OK... my 20 cents worth.

I have driven the car and been well and truly over and under it.

All of the cop stuff is true. Owner 1 lives locally. Been retired for many years and was living in the Police Station House just off the Pacific Hwy on the far North NSW Coast when he bought the car new. He was a cop all his working life, was respected and connected within the Force and as things rolled back then would have been able to make a call or two to make all of this happen.Various Police Forces were directly involved with the creation of specifications/ requrirements for their fleets. So in one way or another "The Old Boys' Club" existed. The availability of the Falcon XRGT was partly due to the Victorian Police requirement for a good, fast pursuit car. The Same can be said about the Police spec Morris Cooper 'S', Studebakers, Toranas, plain Jane pov pack 350 engine HT Monaros for VicPol, Valiant Chargers etc.

Haven't heard anything of the security guard thing. But could prob ask and find out more.


Owner 1 told me he used to occasionally use it instead of his 202 Q'ey sedan for covert runs up the Pacific Highway. Back in the day,GTHOs-Monaros etc were known to do the bolt out in the bush as it was known that there weren't many Police cars around. The man and his machine were known in the area. There are many locals who can recall it.... Not just me.

Ben S knows of the car and can confirm it was built. Also confirmed to me it is definitely one of one.

The mods were arranged and/or done by owner 1. He is a petrolhead. Just like most of us who were around in the 1980s he did not hesitate to modify it in line with his tastes of the day. By the way, it goes hard and reckon it would run late thirteens/ early fourteens over 400m. Cars set up like this were common in the 70s/80s/90s.

Owner 1 kept ALL of the parts removed from the car and he told me they would go with the car for an additional cost. Owner two could have bought them. I do not know.

I have about 100 unpublished pics of it some of which are in different areas to those shown on Mike Selby's site.

It is easy to make uninformed comments about a car you have only heard of or maybe saw briefly at a car show. $100k is certainly top dollar but I know what the owner paid and I can say that other (lesser) cars like HKTG 186/253/307/308 cars have achieved a much higher percentage return on cost over the same period.

That said I also understand the despite being a one-off it is a white/brown colour combo HQ350 manual Kingswood. A GTS is a GTS and is of course more desirable generally.

Cheers

NICK.

Edited by user Saturday, 17 December 2016 1:15:11 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The car is not a dealer build, it was built by GMH.

It's a fascinating car ... just a little further removed from the 308ci 4-speed HQ Belmont sedans that I recall the W.A. Police using in 1973-74.

Travelling back in time to 1972, I'm curious as to what items would have differentiated a 308ci powered HQ Monaro GTS coupe from a HQ Monaro GTS 350 coupe ... engine and gearbox are obvious variations, but what about other items, such as steering box, brakes, suspension, differential, axles, etc. Would all of the mechanical features of a Monaro GTS 350 coupe have found their way into the build of this Kingswood sedan ?

Given what HK1837 has indicated, this Kingswood is pretty much equivalent to a Monaro GTS 350, but with four doors and no black paint accents ... with the sedan sharing the same wheelbase as the coupe, I guess all parts are a natural fit, and I'm guessing also that the four 350 wagons mentioned in the AMCS listing would have simply adopted a Statesman De Ville 350 exhaust system, both vehicles having shared a common longer wheelbase.

Thanks also for mentioning the HQ Monaro LS option with 350 engine ... correct me if I'm wrong, but in a normal dealer sales procedure the LS '350' was not available with a 4-speed manual transmission ... I'm also of the notion that, regardless of transmission choice, the HQ Statesman Custom (I always thought of them as a long wheelbase Kingswood sedan) was not normally available to order with a 350 engine option.

Edited by user Monday, 19 December 2016 6:19:58 PM(UTC)  | Reason: spelling error

The GTS350 manual sedan would have got over this:

Dual exhaust.
U21 instruments with 140/225km/h speedo.
GTS coupe's suspension and sway bar (but not the fast ratio steering from memory - I missed this in my last post).
GTS trim.
Paint and blackout treatment.

You are correct, this sedan would have simply used GTS350M coupe bits to make everything fit, and also correct the LS was auto only with 350. Statesman was available with 350 IIRC but as a retail order only, would not be a dealer bank vehicle, but then again neither would a 308 example - you'd have to order that too. I think there was at least 1 x L31 M21 Statesman made, and also recently another 1 of 1 car turned up - an L30 M41 HQ V8 Monaro (80437).

Thanks Dr T ... I was relying on my memory, and my 1973 Statesman brochure doesn't include the Custom in any real detail ... but tonight I've found a recent historical eBay listing of a 1971 brochure with all 16 pages scanned ... and indeed the interior of the Custom is revealed as a copy of the Premier in the style of trim and features ... the brochure car is a column-shift automatic with factory air-conditioning and has a front bench seat in vinyl with fold-down central armrest.

The brochure confirms 3-speed manual as the base transmission combination with the 202 engine in Statesman Custom ... 4-speed manual was available with 202, 253, or 308 engines ... and 350 available with Turbo-HydraMatic auto only.

Bidding for the brochure opened at $90.00, but it seems that nobody was interested in the item at that price, despite repeated relisting !

Edited by user Monday, 19 December 2016 11:58:40 PM(UTC)  | Reason: added extra detail from brochure

The buyer could have optioned the faster 16.7:1 steering but standard it would have the normal 20:1 regardless of engine, which is what GTS sedan had too unless optioned. The buyer could have optioned a lot of GTS standard stuff on this Kingswood but could never have got (assembly plant fitted anyway):

Guards.
Paint blackout treatment.
Dash (could have optioned U21 dash but couldn't get the GTS's dash complete with 140mph speedo).
Badges.
Trim.
Not certain on the suspension. Some of the GTS's suspension could be had as HD items on V8 Kingswood or Monaro, but possibly not all of it.

Hello Warren and all.

I agree with Warren about conjecture regarding the car.

There is NO conjecture from me. I am passing forward information provided on privilege to me from the first owner. I find it annoying that an honest owner and his car can be negatively affected by "connjecture".

Owner one was an old school cop. The way things rolled in the early seventies is completely different to today. Firstly, some are saying the integrity of the production line could be compromised by allowing cars like this to actually get built. Well they did get built. At GM-H, Ford and Chrysler. Another manufacturer of note in this is BMC with the Morris Cooper 'S'. The Police cars were fitted with 1310cc engines. Punters got non-oversize 1275cc engines. Senior execs in all car companies "got things done" using their influence.... often. Owner one told me he had colleagues elsewhere in the force and in the NSW Government Motor Garage and from time to time a "special" order could be placed for a fellow workmate. The car was delivered through Robinsons. Even though Robinsons may or may not have been able to deliver such a car through normal means the first had a network available to him which could see to it.
Cheers.
Nick.

...I simply have to refute the notion that "things got done" (words to that effect) at the factory. It was just too hard to manufacture a "one off" specialty vehicle to pander to a "boys club" style of ordering system.

...Not a lot of people realise that all vehicles produced at the GM and GMH plants had to be paid for at factory level before they were delivered to the dealer outlet....either by outright cash sale or the widely popular credit financed "floor plan" option, and were built to a subscribed factory "Bill of Materials" list. The easiest way to appease a demanding customer was to have the dealer "build" the car and have that dealer fit it out and furnish it....with all the attendant worries of warranty and servicing beholden of them.

Edited by user Tuesday, 20 December 2016 11:00:22 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Warren is pretty much right, the bulk of the "left-of-centre" cars are internal vehicles or specials etc. Not only is it extremely rare to find something not officially available (like a 350 in a Kingswood or Premier) but it is also very rare to find actual optional drivelines that were not stock order (that is vehicles entered into the schedule for sale rather than vehicles built to order). For example 5litre 4speed outside of GTS and Sandman (and later SLR and SS), the bulk of these (probably 98%+) will be retail order rather than stock order (or in some cases dealer ordered). The primary reason being most vehicles sold were sold out of stock rather than ordered, thus those 308 manual cars that you find that aren't a GTS or a Sandman will be either a retail order or in some cases a dealer has ordered the car for either himself or they knew they could make a decent margin on the car if they had it for sale now rather than a customer having to wait.

On the quad headlight noses, Leo Pruneau wanted these for GTS from the start, but never got his way until HZ. So as Warren says it was reserved solely for Premier, LS, and Chevrolet 350 (became Caprice later in HQ) with the Statesman and Deville getting its unique nose. Of course as we know the quad nose panel became the same for Premier, LS, Deville and the new local Caprice at HJ release. The reason Sandman got it was HZ GTS had it and Sandman always had the GTS's nose sans badges except in HQ where it used the SS's nose. As Lingus says the Ambulance package available from around mid HJ on panel van and cab-chassis used the Premier's quad light front, but apart from it and unless it was some sort of internal vehicle there is very little chance an assembly plant would have fitted the quad nose to any vehicle. Even some of the GMH TEST VEHICLE's (stamped on cowl or inner guards) I've come across, eg an orange HX (IIRC) Sandman van that had one may have had it added in styling rather than in the assembly plant. Same with the GTS's guards, outside of HQ/HJ Sandman, HQ SS and HX LE you won't find normal assembly plant fitted fluted guards unless the car was some sort of internal vehicle. Today these whole bullshit stories about "GTS options" and "specially ordered with GTS bits" that people come up with is a big wank. I can only imagine what they'd write about my HJ Premier with its U17 dash, rally rims, 308 and console shift - it'd be some BS story about "GTS options" or some junk like that - most stuff isn't even GTS options, it was GTS Standard!

I'm not a huge fan of seeing the LS as a Statesman coupe though. When you look at it in real terms the HQ Monaro and HQ V8 Monaro look like and are plated as a Kingswood coupe (80337 or 80437). The HQ Monaro GTS coupe and the HQ Monaro GTS350 coupe are standalone models. The HQ Monaro LS and HQ V8 Monaro LS look like and are plated as a Premier coupe (81137 and 81237). Sure the LS gets some special treatment over Premier earlier in HQ like standard front discs. And certainly, the HQ V8 Monaro LS had as a regular option the L30 auto engine, but that doesn't make it a Statesman coupe, it just means it got some special treatment as it was a Monaro just like the front discs being standard on the Monaro LS where the sedan version got drums standard. If it was a Statesman coupe it'd have the Statesman's unique nose plus the Monaro is a Holden, the Statesman was not meant to be seen as a Holden. The top of the line Holden was the Premier or the LS. In HJ the LS gets even more Premier like as there was no longer a HJ Statesman, but the Premier to Deville to LS link in HJ does remain strong. I do appreciate the subtle Statesman link though, but to me the LS is far more Premier than it is Statesman.

Edited by user Wednesday, 21 December 2016 9:35:19 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified