I would love to hear your story Smitty. Even better if the Uni publishes it.

Hi Smitty.
You certainly have a wealth of personal insider knowledge of Holden!
I have a 5/70 HG Van which was first regoed as KST 093 in 9/70. HG00013A and Body 1A. It was retained by GMH for several years. I have researched it through AOMC and they came up with the original engine number and rego number. I have been told it is the HG Van Brochure car? I haven't been able to find any further info either from Holden directly or elsewhere.
Several years ago, a friend of mine from Oberon, showed a pic of it to the parts manager at his dealership and he said he remembered my van as they used it to ferry parts out to Lang Lang. He worked there in the 70's. I didn't get to meet him. I think it was the dealer at Bathurst.
In the late 90's I worked at Suttons Parts at Lidcombe and after I left, Rob Madden moved in as Warehouse Manager. I had many a conversation with Rob when I called to order emergency (overnight) parts from GMH (after the cutoff time of course).
In the LJ Torana Brochure there is a pic of an LJ GTR with a (Sudan Beige) Van in the background. Any possibility of info about that particular Van? Could it have been mine?
Any info you could elaborate on would be very much appreciated Smitty. I know it is a little before your time but you will never know if you don't ask..... Even a contact of someone who may know anything at all about my Van would be great.
TIA.
Ron

6.0 litre Cross 8 would have to be up there

Them 179kw Statesman must of sold a fare few of them over the months.
It's the 195kw ones that would be rare.

I did asked if I could get the 195kw for my Nov 1999 VS Series 3 ute. only to be informed that they had ran out of them 195 engines by then, but he could of being telling BS as they do, because they are lazy as dogs that never want to do anything more than order simple stock crap.

So one could order a S ute with 195kw and I think it was $2500. but I thought it too much to really be happy to pay, so I thought oh well, when I could just get a chip and extractors and dual exhaust for that, but at the time I did not know that the 195kw had a bigger camshaft and different exhaust valves, knowing that I would of forked out more, but I thought it just like the old 185kw job just exhaust and chip job and air box snorkel.

I seen the 195kw Maloo ute on the showroom floor, it had a better quality air snorkel than my 179kw one that was a cheaper looking thing.
The Maloo had extractors going into a dual typical exhaust with only one cat.

We got ripped of with the 179kw ute having only a crappy single exhaust, they should of came with dual, as the 179kw VT did. maybe the 179kw Statesman's did get dual exhaust with manifolds ? I seen one Statesman series 3 V8 parked on the side of the road some years back, it could of been just a 185kw series 3 one.

The press release for the VSIII Olympic ute said 1,100 were to be built. I don't know how many they actually built, often they build more if the demand is there.

The ID was a regular option for Vs from April 98 to the end of production. I have no idea how many were made.

Dr Terry

Edited by user Wednesday, 6 January 2021 8:27:01 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The few HG brochures that I have are very interesting. In the HG Monaro brochure the red car is actually a HK that has been touched/adjusted/photoshopped to look like a HG. The HG accessory brochure is full of HTs touched to look like HGs, most of the images come straight from the HT accessories brochure. The people in the photos are even the same, all that changes is interior trim patterns, badging and mold locations etc.

So I doubt your panel van was the brochure car as it is far easier to "touch up" the previous model. And Holden does this all the time, HR is HD, 72 HQ are 71 with headrests drawn in etc.

Hi Terry and all Happy new year.
Thinking outside of the square Terry but if we Say HDTs don't cut it then we should think about where HSV sits. Also other low volume houses out there which offered their own version of a Holden. The likes of Gardner,Corsa etc. Remember Adayer? I am sure there were others.
Cheers.
Nick.

Just thought of another low volume car Terry. That Saffron Metallic HQ sedan you have, Kingswood Sports. They were very low build and although they were essentially just a group of available options like a Vacationer or Deluxe they did get unique trim.

I’ve only ever seen one newspaper ad for them. I wonder if they only went to selected dealers?
They did similar in HT and HG to use up past series trim, but in those cases it was Belmont sedans from memory.
Imagine trying to buy new trim covers for them when they were only a few years old!

Was there a brochure? Never seen one, only newspaper ads.