(first posted 1/13/2015) While GM was in the midst of downsizing in the US, there was some downsizing occurring elsewhere in their empire. The HZ Holden sedans and wagons, riding on a platform dating back to 1971, were being phased out to make way for a crisply styled, very European sedan and wagon half a size smaller. It was perhaps a risky manoeuvre in the land of the big sedan, but thanks to the talented engineers at General Motors-Holden, a new line of Australian family cars was launched with a nameplate that survives to this day. This is the story of the first Holden Commodore.
Although many companies have manufactured cars in Australia, Holden is the only Australian brand name. During the 1960s and 70s, Holden and Ford were the two biggest fish in a small and fairly well-protected pond. But the market for big six-cylinder and V8 sedans and wagons was showing signs of erosion. The demand for six-cylinder cars alone would sink from 50% in the early 1970s to 33% in the early 1980s. A lot of the blame could be placed on rapidly increasing fuel prices throughout the 1970s; in 1979 alone, Australian oil prices shot up 140%.
“This is it, and this time I know it’s for real!”
GM-H decided to invest $110 million in developing a new, smaller line of family cars for the Australian market. The first Commodore was an interesting hybrid. The body was based on the Opel Rekord E, with the front end from the six-cylinder Senator. Extensive strengthening of the body structure to meet the rugged Australian conditions was undertaken. The wagon’s rear sheet metal actually had to be imported from Germany. Underneath, the Commodore would be an amalgamation of Opel and existing Holden engineering.
The chassis was based on the Opel’s: it featured Holden’s first use of MacPherson struts up front and a solid rear axle with coil springs at the back. Steering was rack-and-pinion, and even the base Commodore had power-assisted brakes; a six-cylinder Commodore weighed around 2700lbs. Of course, the Commodore enjoyed extensive suspension tuning and durability improvements to survive on the harsh Australian continent, to the point where parts commonality with the Opels was significantly reduced.
In the engine bay sat a choice of Holden engines. Rather than launch new engines, Holden retained the existing 2.8 and 3.3 inline sixes and 4.2 and 5.0 V8s. These engines were referred to as “Red” engines; the sixes dated back to 1963, the V8s to 1968. New emissions controls meant these engines lost a bit of their zest and weren’t especially economical. Power output was 86hp and 89hp for the sixes; the 4.2 V8 had 117hp or 129hp with the dual exhaust, and the 5.0 V8 had 153hp.
Measuring 185.2 inches, with a 105 in. wheelbase and a width of 67.8 in., the Commodore had a much smaller footprint than its predecessor. The HZ, in sedan form, was 190.7 inches long with a 111 in. wheelbase and a width of 74.5 in. To lend some perspective, the GM X-Body was 196.7 in, riding an identical wheelbase to the HZ but slightly narrower at 72.2 inches. Despite the Commodore’s smaller size, it retained 96% of the HZ’s interior room.
The VB Commodore was met with immediate critical and commercial acclaim upon its launch. It became the best-selling car in Australia for 1979, and also won Wheels’ prestigious Car of the Year award despite the carryover engines. Wheels was rich in its praise of the VB, particularly its ride quality, brakes and handling, and declared, “The Commodore is a car we can be proud of, a car to compare with any (and we mean any) from Europe. Meet a new and very different Holden.”
Holden HZ Kingswood SL
Holden had hedged its bets, however, by keeping the HZ Holdens in production a full two years after the Commodore launched. And as there had been no ute or long-wheelbase sedan Commodore variants developed, the HZ Holden ute and Statesman – tweaked and now labelled WBs – continued into the mid-1980s. A revised WB-series version of the HZ sedan and wagon was mooted, but GM decreed the Australian market too small for such a broad line-up and instead invested more in promoting the Commodore as the new family car Holden.
The initial lineup consisted of base and SL sedan and wagon, and SL/E sedan. The base model came standard with the 2.8 six and a four-speed manual, as well as vinyl seats and silver instrument panel surround. You could upgrade your base Commodore with the 4.2 V8 or 3.3 six, the latter of which came standard in the mid-range SL, along with more exterior brightwork, woodgrain trim, corded cloth seats, and extra gauges.
The range-topping SL/E was 4.2 or 5.0 V8 only, and all V8s came with standard four-wheel disc brakes and power steering. The flagship also boasted blackout trim, 15-inch alloy wheels, headlight washers, air-conditioning, velour trim and cut-pile carpet. You could get the 5.0 V8 with a choice of American transmissions, the Turbo-Hydramatic 350 or 400, and SL/Es could still be optioned with a manual transmission as well as central locking and power windows. An SL/E so equipped would be a sight to see today!
The VC revision of 1980, recognizable by its subtler eggcrate grille, would help partially rectify the VB’s biggest failings: its hoary old engines. The six cylinder heads were redesigned and each cylinder received its own intake and exhaust port. New camshafts, pistons, improved exhaust manifolds and a new carburetor and electronic ignition rounded out the changes, which improved power by 25% and fuel efficiency by 15%. As the improvements weren’t immediately visible in the engine bay, Holden painted the engine blocks blue. Thus, these revised engines were known as the “Blue” engines.
But the VC’s other mechanical change was ignominious. A new, ostensibly more economical base engine was fitted: a 1.9 four cylinder known as “Starfire” but popularly known as “Misfire”. This engine was created by lopping two cylinders off the aged 2.8 six, rather than developing a new engine or sourcing one from overseas. The Commodore four was criticized heavily for a poor power-to-weight ratio that negated any theoretical fuel savings. Curiously, this maligned engine was also used in locally-assembled Toyota Coronas of this period.
photo courtesy of Mark Brown
VC performance ranged from poor (Starfire four) to good (5.0 V8). The former was ‘good’ for a 0-60mph of approximately 17.5 seconds, while the range-topping 5.0 did it roughly 10 seconds. The VC generation also saw the first HDT – Holden Dealer Team, after famous racing driver Peter Brock’s company-sponsored racing team – with a special bodykit, tuned suspension and a souped-up 5.0, putting out 214hp. Just 500 of these were built, with the SL/E’s cushy velour interior and a choice of three Marlboro-inspired paint colors: Palais White, Firethorn Red or Tuxedo Black. Various engine modifications were done to yield the extra power, including larger valves, a reshaped combustion chamber, and a larger radiator. Out back, there was a heavy-duty limited slip differential. These were the progenitor of today’s HSVs, and they scooted pretty well in their day: 0-60 was roughly 8.4 seconds.
Holden UC Torana
The Commodore effectively supplanted the larger Holdens after 1980, but it also spelled the end of the smaller Torana/Sunbird. Redesigned for 1974 and shedding a lot of its heritage Vauxhall underpinnings, the Torana/Sunbird (the latter nameplate was used on four-cylinder models) had crisp, European styling and did battle with the rear-wheel-drive Toyota Corona, Mitsubishi Sigma and Nissan Bluebird, as well as the Ford Cortina. However, its main point of difference was an optional V8. The UC revision of 1978 would see the axing of that V8, though, to give the Commodore some breathing room, although the UC would enjoy quite competent handling thanks to GM-H’s new Radial Tuned Suspension.
A clean dash layout and a spacious interior
Therein lay the rub. Holden quickly realised there was no space for both the Torana/Sunbird and the Commodore, especially with the VC’s new base four-cylinder. Although the Commodore was bigger than the Torana/Sunbird and certainly more space efficient owing to its more modern design, it was not remarkably bigger than the very cars its little brother competed with. This small footprint had been desirable during the time of rising fuel prices, but what goes up must come down.
Of course, what happened in the US in the early 1980s also happened in Australia. The easing of the fuel crisis allayed consumers’ concerns about buying larger cars. Suddenly, the Falcon – which had never been downsized – looked a lot more appealing to Aussie buyers who had become accustomed to full-size sedans. The trimmer Commodore was thus squeezed in between the four-cylinder intermediates, which were growing with each generation, and the comfortably-sized Falcon. The end result was Falcon would leapfrog Commodore for the sales chart gold in 1982, and would hold that spot all the way until 1989.
Holden would revise the Commodore three more times during the 1980s before a new platform, once again provided by Opel, would be available. Each time, there was an emphasis put on making the Commodore look larger and more substantial. Between 1978 and 1981, Holden manufactured 217,713 VB and VC Commodores. Commodores were always popular with families, fleets and governments, so a lot of them have been rode hard and put out wet. Not to mention, rust-proofing wasn’t great. Next time, I hope to look at the VH Commodore, the car I, like many Australians of my generation, grew up in the back seat of.
Post script: Yes, that is my former chariot looming large in the background of the first shot. I took those photos a couple of years ago.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: Holden Camira
Taxi drivers hated the reduced width of the Commodore but I am loving your coverage of oz metal, William.
CC’s own Glen.h has images of the aborted ‘fullsize’ WA program.
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/glenhsparky/sets/72157631910985240/
Thanks for linking those, Don!
Very Ferrari like…
Good call. And approximately 10 years ahead of Pininfarina…
Good write up William.
However, VB had a live rear axle all the way to VL, not IRS. IRS would appear during or after VN, in semi trailing arm form.
And because of VN, the blue oval boys lost the crown.
I have the books on how the VN and VE were designed, I am just missing how they made the VT to complete my collection.
Engine wise, things would get good on VL when they fitted the Nissan engine. My mate tells me stories of burying the speedo needle past the maximum indicated speed in turbo Calais.
You also forgot to mention one of the juicy bits of the story, why they had to reinforce it. It goes along something like the original car fell apart in one of the local corrugated roads.
Finally, near us there is a bloke with a light blue one. It’s mint. It was parked outside a newly built McMansion, of the many in this area :(, and it seems they finally put it in the garage.
‘As the Germans built it, the car was absolutely useless in Australia. The front end wasn’t strong enough. The engineers took it to a favourite test road in the Flinders Ranges… They had strain gauges on the body and they sent the information back to Germany saying this is not going to work. The Germans said, ‘No, you’re wrong, there’s no way you can record these strain levels, your gauges must be wrong’. So the engineers thought, well the Germans are pretty clever and they must be right. So they went back with more cars and did it again, getting exactly the same result each time. Well, the Germans ended up coming out here and they committed us for being absolutely mad. Cars were not designed to drive on roads like that. They reckoned if you wanted to go to places like Ayers Rock, Alice Springs (before the road was sealed) or into the Flinders Ranges, you took a truck. But they had their introduction to the sort of durability we required.’
Peter Nankervis – GM/H stylist, as recounted in ‘Heart of the Lion’ by John Wright, Allen & Unwin, 1998 (p233)
I saw one of the corrugated roads in this Outback Truckers show. The cabin of the truck looked like a paint shaker.
Germans build crap cars didnt you know 7 series BMWs squeak badly when sold in Aussie there are not enough spot welds holding the damn things together several were returned to Germany under warranty until the issues of annoying body squawks were sorted out, being designed to cope with 1kilometer of Belgian pave every thousand kms doesnt make them strong enough to survive in Melbournes tram lined potholed streets.
The streets of this city are not potholed. They are a beauty. Seriously.
Yeah, they are rough, specially where there are tram tracks, but potholed… nah.
You don’t have an idea of how good we have it.
BMW Melbourne had a 7 there when my BILs group visited with exactly that body squawk issue caused by the bad roads, I lived in Melbourne for a while the roads were crap
Bryce you legendary sheep shagger. Always there with a positive comment on any given topic, you truly are a king among men mate, I’d love to meet you face to face some time so that I may bask in the glory of your infinite wisdom.
The roads in Quebec were really bad 40 years ago. Ergo, they are still bad now. I used to live there, you know.
I concur with the Australian engineers about the road conditions in the Outback.
In 1987, I became ill with food poisoning while holidaying in Kings Canyon, Northern Territory. The transportation to the hospital in Alice Springs was arranged with long distance bus service, which was quicker and more effective than waiting for the ambulance from Alice Springs.
During the first leg from Kings Canyon to Stuart Highway, the entire road was unpaved and corrugated. The bus resembling Golden Eagle bus from the 1960s commuted between those two points every day, day in and day out.
I recalled the most how much the bus vibrated intensely and shook violently while bus operator was oblivious and quintessentially Australian ‘aw shucking’ all the way. The roof of front cab kept threatening to detach itself from the body. One could see the sky through the gap of wavering size. The windows rattled noisly and held barely onto the frame. At some points, the bus hopped like a spooked horse, tossing us unexpectedly off the seats.
The aforementioned condition made my illness worse and worse. I thought I had died and went to hell. My body was trying to make up its mind whether to vomit or shit right on the spot. The nausea hit the all-time high level of intensity. I could barely survive, laying on the bouncy vinyl seat bench and waiting for the ‘thy kingdom to come’.
One hour and half of hell came to the end as we alighted at the meet point. A luxurious Mercedes-Benz long distance bus waited to whisk us away to Alice Springs. Riding in Mercedes-Benz bus was a polar opposite: it felt like upgrading from riding in Cessena through the thunderstorm to flying first class in 747 across the clear sky.
I spoke to a retired Holden designer at the Birdwood National Motor Museum and asked him about this, he said they had failures of the front strut turrets. Not at the welds, but the strut top mount would tear out!
The other side of this coin is the Ford guys heard about the new smaller Commodore and had a bit of a panic, going to new levels in taking weight out of the XD Falcon. This included a plastic fuel tank which I think was one of the first used (1979). Thanks to the Commodore carrying over the old red motors the Falcon ended up with about the same fuel consumption.
The blue engine with the 12 port head was a vast improvement I could get 31mpg highway with the air at full blast out of my VH auto and the power increase was really noticeable over a friends red engined VB. I later fitted a Walker sports exhaust with Lukey straight thrus which gave it a nice hit of extra torque it was a good car shouldnt have sold it but I still had my EH and didnt need two cars at the time
That is an interesting pairing – from memory the dimensions of an EH Holden and the Commodore were fairly similar, the EH was a little shorter, and they are now very similar to a Corolla or Jetta!
What did you end getting as next COAL?
Interesting read! There’s something familiar and unfamiliar about those first Commodores: they look like Rekords, and have a European name, but are in fact significantly different. Haven’t seen them in the metal (yet) but seeing a YouTube video of one of them makes it clear: looks like a Rekord but sounds very different.
I do wonder about the story of Holden using a Rekord-Senator hybrid that Opel then adopted again for its own car: the Opel Commodore. Opel had been using that name since the sixties for tarted up six-cylinder Rekords, I doubt the advent of this generation was an afterthought.
I agree BeWo, given the Opel Commodore C debuted in late 1977 and looked identical to the Holden Commodore I think the conventional story that makes it sound like Holden did the Rekord nose on Senator body thing on their own. I don’t think the ‘myth’ extends to Opel then adopting the body.
Incidentally when Holden adopted the 6-window Senator style roofline for the 1984 VK Commodore they redesigned or adapted the Opel body and made it much simpler to produce, the same retired Holden designer I referenced above said that the Opel people who saw it wished they had done it that way themselves.
Myths prevails in this business. Opel had done Commodores for at least two generations before this car. Opel had different names for their mid-liners, Rekord for the four-cylinder, Commodore for the six-cylinder. I don’t know if there was any difference in lenght or wheelbase. The usual way for the Europeans to deal with this was to have a slighly longer front for the six-cylinder cars, as Mercedes did with the fintail, or Volvo did with the 144/164.
On top of the Rekord/Commodore cars were the Kapitän/Admiral/Diplomat cars, which didn’t share any mechanicals. When the Senator debuted, it was based on the Rekord E. It looks bigger, as it has a longer front and rear end, but to my knowledge, it has the same wheelbase. And it only had six-cylinder engines.
Meanwhile, there was still a gap in the line-up between the four-cylinder Rekord and the six-cylinder Senator (with a seemingly different body), so Opel simply married the Senator front end to the Rekord rear, to make the Commodore. And as this Commodore looks exactly like the Commodore they shipped to Australia, I don’t think it’s an afterthought at all.
The Australians got the Commodore, as it was the only plebian car they had in the line-up that could fit those long six-cylinder engines. The Senator was a luxury car, and that wasn’t what they were after. They got the Senator body shell later on, but the car wasn’t thought of as a luxury car, only a slightly bigger Commodore. And there was much commonality between the cars. The rear door of the Rekord and Commodore are the same, while the six-window Senator shares its doors with the station wagon.
The Senator had a slightly longer wheelbase, presumably at the rear for a bit more legroom back there.
I’m not sure. I only have wikipedia to go to, but they say the Rekord E had a wheelbase of 2670 mm, while the Senator has 2680 mm. That’s one cm difference, could even be a margin error. The Senator shared its doors with the wagon, so I don’t think there’s a big difference in either wheelbase or interior space. I always thought the Senator was on a larger wheelbase, but it seems like it wasn’t. It’s 20 cm longer than the Rekord, and that’s in front and rear overhang.
If anything, I always thought it had a longer front to make room for those sixes. But with an unchanged wheelbase, it seems they just stuck those sixes further up front, further over the axle than was the case for the Rekord. I’ve looked upon this question many times, and that’s my conclusion. But I may be wrong, if the numbers I quoted was wrong. So, I don’t know…
World Cars 1979 puts wheelbase for (all Opel) Rekord, Commodore and Senator all at 267 cm.
Length of vehicle:
Rekord 459 cm, wagon 462 cm
Commodore 470 cm
Senator 481 cm
From the pics, the difference appears to be in the greenhouse; Rekord and Commodore appear to share a shorter greenhouse whereas the Senator has a longer greenhouse ending further back past the rear wheels and featuring a six-window arrangement as per the upper pic in the Holden clays attached in my comment below.
FWIW, World Cars specs for Holden Commodore:
WB: 267 cm
Length: 470.5 cm
If only today’s Australian cars were built like yesterday’s Australian cars. At least yesterday’s Australian cars were built *in* Australia. Today’s Australian cars are built in China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc. If you want customers to buy Australian, then damn it, build *in* Australia!
I used wiki too, and I agree that it’s probably wrong.
(Opel) Commodore was a result of a Rekord chassis paired with Senator front. On our market Commodore had existed only with 2.5 litre carburated straight 6. Automatic transmission was optional. Rekord was “smaller” a bit and had various gas and diesel inline 4 engines. Commodore Voyage was very rare. By my opinion it is one of the nicest estate wagons of Opel. The Senator of that time had various carburated straight sixes like the 2.8 litre and 3 litre. This Commodore has not lived for so long like its relatives the Rekord and the Senator/Monza. Probably in Australia Commodore was more successful than in Europe.
From a structural/crash-testing point-of-view, I always thought the short and long-nose Opels were identical in the floorpan and under the bonnet and that the added long-nose/Senator length was entirely cosmetic. I’d be interested to see an under-bonnet view of both the short and long nose Opels, to see if the radiator crossmembers mount to the inner guards in the same place – and if said cross-members are the same.
‘Product program engineer Ray Grigg, along with Peter Nankervis, was one of a team of GM-H people who went to Opel in August 1975 to look at what would be needed to adapt the existing Holden engines and transmissions to the Opel V-car. By that stage planning was almost complete for the four cylinder Rekord model but had only recently begun on the six-cylinder Senator. Neither was ideal for GM-H’s requirements: ‘From the initial layout, it was obvious that we would have to incorporate the long-nose Senator front end [into the Rekord] to accommodate the Holden engines,’ Leo Pruneau later remarked (at the launch of the resulting Commodore.)’
John Wright, ‘Heart of the Lion’ p229
In the early ’80’s my Dad’s company car was an Opel Commodore 2.5 Litre carburated IL6 with manual transmission. It had been a nice and robust car… Later it was replaced by an all new 1st gen. Omega A-series with 2 Litre fuel injected IL4.
A good overview, but one small point- the Commodore didn’t get an independent rear suspension until the VP series of 1991!
A bit more info on these cars, before the 1973 oil crisis Holden had planned that a new Kingswood, code named the WA series, and quite radically styled, would be the main Holden model. It was to be available with the still born GM corporate Wankle engine, like the Holden Premier based Mazda Roadpacer.
What became the Commodore would replace the Torana, and a revised Gemini would slot under it.
At the top of the range would be the WB series Statesman, on a stretched Kingswood platform.
The oil price explosion, the cancelled rotary programme and reduced big car demand meant the WA ended up as a mild facelift, then was cancelled in favour of the Commodore.
The WB Stateman ended up a heavy facelift of existing bodies, not the radical Lagonda style that was planned.
The Torana was replaced eventually by the J-car Camira, and the Gemini by a variety of small Japanese models.
Apparently the Lotus Esprit was used as aesthetic reference for the WA. Ozrigami!
+1 I would love to see the Statesman styling proposal too- never been able to find an image!
If you look at the side view near the rear lights, it looks like a ‘Caprice’ badge. From the John Wright book quoted above.
Holden changed the rear axle pickup points for the VC and again on the VH to cure handling issues experienced on the VB model at the limit they had a habit of locking the bushings sending the cars tail first off the road Wheels may have praised them in comparism to other brands of car notably the Falcon but they really werent very good, the rear axle assemblies do not interchange,
The WB follows normal GMH practice of cribbing earlier Opel designs it mirrors a mid 70s full size Opel
The independent rear axle is a key difference between the Senator and Holden Commodore, initially the VB resembled the UC Torana for rear axle mountings that was changed for the VH model and improved the handling a lot, the diffs dont interchange between the various models the pickup points are different I found that out trying to rid my VH off a noisy back axle at a Holden specialist wrecker, The noise stayed a disc brake replacement rear axle wasnt as easy to find as first thought.
” Extensive strengthening of the body structure to meet the rugged Australian conditions was undertaken. ”
This made me smile, actually put a big smile on my face, at the time I was given a 2.3 Opel Rekord Diesel stationwagon as a new company car, it could not hold a candle against the much more rugged Peugeot 504 station wagon Diesel it replaced.
So ‘t was not just Australian conditions the Opel Body could not cope with, hauling heavy goods with the Rekord in Europe made it break numerous times, it ate rear axle bearings.
Peugeot evidently designed with African driving conditions in mind. Ironic, how they took more trouble to accommodate African market needs than North American. I guess it helps to be a former colony.
In an article on the 505, I remember a Peugeot engineer quoted as saying, “An Audi wouldn’t last 5 min. in Africa.” Maybe so, but French makes are extinct in the US, so Audi has the last laugh.☺
Although given the way the condition of U.S. roads is going downhill, the joke may be us. (“America: Didn’t We Used to Have Paved Roads?”)
Here in Tucson anyway, it’s been argued that the municipal road-maintenance budget gets raided by politicians to fund other projects. If so, no wonder; why should spendthrift voters elect fiscally disciplined politicians?
Conspiracy Theory: Maybe the domestic car industry wants bad roads, to prop up the profitable 4WD/SUV market.
What ?? Are you telling me that the Peugeot 404 and 504 pickup-trucks are not an essential part of the rich Cajun-culture ?? What a bummer !
Good spot, Athos and Glen. I thought I was the lady in Gaslighting because I was convinced I had written it had a swing axle at the back and when I read your comments I hurriedly went to edit it. Turns out I did originally write “swing axle”, Paul just must have thought ze Germans wouldn’t allow for such archaic technology 🙂
But the Rekord E actually had the same suspension set-up! Opel was just a bit more conservative than the other German car companies, I guess.
The Germans used semi-trailing arms in the E34. And the Omega and the Sierra… and we could go on for a while.
The BMW, suspension wise, and saving the distances (please keep your torches at bay), would be a car with a VT-VZ rear end and a VE front end.
I think Opel’s live axle choice was more a matter of $$$ (cost) than being conservative.
The VB rear axle setup was very similar to the UC Torana also sourced from Europe but not the same I owned a UC for a while awful car with poor roadholding but it had several hundred thousand kms on it so it could have been merely worn out it was a $200 car so I wasnt exactly fussy with it, the boot was nearly useless not able to hold both spare tyre and a pram so it had the roofrack fitted
Cute dogs
Yeah dogs were ok the car was junk new.
UC Torana used a 4 link with angled upper arrms for lateral location.
Commodore used 4 trailing arms with the Panhard rod taking care of lateral location.
Yes, I was busy with a post of my own last night and didn’t check this one until past bed time. When I encountered “swing axle” I knew something was wrong. But dammit, there was NO info on these cars’ rear suspension on Wikipedia anywhere, so I just took a stab at it. I was pretty sure the Rekord had a solid rear axle.
The Rekord had a live axle with four trailing arms and a Panhard rod. I don’t think the VB/VC Commodore had the Panhard rod — it seems like it had angled upper trailing arms instead — but one of the Australian or Kiwi commenters would know for sure.
Commodores from VB until the IRS arrived in the VR? series did have a 4 link & Panhard rod rear end. The angled upper trailing arms were used on the HQ-WB and all the Toranas
Okay, thanks! The specs I have are vague and I was having a hard time finding a decent picture.
Is it me or these weren’t much bigger than a Monza / Ascona?
Peter Brock considered an HDT Monza.
http://www.hdt.com.au/view/monza
The Monza is a two door version of the Commodore same wheelbase. GMH stopped Brocky as they had to wear the warranties on the unstrengthened European bodyshell
Monza and Ascona are two totally different cars. The Monza is a coupe version of the big Opel; the Ascona is…smaller, between Kadett and Rekord.
A Vauxhal Royale in the UK.we got the coupe and a 4 door
Monza is a two door coupe version of the Senator not the Commodore.
The Commodore B model came as a coupe, the C model didn’t.
The Monza/Senator A1 came in 1978.
The Ascona is similar to the Manta. Ascona A and B RWD, same as Manta A and B, the Ascona C is FWD.
Kadett was RWD at A/B/C model and FWD from D/E model.
Corsa (even smaller) was always FWD.
In Latin America, Monza and Ascona were exactly the same car. That’s the Monza I referred to.
Anyway, thanks for the pics on that nice coupe.
Ok. I didn’t know that. But what did they look like? What engines?
Interesting reading, William. That red wagon looks a lot like an American Ford Escort wagon from the early 80s.
The 2.5 litre 6 cylinder Senator/Rekord hybrid came to the UK as a Vauxhall Viceroy, sitting between the 2.0 litre Carltyon (Rekord) and Royale (Senator).
Also, I can see a lot of Vauxhall Victor FE style in the Torana shots.
Opel designed the Ascona body and Vauxhall and Holden put their own front and rear sheet metal and powertrains into it, of course they resemble each other they are in the black metal the same car
Awesome article! I’ve always been interested in Australian built cars. What I’ve never understood was why anyone in their right mind would allow other car companies from other countries to build your cars. It’s one thing to base the styling of the car on someone else’s design, that’s what Holden did with the VB Commodore, and the Holden Gemini, and it worked. But why would anyone build a Holden Cruze, etc. from poor quality parts? That’s what I’ve heard is what happened with the Holden Cruze. I remember seeing a video of a Holden Cruze catching fire, after an electrical malfunction. If that isn’t piss poor quality, I don’t know what is. Hopefully, Holden is doing better than that.
Several Aussie Commodores burnt down back in the 90s including some police cars arson was suspected in the Victorian police car cases but it turned out to be seat wiring, poor quality local parts, Dont believe too much you hear about the Cruz its identical to the US version.
If that isn’t unforgivable, I don’t know what is. 🙁
GM is an international company. They used to do unique cars in every market and over time this has reduced. Building the Cruze in Australia is not much different from the Camry, although I expect the latter has more Australian content.
Australia has an entire population less than Texas. For say GM to create a division solely for Texas and then design and build its own cars is kinda crazy but that’s what we did in Australia. Now this is obviously over simplifying a very very complex situation, but it’s interesting an thought.
A Texas MG. Classic
Hey Australia, what’s your favorite car?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGW-WX77zjY&w=420&h=315%5D
To me, these have always resembled the T-body Isuzu Gemini/I-Mark (post 1979 facelift); I guess both took cues from the contemporary Rekord. As the I-Mark was the only one of the three we had in North America, my mind sees it as the reference point!
Also, kind of an interesting parallel–you mention that the predecessor HZ was about the same size as the RWD GM X-body of the late 70’s. If you move forward to the early 80’s, the sedan versions of the downsized FWD X-body rode the same 105″ wheelbase as the VB/VC commodore, and were within about 6″ in length.
Nice article and write up. In Norway these are known as one of the worst rustbuckets ever. The Rekord E, Commodore C and Senator/Monza A was nice cars, but neither very durable and the McPherson front suspension set up was very badly done when it comes to rust. Many of these cars rusted out even before they got 10 years old. Today it’s hard to fine one, even at the salvage yard.
I have owned one Monza 3.0E and two Senators, one 3.0E and one 2.5E.
The 3.0 E (intection – Einspritzer) had 177 hp – 248 NM, the 2,5 (incetion – einspritzer) had 136 hp – 186 nm.
In Norway you could also get them with the 2.0 E with 110 hp and later the 2,2i with 115 hp and 182 nm.
The Commodores only with the 2,5S and 2,8S carburated and 2,5 injection I think. The Rekord only had 1,8 and 2,0 S (carb) and 2,0 E and later the 2,2 i. And the 2,3 Dieselengine. Not fast.
A good read William thank you.
Very well-written William – always a pleasure to read about the cars of my childhood/teenage years! Great selection of images/videos too.
If anyone’s interested in further reading, I covered the Commodore model history here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/cc-history-australian-auto-design-designations-the-holden-commodore-family-tree-from-a-z-vb-vf/
A guy I knew had a VB Commodore, it had been a country car so it didn’t have any rust other than surface rust on the roof and bonnet where the metallic paint had been fried from the sun. It had done well over 200,000 miles but the only trouble he had with it was a broken clutch cable – I remember that well because I towed the car home and ended up hooking the cable back onto the clutch pedal.
My uncle had a VC wagon for around 20 years, they used to do a yearly trip to Queensland towing a camper trailer with the back of the wagon packed to the roof, except a little area that was boxed off for their dog. I only found out he sold it after the fact because his knees were wearing out (since replaced!), and I hope that an enthusiast got it because even though it was a base model 6-cyl manual the car was very well kept.
These were good cars unless you wanted to carry 3 people in the back seat (a 6-seater would have to wait for the larger VN Commodore), and driving them you notice the smaller size and lighter weight than the Falcon.
Actually this car could be called a Deadly Sin, because the Commodore was a major factor in Holden nearly going under, they were bailed out by GM to the tune of $750 million in 1986.
Love this post as I drive a 1978 Opel Senator 3.0E CD.
I was wondering William, whether there is an active fan scene down under for these cars.
I remember I once saw an ebay ad for a Commodore SE from ´79 in mint condition and it seemed crazy expensive.
Assuming you mean the Commodore not the Opel, there is a very active interest in old Commodores, including now as classic cars not just the modified/driver scene for the normal models and not just special cars like the Brock HDT cars or Group A homologation models. A couple of days ago I saw a 1987-88 VL Commodore Turbo on historic registration (club permit), which has to be 25+ years old.
The VH SL/E, top of the line for the VH series two tone paint, alloy wheels and V8 motivation. The VL BT1’s yellow with turbocharged Nissan six, 15 inch steel wheels.
The VH SS, available in three states of tune, red with available front fender air splitters and Immersher alloy wheels.
The HDT VK Blue Meanie race homologation special. White alloys, MM blue paint work.
There the ones that come to my mind as the classics from this series.
Oh the VL Calais wagon with those pop up headlights that was a rare bird.
I wonder what might have been if GM based its X cars on this platform rather than the FWD one they spent millions and millions on…
I was reading an old wheels magazine from the seventies/start of the eighties in the library recently and can’t help if they had put the chrysler 2.6 sigma engine in as the four on commodore to see them through till 1984 what the outcome would have been like.later on we had things like bluebirds,telstar/626 with their same amount of space and their four plus emergency extra person seat capacity take over that end of the market.how history will be repeating itself shortly when opel imports the next generation of commodores in where they will be no v8’s much like that very final variation of the torana but 4’s and 6’s and for the first time ever in history no saloons.
A good tale William but there are some models you may not know about in your Commodore saga that werent offered in Australia the GTS and Royale being two that were built by GMNZ also I only realised rereading this youve got KW figures down as HP they really werent that gutless.
Have you ever thought you were looking at something familiar and then found you weren’t? I thought those blue round top boxes across the street were USPS drop boxes because that’s where my mind went seeing them. I probably saw them without noticing them when this article was first posted. Any idea what they are? Probably “rubbish bins,” to use the non-American term.
There look like donation bins for local charities.
These were shockingly good in their day and place. Seats, ride, handling, steering accuracy and quietness – especially that – were leagues in front of anything GM-H had done till then, and made the new Falcon feel very crude indeed. Wheels magazine compared it to some mid-sized Euros (Merc, Volvo, etc), and in local conditions, it was truly the better and far cheaper machine.
I’ve driven all variants over the years, from horrible 4cyl auto – probably 20 secs to 60 – to manual V8. Really good cars mostly, but time has been cruel to them: the atrocious CD figure (despite appearances), the very crude sixes, the poor performance for really bad economy all feels its full 40 years now, though the seats and ride/handling remain quite nice. But, my god, the build quality! Nothing anywhere fits properly, from interior bits to doors. These days, literally no car from anywhere is anywhere near as bad as this. In truth, little of this affects functionality (except for leaks, perhaps), but it looks so bloody awful. No-one would accept it now.
It’s curious that one change from the German car that was made for Australia was the use of rack steering from the recirculating ball setup. It did give them decent feel and accuracy, but you’d think the one big advantage of the original system was better protection from road shock on rough roads. Go figure.
It’s funny reading this piece by William from just five years ago, with Commodes pictured in daily use. Now, even the most undesirable vinyl-seated unairconditioned manual-steered high-mileage car in no great condition is suddenly worth stupid money (say, $15k), so they’re all carefully salted away. No thanks! Nostalgia sure isn’t (priced) like it used to be.
Those guys that’d get around in VH SL/E’s in the early ‘90’s with the seat backs almost fully reclined.
Hehe!
“What is this, your bed?”