistics, before returning to Melbourne and working as a planning analyst, quickly rising to become a product planner on Commodore and Holden’s SUV ranges. Working specifically on infotainment and technology strategy, the job took her to the increasingly important Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES). “There are so many different facets to Holden,” she says, “I worked in a breadth of roles in planning, design, manufacturing and purchasing. It’s a saturation business that allows quick promotion and…

IF I’M GOING to commit to a long-term relationship, I prefer to have practised a little try-before-you-buy. I first met Hyundai's i30 SR in the biting South Korean winter at its international launch earlier this year. I returned home concerned that the gleaming impression it left may have been partly attributed to the country’s stunning snow-covered scenery, sensational roads, and endless kimchi – the classic holiday romance. But I needn’t have worried because it impressed again when we were reacquainted, this time on Australian turf as part of a four-car comparison test in our September issue. Against some strong opposition, the SR carried itself confidently and offered a compelling package of performance and quality for a price that’s hard to fault. Understandably, I’m looking forward to a longer, more meaningful…

IT STARTED innocuously enough. The key fob button for the Countryman’s motorised rear hatch had suffered a fit of pique and obstinately refused to function. If you’ve been following my experience with Mini’s plus-size model, you’ll know that the rear hatch has taken a dislike to me, acting all innocent and then lunging at the back of my head if given the opportunity. I’ve wised up to that particular stunt but the car has now adopted an even more dastardly tack. Returning to the vehicle after locking it in a busy shopping-centre carpark, I gazed across the serried rows of vehicles to spot the Countryman with the rear hatch raised to the skies in a triumphant ‘screw you!’ salute. I wondered how long it had been sitting there like that…

IT WASN’T the first Holden and, at the height of its popularity, it wasn’t even the best Holden. But the FJ holds its head high as one of the most iconic of Australian cars, through its significance in our country’s cultural landscape. Holden’s first locally manufactured car, the 48-215 (subsequently referred to as ‘FX’), was launched in 1948. It was based on a pre-war Chevrolet design, developed locally for toughness and durability, and fitted with a six-cylinder engine that was reasoned as a happy medium between the British four-bangers and American V8s. So eager were Aussies for the new, affordable family car – by 1953, ‘the Holden’ commanded almost 33 percent of the local market – that it was built for five years with virtually no changes. Its replacement, the…

LAMBORGHINIS, Ferraris, and Rolls-Royces mixing it among candy-coated rotary Mazdas, American muscle cars, Japanese turbo monsters, low-rider Yank tanks … oh, and a BMW M3 drag car with a turbocharged triple-rotor drivetrain and suspension plated in 23-karat gold. It’s all in a day’s work – well, maybe longer – for Sydney car bling king Mohammed Ibrahim. The Queen Street Group in south-western Sydney is one of the nation’s best-known shops for street car customising; although the business also covers unique wedding car hire, regular smash repairs, a car wash, and even a charcoal chicken shop. This niche automotive empire began in 1998 when panel beater Mohammed (now 39) and his brother Bakr (37), a spray painter, teamed up with a panel shop. “It was pretty much just normal cars, and…

A HOLDEN-POWERED Corvette, under development by General Motors in Detroit almost 60 years ago, has finally surfaced from the archives to reveal what might have been: an Australian-engined roadster for the world. Until now, the shock project – code-named XP-85 – has remained top secret, only coming to light when Wheels dipped into the GM archives on a recent visit to Detroit. Detail is scant, but the few internal documents and photographs lay bare a two-seat sports car, positioned below the production, V8-only Corvette, most probably aimed at the popular British Austin-Healey 6, Triumph TR3 and, from the photographs, VW’s Karmann Ghia. The XP-85 (the ‘XP’ stood for Experimental Project) was just one of a number of sports cars being developed by GM during the 1957-58 period. Project XP-87 eventually…

IF YOU’RE going to show a car that doesn’t exist and won’t exist, it makes no sense to actually build a physical model of the thing. That was Jaguar’s logic when previewing its glimpse into the shape of motoring in 2040. The Jaguar Future-Type virtual representation is, as Ian Callum, Jaguar’s director of design explains, “part of our vision for how a luxury car brand could continue to be desirable in a more digital and autonomous age.” While we’ve been inundated with autonomous, electric concepts of late, many of which focus on a lounge-like experience, the Future-Type is one of the few that includes a steering wheel. The Sayer wheel, named after Malcolm Sayer, designer of the E-Type, is the way in which Jaguar proposes you’d connect to online services.…

FIRST BASE I’ve grown up with the first model Commodore. Dad traded in a HR Premier for a Jasmine Yellow basemodelVB sedan, a 202 manual with vinyl seats. It was his daily. In 2000, this Sandalwood metallic beauty came into his hands, and later mine. A 1979VB SL/E 308 pack, factory 5.0-litre with a four-speed. Aged 18, I took a very big interest in it. I’m now a part owner of this rare car. Sure it missed out on electric windows and central locking, but the headlight washers and wipers work. Damien Smith “I bonded with the Sandman forever on a trip to the NT” BLOODLINES I’ve worked at Holden in the bodyshop for the past 18 years. My wife Kylie and I recently purchased a HoldenVF II Commodore SS-V…

Model Kia Stinger GT Engine 3342cc V6 (60°), dohc, 24v, twin-turbo Max power 272kW @ 6000rpm Max torque 510Nm @ 1300-4500rpm Transmission 8-speed automatic Weight 1780kg 0-100km/h 4.9sec (claimed) Economy 10.2L/100km Price $59,990 On sale Now KIA’S breakthrough car is finally here. Flipping the traditional transverse-engined, front-drive formula for a longitudinal rear-drive layout that will have purists licking their lips, the muscular Stinger also signals a more exotic styling direction for the once-maligned Korean brand. Six models make up Stinger’s Australian line-up: the four-cylinder 200S ($45,990), 200Si ($52,990) and GT-Line with adaptive dampers ($55,990), each powered by the Optima GT’s ‘Theta II’ 2.0-litre turbo-petrol with 182kW/353Nm; and the six-cylinder 330S ($48,990), 330Si ($55,990) and range-topping GT with adaptive dampers ($59,990), each sporting a twin-turbo ‘Lambda II’ 3.3-litre V6 with 272kW/510Nm.…

“THEY DON’T GO, THEY DON’T STOP, THEY DON’T HANDLE, BUT THEY’RE FUN” DARRON MAY BERRY AS OMENS go, it was encouraging. The forecast showers that seem to permanently blanket Melbourne during the final winter of Australian vehicle manufacturing mercifully hold out, as more than 50 Holdens make their way to the company’s 60-year-old Lang Lang proving ground near Phillip Island in Victoria on a chilly August Saturday. Even the usual bracing southerlies blow a bit more sympathetically. Encouraging news for the proud, passionate folk filing in inside their Standards, Specials and Belmonts not fitted with Nasco heaters. Examples of most shapes and sizes have come home to mark the impending demise. But while the weathervane appears to be on the right side of history, a more telling omen looms. Now,…

“WE HAVE worked for the last four and a half years to make Holden a company that will last for decades,” said Peter Hanenberger, Holden Ltd chairman and managing director, back in July 2003. “We have the right people in place and we are financially very sound. So, it makes my departure fairly easy from the point of view of people. The team is in place, the products are in place and the things that are to come are in place.” A little more than 14 years since one of Holden’s greatest leaders uttered those optimistic words, Holden joins Ford and Toyota in abandoning the Australian car- building business. We despair about all three, but Holden especially so. When General Motors won the right from the Australian government to build…

MUCH LIKE there’s two sides to every argument, ‘significance’ can be a subjective thing. So choosing 10 Aussie-made Holden models that really mattered was always going to have inevitable casualties. In almost every instance, you could argue there was better to come as each generation matured into a more polished and sophisticated version of the original. For example, there wouldn’t be a person on this earth who thought Holden’s airbag-equipped VR Commodore of 1993 wasn’t a vast improvement over the ’88 VN, but it was the big-selling VN that saved Fishermans Bend’s bacon, at exactly the right time. Same applies to the first 48-215 of ’48. The final ’53 model was definitely better than the first, thanks to modern telescopic front dampers replacing antiquated lever-arm units, yet it’s the first…

INTRODUCED as the ‘Swinging Sixties’ mood progressively infected the western world, the HK Monaro coupe was almost an anti-Holden. Just a year earlier, Holden’s line-up included the conservatively competent six-cylinder HR Holden Special and Premier, and the Vauxhall Viva-replacing HB Torana, but in much the same way that 1968 played out across the globe, the year of revolution saw exactly that happening in Holden’s Australian dealerships. Inspired by the pillarless-coupe style of its international GM stablemates (particularly the Opel Commodore coupe), the HK Monaro was a watershed moment for Holden, specifically the flagship GTS 327. Here was a four-barrel 5.3-litre Chevrolet V8 punching out 250hp (186kW) tied to a four-on-the-floor, with red-banded ‘D70 Nylon high-speed’ tyres, track-honed suspension, and, after the long weekend in October ’68, a Bathurst endurance win…

ARGUABLY Australia’s greatest styling success, the HQ was more things to more people than any local product ever made. From a basic 173ci (2.8-litre) Belmont utility with drum brakes, a bench seat, and not even door armrests, to a lavishly equipped Statesman DeVille long-wheelbase sedan with a 350ci (5.7-litre) Chevrolet V8 burbling out front, the HQ mastered range diversity like no other. In just over three years, Holden built 517,614 HQs (if you include all body variants – not the 485,650 regular-line sedans and wagons so often quoted), making it the biggest-selling Aussie car of all time. And those variants included short-and long-wheelbase sedans, a long-wheelbase wagon, a coupe, a panel van, a utility, and even a one-tonne utility, as well as Australia’s first limited-run, package-value models. Think Vacationer (’72),…

NOT ONLY the longest running model in Holden’s 69-year history but also one of its finest achievements, laying down the foundation for an entire line-up of global GM models born from the VE’s Zeta architecture. As we now know, that latter part never came to fruition, shot down by GM’s bankruptcy in 2009, but the VE’s overall contribution to Holden’s trophy cabinet can’t be ignored. Heck, this baby cost a billion Aussie dollars to develop (if you include its long-wheelbase WM Statesman/Caprice relative) so you’d expect excellence, and in most ways that’s what the VE delivered. In fact, there are still areas where the VE – and its updated VF successor – still set the benchmark. Five-seat space, body strength, dynamic cohesion, the country-road ride of non-sporting versions, but most…

IN ANY large corporation, with a diverse range of board members, and a parent company with its hands on the strings, it takes a rare combination of drive, talent, leadership and commitment for a single individual to make a significant impact on the company’s fortunes. But it does happen. In Holden’s case, however, narrowing that down to just 10 men is hugely challenging. You’re comparing people across more than 70 years and different disciplines: product, manufacturing, management, and in different eras of Holden’s economic fortunes. There is also the fundamental question of defining ‘influential’.…

“IT COUGHED COMING INTO THE LAST CORNER AND I RAN OUT OF FUEL WHILE CROSSING THE LINE” MUCH of this Bathurst 1000 was a bit of a snooze. Red Bull Holden’s Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell had dominated from the start. Pitting for the final time on lap 135 for fuel, tyres and fresh brake pads, Whincup relinquished the lead but had car pace and laps on his side in his chase to the flag. He ruthlessly caught and passed Garth Tander’s HRT Commodore and set off after Scott McLaughlin’s Volvo. The six-time champ looked unstoppable. Then came The Moment. Into the Chase on lap 150, Whincup fired down the inside of McLaughlin who defensively edged left. Side by side, they banged together firmly, the Volvo ricocheting onto the outfield.…

WITH 20 LAPS LEFT TO RUN, PERKINS/INGALL HAD EDGED BACK INSIDE THE TOP FIVE HARD-headed racer/engineer Larry Perkins won a six-pack of Bathurst 1000s but the best remembered of these accomplishments is his remarkable last-to-first in the 1995 race with co-driver Russell Ingall. Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris managed the same trick for Ford in the 2014 Bathurst 1000, surging from 25th and dead last on the grid to snatch a fairytale victory. But Perkins and Ingall did it for Holden 19 years earlier, among a bigger field of 32 cars. This was the first Bathurst 1000 to be contested by a single class, which became V8 Supercars in 1997. Heading into turn one off the start line, third-on-the-grid Perkins’s VR Commodore banged fenders with the slow-starting HRT car of…

“THE HOLDEN PROJECT WAS IMMENSE. IT DID TAKE UP A HELL OF A LOT OF TIME AND MONEY” SINCE its 1960 inception and right through that decade, the Australian Touring Car Championship had been owned by imported cars – a string of four Jaguars initially, before a Ford Cortina preceded dominance by five rambunctious Ford Mustangs. Norm Beechey had been one of the title winners (in 1965) in a Mustang but was obsessed with the challenge of creating an Australian car to take on the latest Trans-Am factory racers from the US. The Brylcreemed Beechey’s flamboyant tyre-smoking, tail-out style had made him a fan favourite so Holden wisely signed him. After unsuccessfully chasing the title with a 327 Holden Monaro in 1969, Beechey and his small engineering team stepped up…

THE BATTLE FOR AUSTRALIAN AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING HAS BEEN WAGED AND LOST THERE is a tree that guards the entrance to Holden’s vast Elizabeth factory on the outskirts of greater Adelaide. It’s a sprawling ghost gum, at least 20 metres tall, that nobody seems to remember being planted. It was just there. The oldest workers at this factory have spent half a lifetime watching that tree slowly grow, transforming over the decades from a weak and spindly sapling to the stout, thick-trunked thing it is today. There’s not much in the way of notable landmarks in this unremarkable part of Adelaide, with Holden’s facility surrounded by shabby single-storey buildings, a discount grocer and concrete forecourts filled with second-hand goods. And so they had the ghost gum. In the cruelest of twists,…

PHILIP Brook spent nine years at Honda and another nine years with Nissan before Holden’s Ross McKenzie, the legendary sales and marketing boss, convinced him to switch to Fishermans Bend. “It was every little boy’s dream to work at Holden,” Brook says, nominating the increased scale of Holden as another reason for the change. The chance to operate in a senior role at Holden with CEO Mark Reuss and Alan Batey, after McKenzie’s (then head of marketing) retirement, soon produced a couple of international job offers. “I was up for it,” Brook says. “The scale thing again; I ended up in Dallas as regional director for Buick and GMC in charge of 10 states. Forty percent of US sales of pick-up trucks are in this area so it’s the most…

IN 1995, Holden was a sad tenth in small- and medium-car sales in Australia. In no small part thanks to Megan Stooke’s expertise and marketing skill, under Kevin Wale’s leadership (he later ran GM China), they devised the highly successful Barina Girl advertising campaign and established Holden marketing channels in non-traditional areas. It worked: by 2000 Holden sat second. Stooke, clearly in the fast-lane, then worked in Holden’s export division, gaining international experience in the Middle East, Brazil, Korea and America. Impressed with her energy, Brent Dewar, head of Chevrolet, tapped the young Aussie for a job in Detroit in 2005. “I was looking for a new challenge and the opportunity was impossible to ignore,” Stooke says. “Holden is a smaller organisation, so you get to understand the total business…

AS SPRING’S arrival offers salvation from the depressive effects of the cold, and life’s rollercoaster of emotion shows signs of levelling out, this bright-yellow companion has rarely failed to keep my mood cheery. The colour helps, of course, but approaching the Mustang’s handsome face and muscular hips each morning always adds some sunshine to my day. There’s a welcoming familiarity to clasping its door handle and hearing the clack of its slick keyless entry system, followed by the ‘thunk’ of its large frameless door shutting and the rustle of its window re-sealing itself closed. Indeed, sitting low in the ’Stang is like being bear-hugged by a chunk of metal, reminding me that everything is going to be alright … even if we hit a telegraph pole sideways and test the…

LIFE with the Picanto has been relative this month; relatively uneventful, fuss-free, and without any major downers. Even the steering in the Picanto is relative – to your speed, that is. You see, the electric steering in the Kia changes its weighting depending on how fast you are moving, and it is one of the hidden delights of the car. At low speeds, the steering wheel can be twirled with ease, spinning through its 2.7-turns lock-to-lock effortlessly; brilliant for car parks and slow-speed manoeuvring. Pick up the pace to ‘around town’ levels and there is more weight to the wheel, which nails the middle ground between too light, where the car can feel remote, and too heavy, where regular day-to-day driving can be tiresome. At highway speeds the Picanto feels…

Citroen’s charismatic C4 Cactus has been given a fresh lease of life in the Australian market with a $29,690 conventional six-speed automatic transmission variant now offered with the 81kW petrol four-cylinder, in addition to the six-speed manual. As part of the range reshuffle, the woeful automated manual/diesel engine combination has been shown the door, while a pair of optional OneTone special editions have also been added, which pour cold water on the C4’s conspicuous high-contrast styling with a monochrome colour scheme .…

By the time I graduated to Wheels, I’d worked out that Aussies liked reading about ‘our’ cars I haven’t done the maths to confirm if this is right – and given that the great Peter Robinson sat in the editor’s chair for almost twice as long as I did, I have my doubts – but I’m happy to wear it. By the time I graduated to Wheels after cutting my editing teeth at in-house rival Motor (where I also published my fair share of Holden covers), I’d worked out that Aussies liked reading about ‘our’ cars over just about anything else. Of course we dabbled with all manner of other marques from Italy, Germany, Japan, the USA and the UK, but finding a reason to put a Holden (or a…

This high-output turbo four has the muscular feel of a much larger V6 SPECS Model Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 Engine 1995cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max Power 206kW @ 5250rpm Max Torque 400Nm @ 2250rpm Transmission 8-speed automatic Weight 1660kg 0-100km/h 5.7 seconds (claimed) Fuel economy 7.0L/100km Price $77,000 (estimated) On sale March 2018 DESPITE demonstrating it was capable of progressive thinking back in 2003 when it unveiled the Kamal SUV concept, Alfa Romeo spent the next 13 years sitting on its hands. But now the iconic Italian brand’s first SUV, the Stelvio, is finally imminent, with a local launch set for March next year. The expectations are understandably high. And so they should be. The arrival of the Cayenne revitalised a struggling Porsche in the early 2000s, while Jaguar…

TYPE R, as we know it, is dead. That fabled emblem, venerated by petrolheads, once symbolised Honda’s unique brand of lightweight, free-breathing, high-rpm thrills. Early Type Rs were revelatory – particularly the DC2 Integra variety – but the game has changed over its 20-year epoch, and Australia has never seen the Civic Type R at its best. Our sole exposure ended six long years ago when the European-sourced third-gen model departed Oz after a four-year tenure. There were no eulogies. Honda had diluted the Type R formula by that point, and its storied history of purist performance cars had started petering out long ago. Honda Australia skipped the fleeting fourth-gen Type R, wisely choosing not to market a car built on the inferior ninth-generation Civic platform alongside the all-new gen-10…

OUR ‘PEOPLE’S CAR’ HAD SIX-CYLINDER TORQUE AND FOUR-CYLINDER ECONOMY, RIGHT-SIZED FOR THE TIME AND TOUGHER THAN A STOCKMAN’S SADDLE BENEDICT Chifley, fedora in hand, wore a wool suit minus the usual waistcoat, given Melbourne’s late November weather. Australia’s 16th Prime Minister was very nearly a day late for this, the launch of the first Holden, but he was never – ever – going to be a penny short. After all, he’d arranged one million pounds of bank loans and invested a good deal of his heart and soul. This was the realisation of a dream for a country where butter, petrol and tea were still strictly rationed, long after peace was declared. The former railway engine driver, war time Treasurer and now PM, endured the ravages of the Great Depression…

PETER HANENBERGER 1999-2003 Described by colleagues as a passionate man who wanted what he thought was the right thing for the brand. Brought many ideas to the company – most of them good – including a 10-year plan to open up export markets. DENNY MOONEY 2004-2007 Detroit’s choice to succeed Hanenberger. He implemented Holden’s Daewoo-sourced products push, and introduced the VE Commodore-based Pontiac G8 to the US. Was said to be contantly worried about exchange rates. MARK REUSS 2008-2009 Steered Holden through the global credit crunch, and is credited with talking a cash-strapped GM out of abandoning its far-flung Aussie outpost. Believed to have been the main driving force behind saving the Lang Lang proving ground from closure. MIKEDEVEREUX 2010-2013 Secured Cruze production for Australia to help build volume after…

IT WAS a tough call between including this – essentially a humble facelift of the LX Torana 1900 – and 1969’s COTY-winning LC Torana, which single-handedly created the ‘compact six’ category. But if you consider the significance of the LX Sunbird’s legacy, then this, the first Holden to boast Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS), packs a dynamic punch that resonates in Holden’s best products to this day. Masterminded by MD Chuck Chapman, chief engineer Joe Whitesell, and ex-Opel engineer Peter Hanenberger, the up-to-date kinematic approach of Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS) quickly transformed Holden’s entire range. The Sunbird was first (accompanied by actual press pics comparing its flat, balanced handling to the rolling, understeering mess of its Torana 1900 predecessor), followed by the entire LX Torana line-up, an updated TC Gemini, and,…

THE ‘power race’ began late at Holden – August 1963 – and it was signified by a chequered-flag ‘179’ badge attached to the rear end of the new EH Holden. Under the EH’s sharp-edged bonnet sat an all-new, all-Australian ‘red’ straight-six, its block and rocker cover resplendent in the same hue that graced its title. While a red-painted, single-carburettor engine available in relatively modest 2.4- and 2.9-litre capacities might seem about as racy as a neck-to-knee swimsuit, compared to the EH’s bodily related predecessor, the 1962 EJ, having a top donk punch out 115hp (86kW) was massive news. The feeble EJ could only manage 75hp (56kW) from its 2.3-litre ‘grey’ six. Light in weight, and with further development future-proofed into its design (think triplecarby LJ Torana GTR XU-1 or fuel-injected…

FORD’S 1971 XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III remains the most collectable Aussie muscle-car of all time, but it has little hope of matching today’s outgoing HSV line-up for sheer excellence in comparison to its contemporaries. HSV’s Stephen Bradbury-like lunge to the finish line began with the Gen-F range in 2013, headlined by the newly supercharged 430kW/740Nm GTS featuring a significantly beefed-up rear-end from the Chevy Camaro ZL1 to harness all the newfound grunt pumping through the Commodore’s sticky rear Continentals. Dollar for dollar, it was a better car than Mercedes-Benz’s E63 S AMG of the time, if you could overlook the odd bit of ‘creative’ build quality inside the GTS’s sumptuously comfortable interior. In fact, that’s the thing about these big-wheeled HSVs with magnetic dampers – they ride. And since…

TWENTY-TWO years after the formation of General Motors-Holden, and following more than a decade of lobbying by GM’s Australian arm to design and develop its own car, that vehicle finally arrived on 29 November 1948 . The moment Prime Minister Ben Chifley unveiled the 48-215 Holden in Fishermans Bend, our automotive landscape changed forever. Watched by millions in newsreel theatres all over the country (TV was still eight years away…), the PM’s immortal line “she’s a beauty” almost certainly undersold just how good the 48-215 looked for its time. Beautiful it wasn’t, but the practically proportioned ‘humpy’ Holden was arguably the most advanced mainstream family sedan in the world in 1948. Featuring a strong-yet-light monocoque construction (pioneered in the GM world by Opel in 1935), a roomy six-seater body with…

MAX WILSON was Holden’s managing director for just under three years (1966-1968), but his influence on Holden continued when he left to run General Motors Overseas Operations in the Asia-Pacific Region from offices on St Kilda Road, Melbourne. In those prosperous, optimistic days, Holden’s position seemed unassailable. It was the youthful Wilson, just 42 when he joined Holden, who insisted on expanding the range to include a two-door coupe, the odd long-booted Brougham (a quick, short-term rival for the Ford Fairlane), and the long-nosed six-cylinder Torana. Against much opposition, Wilson demanded that Holden’s new HK coupe should go all the way as a pillarless hardtop: the classic original Monaro. Wilson understood the marketing and racing potential of the Monaro and called it the “biggest step” for the company since the…

SO OFTEN, over the course of its history, Holden and its heroes delivered where it really mattered, in the results of the Australian Touring Car (and V8 Supercars) Championship and The Great Race. These treasured moments came thanks to a varied cast that included Norm Beechey, Bob Jane, John Harvey, John Fitzpatrick, Allan Grice, Larry Perkins, Win Percy, Bob Morris, Colin Bond, Jim Richards, Greg Murphy, Mark Skaife, Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Will Davison, Shane van Gisbergen, and even Allan Moffat… Yet any examination of the standout Holden moments in motorsport will rightly be dominated by the lasting deeds of Peter Brock; not just a member of Australian motor racing royalty but the King himself, who is still revered 11 years after his death. The workshop boffins and spanner-men toiling…

THE CROWD NOISE WAS DEAFENING AS THE PAIR, SEPARATED BY MERE CENTIMETRES AT TIMES, HEADED INTO THE LAST TWO LAPS VIVIDLY remembered for the almost-unbearable tension and sheer purity of the contest between Holden’s Jamie Whincup and Ford’s David Reynolds, the epic duel in the closing laps of the 2012 Bathurst 1000 had the crowd roaring like spectators at the Colosseum. It was a classic fight between two drivers who for lap after lap were right on the limit whilst always respecting their opponent, the rising star against the established champion, Holden versus Ford. Triple Eight’s Whincup and co-driver Paul Dumbrell had led for much of the 161 laps, while Rod Nash Racing/FPR’s Reynolds and team-mate Dean Canto had run in the top five all day. But the race became…

THE TV CAMERAS ARE LOVING THE GROWING EDGINESS. CHIEF MECHANIC BRUCE RICHARDSON BURSTS INTO TEARS IT’S THE final laps of the most important race in the nation. Against the likes of the pole-winning Allan Moffat’s Ford Dealer Team, plus two Holden Dealer Team cars, Bill Patterson’s Team Brock, and the well-backed Craven Mild Racing, Bob Morris and British endurance star John Fitzpatrick have fought their way to the lead in their yellow Ron Hodgson-backed Torana SL/R 5000 L34. They’re more than two minutes ahead of the Colin Bond HDT car. At the wheel to bring it home is Fitzpatrick, the affable yet steely Briton with a reputation for being fast yet easy on the equipment. In the pits, his work done, was Morris, only in his early 20s but regarded…

BROCK FORGED TO THE LEAD OF A COMMODORE ONE-TWO-THREE IN THE CAR-BREAKING, SLEEP- DEPRIVED RUN UP THE WEST COAST TO DARWIN THE 1950s and 1960s outback round-Australia trials had captured the imagination of the car-loving public. So the announcement of the last great trial; the longest, maddest and toughest of all – the 20,000km 1979 Repco Round Australia Reliability Trial – created massive interest in an era when family sedans were still king. Peter Brock and George Shepheard convinced Holden it should tackle the Repco Trial, to show the consumers the toughness of the new VB Commodore. Brock was rewarded with a drive of one of the three cars while Shepheard, vastly experienced in rallying as a navigator, engineer and organiser, was handed the herculean task of prepping the cars…

TWELVE years ago Gerard Connell was studying marketing at university in Melbourne; Jess Bala was in the middle of law and marketing degrees at Monash University and about to join Holden; Mike Simcoe was running GM’s Australian and South Korean design studios; Phil Brook had recently joined Holden’s marketing department; Travis Hester was technical assistant to Holden CEO Denny Mooney; and, after 10 years in Holden marketing, Megan Stooke had newly moved to Michigan to work for GM. Today, in September 2017, all are employed by General Motors in Detroit. They are among 74 Australians, many ex-Holden, now working for GM in the USA. It is no coincidence. Says Travis Hester, now effectively GM’s global chief engineer, “Once the decision was taken to downsize Holden, there was recognition of the…

AS ONE of four people in Holden’s 2008 graduate program, Gerard Connell was rotated across different parts of the company, gaining broad experience, before settling in sales and marketing. Just 18 months later he was tapped for a new challenge; working for Stefan Jacoby, vice-president of GM’s international operations, in GM’s Singapore office. “Holden’s HR department knew I wanted international experience,” he says. “Stefan is an inspirational leader who invested time in me. It was a huge learning curve and the opportunity showed me what I could do.” Connell says the move was part of his personal business plan, while admitting the interests of the company come first. Then came the chance to work in Detroit. After two late-night video interviews, Connell joined OnStar, GM’s subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, turn-by-turn…

TRAVIS Hester was 18 when he first went to America in 1990. He flew into Los Angeles, though his return flight was from New York, three months hence. His transport for the cross-country drive: an 8.2-litre V8 1973 Cadillac Eldorado. Five years later, following graduation from university, Hester joined Holden as an engineer working on the VT program. Later, employed in cross-functional areas in development, he spent two days a week at the Lang Lang proving ground, before working as CEO Denny Mooney’s technical assistant, a sure sign GM had bigger plans for him. Mooney suggested he gain international experience in either China or Detroit. He chose the USA, working on both the VE Commodore and the Chevy Camaro as part of the Zeta program: “I have finger prints on…

IF YOU were asked to name the ultimate hero-to-villain downfall of the modern age, I wonder if your first reaction would be, “Grant Hackett in an economy-class seat”? But I’d suggest the slippery slope that diesel fuel has found itself on in recent years is of greater global significance, unless of course you were the owner of that cruelly tweaked nipple on a Virgin Australia flight over Melbourne back in April last year. Diesel fuel was, for decades, touted as Europe’s supposed energy saviour, subsidised because of its energy-dense ability to reduce consumption and therefore CO2. Since then we’ve had dieselgate, alarming warnings as to how NOx emissions can be worse for your health than binge-watching a season of Real Housewives of Melbourne, and recently, Volvo’s announcement that its current…

I’VE DISCOVERED a new game in the Subaru: if I’m driving a twisty section of road, I left-foot trail-brake deep into a corner. This loads up the Impreza’s front end on corner entry, with weight shifting forward to lean on the outside 18-inch Yokohama. The squat centre of gravity – the low-mounted boxer engine endows the Impreza with a surprising ground-hugging ability – shifts subtly, endowing the front end with imperious grip. Applying the throttle at this point, even before you reach the apex, helps to offset the dull-witted CVT transmission, as the clever electronic front diff kicks in to stop the inside front wheel from spinning. The Impreza then launches itself out of the corner as though it’s being pulled by an invisible elastic band. I’m not sure that…

Jaguar’s luxury rival to the BMW 5 series and Mercedes E-Class can now do battle with the Touring and Estate varieties, with its new XF Sportbrake wagon joining ranks alongside the sedan. The range starts with a 20d 2.0-litre diesel and tops out at the 30d 3.0-litre V6 diesel, while a 25t 2.0-litre turbo petrol looks after the middle of the engine spread. Pricing ranges from $90,400 to $123,450, or $137,300 for the limited First Edition based on the 30d, which brings extra kit for fast movers.…