Comments by "John D" (@johnd8892) on "American Reacts to Aussie Car Show! Holden HQ GTS Monaro *Blind Garage" video.

  1. EK made from May 1961 to July 1962. 48-215 preceded the FJ shown here. Released November 1948. Replaced by the FJ minor upgrade in 1953.
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  2. Hope you find this Holden history documentary interesting. From the very early beginning in 1856 when they were horse oriented https://youtu.be/XOCILCfDo5A Took until 1968 for the first performance oriented 327 Monaro came out designed to win Bathurst. Before the 307 around the same time all the Holden cars were six cylinder.
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  3. EK Holden. Made from May 1961 to July 1962.
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  4. Grey car is an EK Holden made from May 1961 to July 1962 . A facelift improvement of the 1960 FB. Holden had such huge market share then that they could get away with old styling. Second yellow is an FJ made between 1953 and 1956. First facelift and improvement of the original 48-215 or FX as it is commonly called. The 48-215, with vertical slatted grille, was made from 1948 to 53. From November 1948 and October 1953. A coupe utility derivative, coded as the 50-2106 and marketed as the Holden Coupe Utility, was produced from January 1951.
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  5. I want the most exotic Holden. The Holden Hurricane. Some YouTube of it from 1969. EFIJY show pretty good too.
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  6. The blue longer car looking like a Cadillac was a Holden Statesman. Up until the middle sixties Holden, Ford and Chrysler had available locally assembled versions of US full size cars, often from Canadian parts. Chevrolet Bel Air, Pontiac Laurentian and Parisienne, Ford Galaxy and Dodge Phoenix. As the US versions got harder to make in right hand drive the local companies developed there own larger looking luxury long wheelbase versions using the locally made cars as a base. First of these was the Ford Fairlane with the longer wheelbase of the station wagon floor pan, four headlight grille and longer back with different taillights. Usually V8 option chosen by richer buyers. Was very successful for Ford being much cheaper than a Galaxy and looking nearly as impressive. Heaps of Falcon parts used, but did not look like it to buyers. Ford eventually dropped the US sourced Galaxy and LTD models as the Fairlane take was much better. Holden and Chrysler also went this direction. The Statesman your saw was Holden's smart use of a few extra parts to cheaply make a more up market car. Worked well that even you thought it was a Cadillac, but a Cadillac here would cost you four times the price to import and convert, so very rare here new. Chrysler by Chrysler a similar idea but not quite as successful. All Chrysler production taken over by Mitsubishi around 1982 with the demand for Japanese smaller four cylinder cars. The few people here wanting a US car then largely went with the locally assembled Rambler Rebel and Matador or a local Javelin or AMX. Smallish numbers but much cheaper than a US import and local right hand drive conversion option. Eventually Toyota purchased the AMI factory in Port Melbourne that assembled Toyotas, Ramblers and Triumph cars. Soon it was making just Toyotas such was the demand for Toyotas.
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  7. Wikipedia of Holden Monaro shows when the four door Monaro was introduced late in HQ production. Soon was selling faster than two doors since they were cheaper and easier for family or mates in the back to use. Shannon's had a story of a great two door HQ Monaro that sat at the dealers unsold for over a year. Luxury LS Monaro introduced to try to sell unsold two door bodies. Falcon coupe a similar story with the Cobra version introduced to try to clear out unsold two door bodies sitting around. Worked well, these Cobras now worth a mint. Now these two doors are in great demand but back then after the initial burst in sales they became hard to sell as a dearer car with harder to access rear seats. So not viewed the same way back then when it mattered to the car companies. Even the last Monaro /GTO Holden knew it would likely only have a relatively short production life as the niche of two door buyers were satisfied but commonly kept their cars as cherished weekend toys and not daily drivers here.
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  8. Shannon's Club TV worth a look on YouTube for local cars in Australia. Near 140 episodes covering most cars mentioned in the comments in more detail on YouTube. More interesting info than can be conveyed in the comments. Missing only local Fairlanes, Statesman and Ramblers since they did not race much or at all here.
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  9. Wikipedia of Holden Monaro shows when the four door Monaro was introduced late in HQ production. Soon was selling faster than two doors since they were cheaper and easier for family or mates in the back to use. Shannon's had a story of a great two door HQ that sat at the dealers unsold for over a year. Luxury LS Monaro introduced to try to sell unsold two door bodies. Falcon coupe a similar story with the Cobra version introduced to try to clear out unsold two door bodies sitting around. Now these are in great demand but back then after the initial burst in sales they became hard to sell as a dearer car with harder to access seats.
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  10. Monaros were rebadged with a new grille and sold as the Pontiac GTO in the US circa 2003 for a few years. Never as a Camaro. The Camaro does use the Holden developed Zeta floorpan design though. Wikipedia Holden Monaro should confirm the above points.
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  11. Grey car is an EK Holden made from May 1961 to July 1962 . Holden had such huge market share that they could get away with old styling. Only one engine , a 2.2 litre six with 75 hp. Not much more than the 1948 model with 60hp from much the same engine. Around this time the new Chrysler Valiant and Ford Falcon shook Holden up a bit so new sixes in 1963 EH model with 149 of 100hp and 179 of 115hp being thought of as high performance at the time. Still behind the dearer Valiant standard here 225 six with 145hp. Took until 1968 with the new HK model to have the five litre V8 option of the Chevrolet 307. Keeping up with earlier Ford and Valiant V8 options. Later in the year the first Monaro coupe pillarless hardtop was released with top option being the Chevrolet 327. Aim was to beat the Falcon GT at Bathurst which it did. The V8 engine options were always a rarely taken up option due to higher costs, with higher taxed fuel, insurance and purchase price. Was only in the last year's that the V8 option got to 30% or so, usually less than ten percent of all full size Holdens. Around 2008 Commodore stopped being top selling car in Australia as the Mazda 3 outsold it. People looking for a cheaper to run car with fuel prices increasing rapidly then. Mazda still having more market share here than any country in the world, even Japan. Number two after Toyota for many recent years.
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  12. A check of Wikipedia of Holden Monaro shows when the four door Monaro was introduced late in HQ production. Soon was selling faster than two doors since they were cheaper to buy and easier for family or mates to get in the back seat to use. Shannon's had a story of a great two door HQ Monaro that sat at the dealers unsold for over a year. Luxury LS Monaro introduced to try to sell unsold two door bodies. Falcon coupe a similar story with the Cobra version introduced to try to clear out unsold two door bodies sitting around. Worked well, these Cobras now worth a mint. Now these two doors are in great demand but back then after the initial burst in sales they became hard to sell as a dearer car with harder to access rear seats. So not viewed the same way back then when it mattered to the car companies. Even with the last Monaro /GTO, Holden knew it would likely only have a relatively short production life. Once the niche group of two door buyers were satisfied but commonly kept their cars as cherished weekend toys and not daily drivers here. So far less ongoing sales and not enough to justify a new model.
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  13. Good point about Shannon's Club TV. Near 140 episodes covering most cars mentioned in the comments in more detail on YouTube. More interesting info than can be conveyed in the comments.
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  14. A recent vid of a Holden Monaro GTS in California. https://youtu.be/wunD51X7DvY Had the front replaced with Statesman nose. To be original it should have a front like the yellow four door Monaro GTS in your vid. Surprising how in some US car meets people stop looking at Ferraris and crowd around a Holden sometimes. And a ute too. https://youtu.be/YNsM2dfU6sM
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