RIP, The Australian Holden

A sad day for car fans - Holden will discontinue making cars in Australia by the end of 2017. A strong Australian currency, high manufacturing costs and a small domestic market were among the reasons behind GM's decision, and the final straw seems to be the Australian government's decision to cut the amount of subsidies it gives to Holden. As an aside, Ford Australia announced earlier this yeat that it will cease indigenous production in 2016, yet hasn't experienced the ire of the Australian public in the same way that GM has; maybe as they've always been seen as an American company, whereas Holden is regarded as one of their own.
About 2900 Australian jobs will be affected by the decision; 1600 from the Elizabeth plant in Adelaide and about 1300 from Holden's Victorian workforce. Although the Holden brand will stay on in Australia, however all cars would be built overseas.
Holden was founded as a King William St saddlery in 1856; they branched out into automobiles in 1908. As Holden Motor Body Builders, they made bodies for various manufacturers and from 1924, HMBB became the exclusive supplier of car bodies for GM in Australia. The company was taken over by GM in 1931 but still continued to produce bodies for other companies, such as Willys coupés for example. GM ultimately won a subsidy from the Australian government to produce the first Australian-designed car, which emerges as the Holden 48-215, also known as the Holden FX, in 1948.

The end of the road for the big Oz Lions: 1948-2017.

- Amazosan

NB believe it or not, we've had an 'Australian Car Week' planned for ages; more in the new year.

Holden HZ Overlander

In 1976, Arthur Haywood, a Tasmanian engineer and off-road enthusiast, developed a prototype for a four-wheel drive car based on the H-series Holden Kingswood. His prototype used a Holden Sandman utility chassis, and featured GM’s standard 5-litre V8 engine and auto 'box. While receiving consultative services from GM, the project was funded and developed by Haywood’s Launceston based company, Vehicle Engineering and Modifications.

Based on the normal Holden HJ/HX/HZ models, Haywood completely reconfigured the running gear. A substantial subframe at the front made a chassis frame strong enough to support the new leaf-spring front suspension; the original Holden suspension being double wishbones with coil springs which could of course not be adapted to a live axle. A Dana M20 transfer case was sourced from America, while those axles front and rear are Dana 44 and 60 items respectively.

Over a three-year production period between 1976 and 1980 around 80 Overlanders were produced, despite the capacity to turn out many more. Ill health forced Haywood to close down operations for some time, but  production restarted in 1982, concentrating on Overlander station wagons. The last of these was built in 1989. During the 14 year production run the they produced 120 Overlander 4WDs.

This particularly example is for sale; the actual press car from 1978, has the 5-litre V8 attached to a Turbo 400 transmission and the Dana axles; yours for AUD $48,000 (approx. £32k). Only problem is that its in Australia...
You could drive it back; there not much that will stop it...
More Overlander history here.

For when normal 4WD is not enough; this completely mental snowmobile conversion. Great for the school run in December.