1950s Australian Holdens

In 1949 GM started production of a small - in US terms - range of six cylinder cars called Holdens. In 1956 a new body shell called the FE series was introduced. Wheelbase is 105 inches, engine is an OHV 132 ci six, which looks like a shrunken stovebolt.

Here is a photo of my 1957 FE. The stripe is not factory it was a dealer installed accessory called a Detroit (!) Stripe. The colour is Shoreline Beige, a 1954 Chev colour and the stripe is Corsair Tan, also a US colour.

Here is the engine before it was finished

Lately I have seen across pics of an Australian ride totally unfamiliar to me, Utes. Ute = utility. They are basically modified business coupes with a very short bed in the rear. Kind of neat, I think. GM & Ford both made/make them. Yes, they are still being made down under.

It is a long time since I have seen a pristine early Holden engine bay, though I do not pause to look at many modern cars. This car would originally have been 6 volt electrics. The original hydraulic fluid resevoirs were not plastic, and as I remember the 1961 "ute" (officially "coupe utility") for which I paid $180 used, and drove for 19 years, the original throttle cross-rod behind the engine was much lighter solid rod.

Several days ago a Melbourne newspaper carried a feature that someone who had bought a small cluster of early Holdens had recognised one with serial #2 as one of the handfull of prototypes imported examples. This would be one of those displayed at the Melbourne Motor show where my parents, motivated by post-war patriotism ordered an early production example. These had handling faults that could be treatcherous; but mostly that mattered little because if you drove the 80 miles to Melbourne on the highway at 45 mph, you would overtake most other traffic on the road.

I improved the performance and efficiency of my ute with porting, bigger valves, exhaust "extracters", a special head gasket for revised water circulation, and later a twin carb manifold. By deviating the delivery from the oil pump through a plumbers fitting seal by lead washers öut the right side of the crankcase via a full flow filter and back into the main gallery, I was able to extend engine life.

At one time I fitted an1800cc 4 cylinder Mercedes diesel and a 5 speed overdrive Toyota Crown gearbox. This was excellent on the open road, but reqired patience at traafic lights; and returned 35mpg on diesel instead of about 25mpg from the Holden petrol engine. When I gave it to a friend, still running and registered, it had cost me a very small annual amount average for repairs.

There were two problems that you had to sense and deal with. The rear wheel bearings would start to rumble as a warning that imminent replacement was mandatory. Twice I lost wheel, brake drum, and axle at night and had to trust the ute to come to rest safely, which it did. Once I was close enough to home to walk and get a spare. The other occasion a friend and neighbour brought what I needed.

The camshaft gear was canvas -reinforced Bakelite, and had a definite service life. One occasion I had an inkling that a light engine knock came from this, but I had to go to Melbourne but had a new one plus tools and water with me. Sure enough, the engine died when I was in a hurry. By the side of the road I had the radiator and timing cover off, and split the aluminium hub of the gear with the cold chisel. You had to remove the fuel pump to hold the camshaft behind the pump lobe with a tyre lever so when you drove the new gear on you would not punch out the welsh plug at the back of the camshaft tunnel. I was packed and gone again in half an hour that day, but I was never able to match that time in the workshop.

Apparently in about 1970 when Holden brought out their very different HQ model, some dinger decided that if the handling was difficult enough people would drive more slowly (code "safely"). Now there was a GM engineer out here from Germany then for some reason, and they picked him up from Tullamarine Airport in an HQ and chauffered him where he needed to go. Only on the final trip to the airtport did he get to drive: He said "I thought you were all rotten drivers; but it is not you,--- It is the car!!!". They made a later developement, the "WB", with "Radial-tuned suspension", and if you fit a WB front end to an HQ you have a much better and safer car.

The FE was the first 12 volt model. You are quite right about the fluid reservoirs Ivan, they were metal and I have a set. I decided to leave these on for safety reasons.

The wheel cylinders have no proper external covers and seize readily. As this car is not used much I find it easier to do a quick visual fluid check rather than trying to remove seized lids.

The first Holden with "Radial Tuned Suspension" was the HZ of 1977, the WB was introduced in 1980.

Nice car!

Very nice, reminds me of a smaller '55 Chevy.

I wrote the story of the 48-215 in RESTOIRED CARS AUSTRALIA. An online earlier version is here:

It was probable that as a consequence of the dire consequences in t

Smiths Industries in England supplied some components as well as GM Limited AC-Delco Division. Thus a few Holdens came over to the UK for trials. Here is an extract from my Holden in the UK story:

The U.S. Project Cadet which was set up under MacPherson [he of “MacPherson Strut” fame] in 1945 as means of designing a small Chevrolet again for the post-War market. This project was cancelled a year or so later, and in reality there was no cross-relationship between “Cadet” and the “Australian Car Programme”, code AMX, as it was called by General Motors Overseas Operations. Having said that, the lessons learned with the pre-War 195-Y-13/15/17 were used by MacPherson’s team, as well as the Australian car. An observant reader would have noticed in 1948 that G.M.O.O.’s magazine, General Motors World March-April 1948 referred to the A.C.P., and therefore would have been aware that there was something afoot going on. However, the British weekly motoring magazine, The Autocar December 3 1948 issue, carried the first British detailed reference to “Australia’s New Car- the 2.17-litre HOLDEN”. This was a two-page article with photogrpahs of the 48-215 just launched, the only rego that we know of being KY-442 on test in Victoria. The official announcement had been made about the new car in Melbourne on Monday, November 29 1948, though the magazine commented that reports had been received since 1945 of the origin and progress of a scheme to build an all-Australian car, and news of the project had been recorded from time to time in The Autocar. The article gave detailed specifications of the new car, and indicated that the electrical equipment was by General Motors divisions: Delco-Remy and A.C. Incidentally, the list price in Sterling of the first 48-215s was stated to be £540. It was also revealed that a member of staff of the magazine was shown photographs of the three prototypes in DETROIT in the summer of 1946. The capital expenditure of £2 million or so on plant included British machines and tools costing £100,000. The The Autocar December 31 1948 issue carried a photograph of Prime Minister Ben Chiffley standing next to a brand-new car, and quoted GM-Holden’s Managing Director, Harold Bettle, as confirming that the few parts imported included starter motors and generators from Canada [McKinnon Industries Limited, St. Catherine’s, Ontario], and electrical instruments from Britain, save for the batteries which were Australian-made. The British content was therefore General Motors Limited, Delco-Remy & Hyatt Division, London, starter motors and generators, plus instruments, oil pumps, fuel pumps, and possibly A.C., spark plugs, from GM Limited’s AC Sphinx Division in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. It was as a consequence of this British parts input that one of the very first 48-215 cars was shipped to Britain for trials purposes, and probably registered in Bedfordshire. This became the first Holden ever to be exported to the U.K.

The next reference to the Holden was in The Motor January 5 1949, which carried photographs of JP-480 on test, plus the Woodville assembly line, and the Holden engine on test. It was confirmed that the fuel pump was an A.C. Mechanical type, and electrical system, 6-volt Delco.

The Motor June 15 1949 carried a three-page article “AN AUSTRALIAN CAR OF AMERICAN DESIGN-THE 2.2-litre HOLDEN”. Reference was made to the “small model which Chevrolet were reported to have developed has never yet been put into production, but the Central Engineering Department of the General Motors Corporation has recently produced a brand-new design, the Holden, for manufacture in Australia”. This reference was not to the pre-War 195-Y- series, but the abortive post-War Project Cadet. It was also suggested that the Holden was a car designed for production in quantity, and a car which might sell in many countries other than its native Australia. In Britain, the 2,170 c.c. engine would be Rated under the defunct tax regime as 22HP. The specification table showed that the spark plugs were A.C.44, 14 m.m. type. The A.C. camshaft-driven mechanical fuel pump was also a vacuum pump for operating the windscreen wipers. There was also a superb cut-away drawing of the new Holden, typical of British magazines of the time.

The Autocar August 26 1949 carried a brief test of a black 48-215, rego ZG-302. The Australian representative of the magazine had been given an opportunity of testing a car during a trip of 150 miles from Sydney.

The Motor June 14 1950 carried a detailed test report of car rego AV-908, the write-up being by Roy Bulcock, Motoring Editor of the Brisbane Sunday Mail. The specification list showed that the plugs were still 14 m.m. AC 44 types, and the fuel pump, AC mechanical type.

The Autocar October 5 1951 published the very first Road Test in the U.K. of a Holden, rego JBM 484, registered in Bedfordshire County Council. The car tested was supplied through GM-Holden’s and in co-operation with the GM organisation in the U.K. In fact, the car was yet another “trials car” which was used by AC-Delco Division of GM Limited in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, hence the rego! It seems that the car performed better than a Chevrolet with Powerglide auto transmission tested by the magazine a short while beforehand! This was in their issue of August 31, 1951 incidentally.

The Motor March 11 1953 published a series of photographs of the production lines, and mentioned that a Holden with all-Australian crew finished in 64th position in that year’s Monte Carlo Rally. I believe that the rally cars were in fact prepared in the U.K., but I cannot remember if they were registered in the U.K. or carried Australian regos. Holden were indicating that they were anticipating exporting to New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. It seems that in 1953, there were various rumours that Holden were to export cars to the U.K. as well. The problem with this was that this would have been seen as GM competing with its own Vauxhall range, and then, as now, the British buyer is very loyal to the name and will not accept an “Opel” badged car even though the “Vauxhall” is in fact an Opel through-and-through, with different badging all round!

The Autocar November 27 1953 published a photograph of the new FJ [special], 1954, Model, which comprised three saloons and an estate car. The company planned to export to Asian markets the piece said.

The Motor July 25 1956 and The Autocar July 27 1956, carried photographs of the new Holden FE. The latter magazine commented that Holden production had increased from 39,587 cars in 1954 to 46,941 in 1955, nearly half the total of British cars, C.K.D. units and chassis imported into Australia during 1955!

The Autocar August 9 1957 carried another detailed Road Test of a Holden, this time an FE model saloon, rego SNM 668, again registered in Bedfordshire. This car was apparently run by AC-Delco Division of GM Limited, and was one of three cars only known to be in the country at that time. The engineering department used the car for test purposes, and had a number of small items of test equipment fitted. This car may have been driven by my friend, Bert Bowden, who recalls testing Holdens from the Dunstable HQ factory.

The Autocar May 9 1958 published photographs of the new FC models: Special, standard and Ute.

The Autocar December 5 1958 carried an article on “TEN YEARS OF HOLDENS”, and included a photograph of an FC, the first Holden to be exported to Nairobi, Kenya. There was also a photograph of a prototype taken in 1946 in the U.S. presumably one taken by the magazine’s reporter in Detroit. What is so significant about this article is that it mentions a brief history of the birth of the 48-215 from 1940, and that the 195-Y- prototypes cost US$750,000 in total, and that Russell S. Begg was given the task of converting the 195-Y-15 into the prototype Australian car. It was stated that “just before Pearl Harbour [therefore pre-December 1941], there had been a “schism” in G.M. Engineering on the comparative economic advantages of producing either a 4-cylinder or 6-cylinder car. I do not agree with the suggestion that it must have been in 1941, unless it was in respect of Projects 195-Y-15 versus –17, which were in discussion between Detroit and Holden’s in the Autumn of 1940, and therefore the reference was to discussions which spilled over into 1941 about a possible Australian car.

The Motor November 25 1959 carried out a detailed Road test of a Holden FC Special Sedan, rego YOH 690, registered in Birmingham this time. The price at the time was A£1,173, equivalent to S£938. There were various photographs of the exterior and interior of the black car, and drawings of internal dimensions and the dashboard. It was not clear as to whose car it was, but it might have been owned by Smith’s Industries.

Oracle,

The point of your post escapes me, the photo is not of a 48 -215 but a 1957 FE. Your gratuitous history of the birth of the Australian Holden is well known, the story from a UK perspective lacks relevance given these first series cars were not exported. KY 442 was not the first prototype it was the fifth and built in Australia, the first three were built in the US, No 1 still exists in the National Museum of Australia.