GM Down Under, 1970: And the Rollin' Wheels Are Holden!
To Americans, there’s a weird mirror-world aspect to cars made by Detroit car companies in Australia; you can tell you’re looking at a GM product when you see an old Holden, for example, because you can usually spot a little Chevelle/Nova/Impala influence in the body lines, but everything just seems a little… off. Let’s watch the ’70 Holden line conquering the Outback and wowing the ladies.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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One wonders if the writers for the Simpsons had seen that Holden ad before they penned the spot for the Canyonaro.
I wouldn't mind having a 265 Hemi 6 with 3 big Weber carburetors and all the tricks, but I'd rather bring it over without the car and then install it in a 1971 Scamp so I can relive some high school hijinks without being reminded that the car I drove my junior year was actually slow.
If you look at Mad Max's Australian Ford Falcon XA, it looks like an odd cross between a '69-'70 Torino and a '71-'73 Mustang.
It's fun to hear the instant cries of "there was no such thing as a Hemi Six-Pack" and then showing the naysayers how region-locked their knowledge is.