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HIP HIP hooray Blow the candle Happy Birthday LOVE THE HQ |
mrf |
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr Terry
I have 15th July 1971 as the embargoed date. The date of release for retail sale (showroom unveiling) was the 22nd July 1971. The 14th was probably the day they showed the cars to the press, but they weren't allowed to distribute that info until the next day.
This is one of the reasons I've put both dates on my book. It's common to see either date quoted & they are both correct for different reasons.
Dr Terry.
Hi Dr Terry, Very good info. The Monaro Magic book has a picture of the press kit and a claim the date of release was July 21 so I would imagine the date came out of the release material. The 22nd was the day the public knew all about it reading between the lines here so the birthday was actually last Thursday. What is interesting is that Monaro Magic mentions the 14th as a cancelled date. I can remember it being late in July so all this lines up. It's a 40+ car now!
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This seems as good a time as any to ask this question. Does anyone know if photos of the first Hqs coming off the line are in existence?
Ford used to publish photos like these for cars such as the XD and XE Falcons, but I have never seen similar for the HQ.
Also I don't think we should pay too much attention to what the experts thought about the HQ at release.
They couldn't write enough praise about the JB Camira and the VB Commodore. I've owned all three and one is a legend the other two.... nuff said.
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Greetings, The new Unique Cars mag has a great feature on the HQ in it. It also clears up a lot of the discussion on here about the HQ. For starters, the birthday was the 14th of July. That was the press release day. The 15th was when the cars went on sale. A great shot of cars coming off the line as well as some other beauties in there. Well worth a look and read, in particular the bit from Peter Robinson. |
look out, the guru is coming through... |
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When doing research for my book, I used the 'embargo' date mentioned on the press release as the official 'press release' day. They call this date their embargo date, because the info was embargoed (not to be released) until a certain time & date. What happened was, the press was shown the car on the 14th, on the proviso that they wouldn't release that information to the public, until the next day (15th) at say 9 A.M. For this reason I used the 15th as the 'release day' of the HQ series.
They (GM-H) would also sometimes mention the day on which it went on retail sale. Quite often in those days, the dealers would have their showroom's windows covered up, to be removed on 'their' release day.
I also checked all of the major metro newspapers of the day to see when the first adds appeared. With major new car releases, which the HQ certainly was, GM-H had full page spreads in all major papers on the first day of retail sale, coinciding with the showroom unveiling. I found that this day for the HQ was the 23nd of July 1971.
Dr Terry |
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quote:
Originally posted by git
Greetings, The new Unique Cars mag has a great feature on the HQ in it. It also clears up a lot of the discussion on here about the HQ. For starters, the birthday was the 14th of July. That was the press release day. The 15th was when the cars went on sale. A great shot of cars coming off the line as well as some other beauties in there. Well worth a look and read, in particular the bit from Peter Robinson.
I think those dates have since been proven to be wrong. DA has the correct dates as I understand it. |
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quote:
Originally posted by HK1837
I think those dates have since been proven to be wrong. DA has the correct dates as I understand it. [/quote] No, I bought the latest Unique Cars and reading through I realise that my memory isn't what it used to be. If Robinson has July 14 in his diary as the date of the HQ press release then that must have been the day it was shown to the press as he also goes on about Wheels only getting a base model to test and not a glamour car. Dr Terry would also be right in saying the 15th was the embargo date as he describes so well. The on sale date is the date I must have remembered which was towards the end of the month. In regards to the date in Norm Darwin's book, I wouldn't really trust that information as the book has so many other mistakes it isn't funny. A real shame given the pictures. The latest Unique Cars has a couple of fabulous shots inside the GTS 350 manual test car that Wheels had later in the year where Robinson does the burnout. That interior trim is just so good and the seat belts confirm it was a Sydney car. I'd love to know where it is now.
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I have heard Norm has a document that says the 14th was cancelled and states 21st to be correct. This would also align with Dr Terry's newspaper research. I'm no expert on this, far from it. I had just heard on the grapevine where Norm got his data from. |
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I heard that Robinson has July 14 in his diary as the date of the HQ press release,
then forgot to cross it out when it was cancelled and reset for the 21st of July.
Can't wait for HJ's Birthday
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quote:
Originally posted by anonymous
I heard that Robinson has July 14 in his diary as the date of the HQ press release,
then forgot to cross it out when it was cancelled and reset for the 21st of July.
Can't wait for HJ's Birthday
Greetings, Maybe Robinson was given special preference (along with others) who saw the HQs on the 14th before everyone else? I read somewhere that the same thing happened for the HK Monaros with selected press getting a preview before the actual press release. There is also reference to the Statesmans having a release after the other HQs to distance the car from the Holdens. |
look out, the guru is coming through... |
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