HQ panelvan 1

I was desperate for something and I had been for years. I wasn't sex, it was a Holden panel van, which I thought of as pretty much the same thing.

I bought this HQ with it's flashy stripes, fat wheels and smokey 253 from a dealer, signing away my soul and peace of mind to a finance company.

The engine fumed up the vehicle's interior terribly. I couldn't drive anywhere without the window open. I did a couple of trips and as in the photo parked backwards at the drive in movie with my mates. But it never was the fuck truck that my imagination promised. When I finally sold it I was relieved. The finance company is probably still looking for me.

HG wagon 1

I moved to Australia in 1980. I had a job at the Adelaide Advertiser that finished at 3am so I needed a car as soon as I could afford it. This HG wagon cast $500 and was nicely worn. It had a 253 V8 and auto. Shoulda kept it.

HD X2 sedan

For some reason I still can't fathom (this happens to me a lot) I swapped the spunky stand out FJ for this uninspiring HD. It was an X2 Premier, which meant it had a pair of stromberg carbies but it was auto and gutless as hell. Perhaps after the rattling, partly finished FJ I was attracted to the luxuriant mint interior of the X2. Gordon, who I swapped cars with, painted the FJ a dark maroon. Oh man.

FJ sedan

I saw this car at a garage and asked the mechanic it belonged to if he wanted to sell.

I got it for $1400. It had a shaved head, lumpy cam and extractors. The mechanic adapted the Corona 4 speed to fit. It was quite fast off the line.

I was 17 and cruised Dunedin streets extensively. In my memory the soundtrack for this time was Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the edge of town and The Cars.

Some friends Holdens

One friend I hung around with lost his license and for a while I was his wheelman. He had a blue FB sedan with twin pipes, jacked up 6" in the rear. It looked quite spectacular but of course was sluggish and didn't so much corner as plough.

Another friend's Holden of note was "The Black Ace". It was a rough looking mat black FC with white wheels. It ran a MKII Zephyr motor that was welded to the gear box. This car looked like trouble and ran on syphoned petrol.

An HR panelvan owned by a mate was shiny black and had a MK I Cortina wagon rear door. This was involved in lots of cruising of Dunedin streets when I was 17. Having a mate with a panelvan was better than having one yourself.

HR wagon

My first car was an HR wagon. It was dark red. Very plain and sensible, it went ok except for an occaisional clunk from the rear suspension.. My father bought it for me so that he could get access to his car again.

First Holdens

I've had this obsession since an early age. Some of my earliest memories were of the company car that my father drove, an FB wagon like the one above.

His next car was a pale yellow HT sedan. Same colour as the one above.

Then came his HQ. It was a burnt umber coloured sedan sort of like the one pictured above. This was in the mid seventies. I started driving around the town I lived when I was 14 and by the time I was 16 my father had a hard time getting his car off me.