According to Ben and Warren late in 1969. No special time for 308 4spd as 308 and auto were available at the same time. I don't know if production of HT's (other than Brougham) with 308 would have started at exactly the same time either as across the 4 x assembly plants producing 5 litre HT's I would guess it would be unlikely they would have all run out of 307's at the exact same time. I'll ask Ben next time I talk to him if he knows roughly what happened and when.

There is no logical reason as to why a 308 4sp could not of been in the beginning as with the 253.

Would there have been a need Terry for pilot or Engineering cars once HT volume production started? The 308 + manual all but fitted identically to a 253. 308 and auto was already fitted to Brougham. I would have thought all this would have been done during HK production, either to HK's or pilot HT's

All development & casting work for the 253/308 was carried out in Australia.

As a matter of fact, the Holden V8 is the only mass production automotive engine to be designed & built entirely in Australia. The Grey & Red 6-cyl engines were US designs.

Dr Terry

Yes they may have made some ready for release, but that does not man the public could buy them then.

Just like we know there were HTs built in April 68, including GTS350s, but you could not order one until June/July/August 69.

There would be a date that they officially became available for the dealers/public to order. What would be interesting is the manufacture date of the last HT 307 and the warranty date of the first 308 non Brougham sold to the public (ie not an internal use car)

The final breakdown of the 307s at each plant might also be interesting. Some plants may have been selected to runout the 307s, ie say the Melbourne plant, so if you were in Brisbane and ordered the 307 Premier, it was made in Dandenong rather than Acacia Ridge, as would normally be the case.

Warren

Byron, that would be normal practice, just like 327 second type etc. The old sprry we have upgraded. this shows that orders were being taken for 307s that became 308s, which would indicate that the 308 was kept quiet until 307s ran out as such.

Warren