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When was the first Holden with alloy, mag, wheels.
I think it's the VB SLE commodore or was it the Gemini SLE.
The HX LE Monaro had polycast wheels just a steel rim with plastic molded over the top is it not.
Steel wheels that were not just the standard rim ? Holden option would that be the HK or before. my brother had some sporty 13in steel wheels on his HR ?
Alloys and magnesium ? we called all wheel mags once if they were not steel but magnesium wheels when was the last year they stoped that and just made alloy wheels.
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Alloy wheels were on late HZ Sandman and SLE Statesman. They also appeared on the GTR/X Torana.
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At what point were they released in HZ though?
Before or after October '78 when the VB SL/E was released? |
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About the same time - 19/9/78 N67 replaced N66 in HZ in the order procedure, but when exactly the change occurred on production cars is anyone's guess. So anything optioned or standard with rally rims from that time had alloys. SL/E Statesman wasn't until mid 1979.
Whilst not a Holden you could option an N67 rim on a Torana at some stage, these were a 13x5.5" alloy ROH or similar jelly bean wheel. Definitely in LX not sure if it was LH as well. These were factory fitment not dealer, there are photos of Toranas on trains being shipped out of Dandenong with them on.
The LJ V8 GTR was to be fitted with Sprintmasters, these wheels ended up with the 200 cars commonly called the 1972 Bathurst cars, and were an option from that time too.
Polycast rims were available from the start of HJ on sedans, but aren't alloy. |
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Yes, defining the first Holden alloy wheel is difficult.
Firstly you need to define whether is was standard factory-fitted equipment, a factory-fitted option, a genuine dealer-fitted accessory or an aftermarket dealer-fitted accessory.
I would consider that the N67 ROH-style alloy wheel which was a factory option for LX Torana from Mar 76 to be the first factory-fitted ones, but they weren't standard equipment for any model.
The first standard equipment alloys would most likely be the Sunbird SL/E wheels released in Sept-78, but would've appeared on the production line in August that year. These wheels just pre-dated the N67 for HZ Sandman & the VB SL/E rims.
As already mentioned, the HJ/X/Z Polycast wheels were steel wheels with a plastic insert cast into them.
Holden's first 'sports' wheel would be the 6" wide steel 'rally' wheel fitted standard to most HK/T/G GTSs & optional for other models or the HQ-HZ GTS type 'spoked' steel wheel.
The 1972 Torana XU1 Sprintmasters are the exception to the rule. They were technically speaking, standard equipment for 200 XU1s in Sept-72 to homologate their use for Bathurst that year. However there seems to be no mention of them on the production broadcast sheets for those cars. It seems that those cars left the factory with the 'normal' nibless rims & that the Sprintmasters were fitted in holding yards prior to dealer delivery or in many cases, the cars were delivered to the dealers with the Sprintmasters in the boot. Had the LJ Torana XU1 V8 been released as intended, then they would have had the first factory standard alloys.
There were also so many A9X Toranas in 1977 fitted with Hotwires, that many people believe these to be a genuine option. They were always just an aftermarket item, often fitted by the selling dealer, which added to the myth.
On the topic of the alloy & mag naming. When alloy wheels first appeared, they were cast out of an alloy which had a very high content of magnesium, which was both light & strong. Hence the origin of the abbreviation 'mag' to mean magnesium alloy. Problem was they became expensive & magnesium was very prone to corrosion. Nowadays the term 'mag wheel' has been almost universally replaced by 'alloy wheel' or simply 'alloy'.
These days they've developed better quality, more stable, longer lasting (also cheaper) alloy materials for the production of alloy wheels.
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quote:
Originally posted by wbute
Alloy wheels were on late HZ Sandman and SLE Statesman. They also appeared on the GTR/X Torana.
The GTR/X had steel rims with same dress rims and centre caps as LC/J GTR torana. It was fitted with SL/E style alloy wheels around 1980 for some reason but when restored a few years back it was fortunately refitted with its original wheels. Edited by user Wednesday, 30 July 2014 5:25:43 AM(UTC)
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j.williams |
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A bit like this  [/URL] Edited by user Wednesday, 30 July 2014 5:53:21 AM(UTC)
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Yes that's it Mark. Looked all wrong when it was later fitted with those SL/E rims. Edited by user Wednesday, 30 July 2014 6:11:52 AM(UTC)
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j.williams |
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