I believe the 350/ 350 combo in the HQ was a test for the TH350 in future models.
The 1973 HQ was sold by GMH Dandenong in 1974, my Dad bought the car from the second owner, well first owner after GMH back in the 1990's and it's been in our family ever since.
The reason for my post was to inform DR Terry that there were experimental cars or testing for TH350 back as far as HQ and the code for it at the time was not M38 but in fact M39.
Also the fact that GMH Dandenong built this test car out of a 202 manual Premier car.
I know GMH also built there XU2 V8 prototype test cars out of 6-cylinder Toranas and after testing most were converted back to 6-cylinder and sold to the public.
Point being, you should never assume just by the tags what a GMH car was or might have been.
I was recently lucky enough to find a GMH document with a print out of most every GMH and HSV prototype test car Vin, chassis and engine number from the late 1970's till late 1990's all of the test cars that got registered and or sold to the public. This has made finding some of these types of cars easier for me and i can tell you there are well over 2000 cars out there that are on the list, pilot , pre production, test and prototype cars and the numbers produced and which ones were sold to the public and no one knows they even exist.
One car i recently found and acquired had been sitting out the back of a used car yard in Melbourne's north for nearly 10 years with the owner not knowing what it really was resulting in me being able to purchase it for a price that would seem unbelievable for such a rare and significant car.
Another came from NSW a few months ago which the owner had a little idea of what it was but didn't follow up on the lead given to him by a previous owner which would have immediately resulted in the said vehicle being worth three times what i paid for it.
It amazes me where these cars end up and more so the fact the current owners don't know what they were or their significance.
When ever i buy a car i immediately start to trace the vehicles history and this may seem a hard thing to do to many of you out there, but in fact it's quite easy if you know how to do it and who to contact for the info.
After coming into possession of the list there have been many sleepless nights checking the vin numbers etc of Holden and HSV cars for sale on the net.
Its kind of a curse in a way finding those test car vin numbers, my missus thinks so anyway.
I just can't stop looking for them and its become an obsession., I just got back from a second trip to NSW for a test car, the guy that was selling it didn't even know what it once was or its significance.
Edited by user Wednesday, 12 November 2014 2:13:42 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
