Heard of a factory HR 186s 4 speed but never a X2
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/w...014534436#ht_1461wt_1271

I've identified two HRs which I'm 99.9% certain are X2 4-sp cars.

I've also spoken to retired Holden salesman who remember these cars.

There was a small window of time in production between the intro of the the Opel box & the intro of the 186-S motor. It would appear that several cars were built with X2s & 4-sp Opel boxes right at the end of X2 availability.

Numbers always will often tell the story. The engine number would have to be just prior to 186K162701 (the first S engine) & the body & chassis numbers would need place the car in May 67. Of course original purchase papers are the best evidence.

I doubt that the one in the ebay add was a 4-sp car, its body number is too early.

Dr Terry

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Originally posted by git

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Originally posted by Dr Terry
I've identified two HRs which I'm 99.9% certain are X2 4-sp cars.

I've also spoken to retired Holden salesman who remember these cars.

There was a small window of time in production between the intro of the the Opel box & the intro of the 186-S motor. It would appear that several cars were built with X2s & 4-sp Opel boxes right at the end of X2 availability.

Numbers always will often tell the story. The engine number would have to be just prior to 186K162701 (the first S engine) & the body & chassis numbers would need place the car in May 67. Of course original purchase papers are the best evidence.

I doubt that the one in the ebay add was a 4-sp car, its body number is too early.

Dr Terry

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Greetings Dr Terry, This topic has come up previously. 186S engines came first then the Opel four speed. 186S HRs with May 1967 rego. are in magazines from the time so that would mean the cars were built earlier. Also the GM-H engineering documentation always has the 186S before the Opel so this would all seem to say the engines were available first. The only X2 Opel cars might have been prototype testers as a couple would have been built like everything else under evaluation. December 1967 Wheels has a Max Wilson HR in it with 186S automatic. Rego label is a 5.

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This may well have differed from plant to plant. Sydney for example may have had an excess of X2 engines to use up before they began fitting 186-S motors.

The first of the two X2 Opel HRs that I've seen had original purchase papers & owners manuals & its engine number was only 10 or so before the cut-off. The car was quite rusty but very original & untouched.

The second such car was only 40 body numbers away from the first car & only 2 away in the engine number, it had no paperwork but was an untouched immaculate one-owner car.

I've spoken to several retired salesman who remembered these cars, one had one as a demo vehicle. I know much of this is only anecdotal, but the paperwork from the first car & its original fittings were hard to refute.

GM-H announced them both at the same time to the press, but the supply line for each would be very different. I understand that these particular 'Opel' gearboxes were actually built in the Philipines, whereas the engines came from Holden's own engine foundry at Fisherman's Bend.

Dr Terry

any comments...

thanks sig.......