Down here were the kids ride kangaroo's to school and everyone has a can of fosters or or XXXX permenantly attached to there hand.there was once a time when you could only really buy a car to suit USA or England. USA cars were spacious and sooth but took to much petrol to get from remote properties to town and didn't really handle our roads since the were designed for the more modern roads in USA. English cars were economical and handled the roads quite well but a family of six aussies is a little squeezy in a Austin a40 and them poms wanted way to much dough for there true family sized sedans for the average aussie family to be able to afford up until 1948 when we got our own car, the Holden.
with a sedan built to a budget to suit the average aussie family (based on the average aussies annual income) it was big enough to hold the average aussie family with a seating capacity of six the six banger grey motor was based on a old chevy oiler that had the tourque required to carry around the average aussie family with ease and with it's lightweight monocoque construction it had fuel economy of upto 35 miles per gallon and it didn't take long for Australias own car to become Australias most popular car
Even though the 50's brought new forms of contraception the increase in popularity of love making was making a rapid boom due to something to do with the FJ's back seat and new Australian families were being created in the back of FJ's everywere and our population increased.
Some people also found that the FJ was a great opputunity to get into motor racing as it was a affordible lightweight six cylinder sedan thet responded quite well to a bit of tweaking, multiple carb's and headers were on the aftermarket and some people went as far as boring the motor out to three liters, creating double over head camshaft heads, and seven bearing crank cradles in order to get the family sedans to beat the expensive and sophisticated jaguars on the track, 4 speed boxes and bucket seats were usually sourced from english cars to replace the 3 speed column crasher.
In 1956 the FJ was starting to look a little out of date and the Holden received it's first major facelift with the new FE model, the FE had a lower wider body and as all Holdens it kind of resembled a chevrolet but smaller, many people say the Holden is copied from the chevrolet but it was stylled by the same guys in detroit that styled the chev's so there is ofcourse going to be some simularities in the styling, our local chev's also rolled out of the same factory's that Holdens were built in, The FJ looks like a smaller version of the late 40's to early 50's chev's wile the FE looked a bit like the mid 50's chev's. The FE also brought the first holden wagon.
The FE was replaced by the FC with a slight torque increase due to a higher lift cam and increased compression ratio, the FC looked slightly americanised with its added chrome, bolt on chrome fins and chunkier grille, it also come with indicators now on all models and a new two tone design on the specail sedans and wagons,during the time of the FC just over half of the cars sold in Australia were FC Holdens,
The FC was replaced by the FB model wich had a new body but still shared some panels like the boot lid and rear door skins, this time it kind of resembled a 57 chev at the back and a 56 at the front ,it was the first Holden to have acrylic paint.
The FB was replaced in 61 by the EK that shared the same body with the FB, it now had electric wipers instead of vaccuum operated, and a Hydra-matic auto transmission became optional.
In 62 Holden entered the Luxury market with it's new EJ model wich was the birth of the Premier (the 1962 equivelent to todays Calais it had metallic paint, a Heater mounted in the centre console between the Leather bucket seats, wall to wall carpets and a rear centre armrest also added luxury in the days of rubber floor mats and " take a blanket if it gets cold. the EJ sort of looked like a smaller combination of the 58-61 chevs and was a much more modern looking car than the 50's looking EK it replaced.
In 63 Holden released the EH and not only was there a new larger six cylinder engine but Holden now gave the option of two motors, (no not 2 motors in the one car, 1 motor to pick from two)
Holden were looking out for the hoon's that had been so loyal to Australias own car, many young lads had altered there grey motors in order to get more power and holdens were working there way into racing and Holden also had it's first performance model with different brakes, clutch and tailshaft, it was also the onlly variation of the EH at the time of release that combined the bigger 179 motor with the 3 speed manual transmission. OK youre probably thinking now that our little aussie car is pretty lame with it's 179 spd next to a 409 SS Chevy now but there is a saying down here,OLD HOLDENS NEVER DIE, THEY JUST GET FASTER and the new big six was now the hot item to replace the grey motor in the early lighter weight Holdens, and along with further tweaking you had a old holden that was getting faster, but the larger 179 red motor was only the begining, Grunt is a part of Australian cure and Holden was Australias own car.
In 65 the HD model was born and the 179 X2 was released with twin carb's, cast iron headers, higer lift cam, free flow exhaust, Unfortunately the design was a rushed effort and although it looked much better than the EF model that nearly was, the front end was a bit much for the average new car buyers taste.
In 66 the HD was replaced by the HR wich the public found easier on the eye, Holdens now had options like power steering and disc brakes, remember that saying OLD HOLDENS NEVER DIE THE JUST GET FASTER, well the HR disc brake front end became the next hot item to add to your early model Holden. The HR also had more power again with it's 149 ci growing to 161 and the 179 upto 186 the X2 also grew to 186 but in order to make the X2 accelerate smoother and more maintenance free they replaced the twin carbs with a ww stromberg two barrell, at this time holden also added a 4 speed floor shift from opel so things were getting hot, 4 speed floor shift, hot six, LSD, free flow exhaust, what's gonna come next?