I'm happy with my original statement, at least until we find the actual assembly date of the first Monaro (which is probably next week sometime) or Noel Bedford finds an old diary we may never know the true Birthday.

Have fun, nothing wrong with the anniversary of the press embargo date or the anniversary of the press drive date, both are significant dates, as is the official release date on 21st July.

Either way, both dates were planned for the big show. Press release 21st and drive day 22nd.

I have the "Vehicle to car sales" predicted dates (as of 21/3/68) for the first coupes, but those are not necessarily the actual assembly dates. The first one is 1/4/68, a 186 auto Monaro, Elizabeth assembly Sales Promotion car.

The first GTS looks to be standard GTS but with a mockup console (as consoles not yet available), 9/4/68 vehicle to car sales. Also a Sales Promotion car.

The other car is the Woodville tryout car, 186 manual Monaro, vehicle to car sales 5/4/68.

First GTS327 30/4/68, still an 80737 with optional 327.

There is also 3 x coupes as Assembly Plant tooling tryouts predicted for 23/5/68 for Dandenong, 2 x Monaros (1 or each transmission) and a GTS, V8 auto 2.78 LSD.

It looks like the predicted on line pilot coupes are for 6/6/68 for Dandenong, Pagewood and Acacia Ridge and 14/6/68 for Elizabeth. No on line pilot coupes listed for Mosman Park. There is a note against Elizabeth that says Volume Production for coupes predicted for 20/6/68 (and Brougham 27/6/68), but not clear if this is just for Elizabeth or for all assembly plants.

I have to agree with that. Nov 1948 is considered the birth of the 48-215, likewise October '78 for the first Commodores, despite both having names & pilots run many months prior.

Terry's book is full of release date data - that is what is considered to be the birth of the new model, new name etc.

You don't see them celebrating the Calais name from '83 when it was locked in. March '84 is considered the first Calais.

Likewise VL Commodores weren't released until '86, but I have tag details off 2 from December '85, which were customer sales (most likely from initial dealer stock), not pilots.
But do we suggest the VL is a 1985 model?

Lots of good info in all of that Gents, thanks.

I think all anyone has really proved is that there is no such thing as a "Birthday" for something with as many stages and milestones as a complete car.

There are lots of significant milestone dates in the Marketing, Styling, Design, Engineering, Production, and Sales processes, but no "Birthday" as such, no matter how much we yearn to define a single day on which it all happened.

I found similar Terry when trying to track down Sandman dates, and also when I was looking for Monaro snippets for Ben a while back. With the Sandman though I have identified the pilot cars so have their actual completion dates off microfiche, and I have also crawled all over the pilot van in its undies (as in stripped to bare metal). That van opened my eyes to what GMH designers originally planned for Sandman but didn't get to do it until HX. I do not have the initial production HQ Sandmans nailed though unfortunately.

The Convention you mention at Surfers paradise was 21-22nd July 1968 as Warren and I both mention numerous times. The 21st was the press release, and the 22nd was the drive day, with the press kept under embargo until 22nd hence most likely the date on the documents. It was planned a week before but was moved back a week due to an AJC meet, which ended up the same weekend anyway due to petrol strikes. 21-22nd was too late to meet many September magazine issue deadlines so a press drive session was planned for the 16th at Lang Lang, the day after the dealer releases on 15th July. I have newspaper snippets from June that actually mention the dealer release on the 15th July too.

What is really strange is in June there is little snippets of Monaro and Brougham info tucked into semi but really un-related articles, especially in the Sun Herald and SMH. Almost like GMH were deliberately sneaking out titbits of info to co-operating Journos. May not be, but seems weird. It blew out in July into significantly more information. Many years ago I straight out asked Christopher de Fraga about his "big scoop" in the Age on 17th July about Monaro and Brougham, and if he was censured for breaking the embargo. You would imagine it is something he would remember if he was smacked over the wrists for it. He didn't actually reply explicitly, but drew my attention to the fact that he was one of the specially selected Journos who got to drive the cars back to GMH Melbourne from Surfers Paradise. In fact he was chosen (rewarded?) with driving a GTS327. Since then it has always puzzled me why, you'd think that GMH Execs would be mighty p'ed off with the info published in the Age on the 17th, almost all of which would have come from either the Dealer release on the 15th or the Press drive at Lang Lang on 16th. Unless of course permission was given to publish it.

I asked him if he was at the Melbourne dealer release or the press day at Lang Lang but he didn't reply to that either. But at the time I was more interested in the Sydney dealer release to see if he remembered my GTS327.

The photo of the Monaro in the Age I agree is a Melbourne dealer release car (red I think), but the other photo IIRC is a 5litre Silver Mink GTS that was at both the Vic dealer release and the Lang Lang press day so the photo may be at the dealer release or in the GMH garage (which is where I think it is) or somewhere else altogether. From what I remember looking into this (this is 5+ years ago) GMH took that GTS and a Brougham to both, but had a red GTS327 at Lang Lang instead of the red Monaro from the Vic dealer release.

I do not know what cars they had in Sydney other than my Warwick Yellow GTS327. Old Charlie McCarron couldn't remember. Unfortunately no photos have ever turned up for that event, the only source I have ever had on it is Charlie.

I don't believe the Age were reprimanded for what they published or surely Christopher de Fraga would no longer have been a trusted Journo and got to drive a GTS327 back to Melbourne from Surfers Paradise? The detail in the article is pretty high too, so it has to have come from either the 15th or the 16th events.
Unfortunately I never asked the question of Charlie about secrecy surrounding the Sydney dealer release, and if there were any strict instructions about keeping quiet for a week. I have a Sun Herald article from I think 23th June where they know about the dealer release on 15th, so if the Sydney press knew about that maybe the Melbourne press knew about the Victorian one too the Age paid someone at the Melbourne event for the info? There is info in the Sun Herald on the 14th July about the Monaro and Brougham as well, so possibly more leaked info in the Sydney area occurred? Maybe it was because of the location, in a well known ballroom in the middle of George St which would have been planned at least a few weeks in advance? Whereas the Melbourne event may have been at GMH premises and easier to keep under wraps? It wouldn't be easy to hide a Warwick Yellow HK GTS from all eyes in the middle of Sydney no matter how they bought it in!
Clive Hodgins was the Sun Herald motoring writer.

Yeah there is mistakes, but the detail is pretty high for it to have come from Chinese whispers. Like the mention of a planned build number, which is possibly how many engines were in the first batch of 327's (the March and April dated engines). It really does look like either insider information (like obtained from the dealer release) or even leaked through the back or front doors of GMH. I'm kicking myself now I didn't press him further about where the info came from, I was happy once he told me he didn't attend the Sydney dealer release.

If he was in the naughty corner bad enough they could have made him hitch a ride with another Journo!

Today (1st April) 50 years ago is the requested Vehicle to Car Sales date for the first HK Monaro, a 186 auto Monaro. So approx. today 50 years ago the very first one was completed. Or it was if the requested date was met. It was a Monday. Most US papers seem to have the front page covered with LBJ not contesting the next Presidential election.

Edited by user Sunday, 1 April 2018 8:18:22 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified