(2/24/2016) The conundrum of Grandpa’s Axe, sometimes known as Lincoln’s Axe, is a simple one. The handle gets worn or broken and replaced. Then the head for whatever reason needs replacing. Over time and generations of owners, each component is replaced and replaced again, leading to the question – is it still the same axe?
Since the 1930s, Australia had a category of commercial vehicle based on passenger cars known initially as the coupe utility and which had subsequently morphed into shorter-cabin ‘utes’. The 1968 Holden HK (pictured above) was a typical example of these styleside-type utes from the big three, a body type that was also supplied by other manufacturers in varying sizes.
When the shark-like 1971 HQ Holden was introduced, it came with two trim levels of ute and a panelvan. There was also a curious new commercial entry in the range, shown bottom right.
The Holden One Tonner was a cab-chassis vehicle, and defined a new sub-category for this type of arrangement.
GMH had not brought in the GMC/Chevrolet in any serious numbers allowing the Ford F-series to dominate the ‘relatively light’ cab-chassis market, and the Japanese were starting to make in-roads with their more diminutive offerings. The Holden One Tonner sat somewhere in the middle.
The HQ passenger range was essentially a 3/4 length monocoque body with the front end supported by a short chassis terminating under the b-pillar (top illustration), comprising a 111” wheelbase sedan and coupe as well as 114” wagon and ‘Statesman’ luxury sedan.
The HQ commercials, on the other hand, were underpinned for their entire length by a perimeter-frame chassis.
Sitting on the chassis was a unitary cabin and a front end arrangement shared with the rest of the range. The driver received the ergonomic benefits of the standard-setting HQ passenger cars; improved visibility and NVH, flow-through ventilation and a relatively generous seating position.
The One Tonner had a 120.4” wheelbase whereas the ute and panel van sat on a 114” wheelbase. This extra length in the driveshaft initially precluded a V8. At first the 173 cu inch I6 was the only engine available, but it was followed by the option of the 202 cu inch I6 in November 1972, the 253 cu inch V8 in February 1973 and finally the 308 cu inch V8 in August 1975.
While the utes were Gross Vehicle Mass (or Weight) rated at 2,155 kg (4750 lbs) for the six cylinder models and 2,200 kg (4851 lbs) for the V8s, the One Tonner was allowed 2,600 kg (5732 lbs) for the 202 I6 and 2660 kg (5864 lbs) for the V8. The One Tonner came with a heavy duty Salisbury diff while the rest of the commercials had the banjo-type diff as standard. To cope with the heavier loads, wheels were seam-welded instead of the four-spot welding used for the rest of the HQs.
Its exterior detailing made it perhaps the most removed from the rest of the HQ range. The cavity grille was replaced with a pressed steel ‘grate’, the crudely-shaped heavy duty bumpers had no integrated turning signals, which were instead mounted between the headlights and grille as blister units. The trim detailing was either in white or grey, but an optional ‘Styling Package’ (later renamed ‘Appearance Package’) emerged with the grille, bumper and Holden lettering being chromed along with Kingswood hubcaps.
The One Tonner came delivered from the factory as a cab-chassis only, and pretty much every one I’ve seen in the metal has a flat or dropside metal tray. This above image was used in the brochure, but it’s an airbrush job. I don’t recall ever having seen this type of rear on a One Tonner; if you were needing something like this then the panel van would have been more than adequate. Unless you baked super-heavy bread.
There was also an ambulance variant, initially an informal option from the factory. The front clip was replaced with the more refined passenger version (in this case the quad-headlight Premier) and interior appointments were also upgraded. I’m not sure, but I suspect these were supplied straight to the body-builder without the rear wall on the cabin; in some cases a third door was added at the factory for side ingress to the rear compartment. (Image: sv1ambo)
Here we have a Kingswood (or Belmont) front clip, but with an aftermarket lazy axle. This is an Em-Care version built by Australian Bodycraft Sales in South Australia who specialised in this configuration. I’ve also seen a six-wheeler flat tray One Tonner in the past.
In late 1974, the HQ was replaced with the HJ (top). A step backward in styling sophistication and more broughamified with its pronounced grille and squared off corners. 1976 saw the introduction of the HX series (bottom), with minor changes to trim and specification.
The HJ and HX One Tonner retained the HQ front sheetmetal, but GMH formalised the ambulance version as the B06 package using the upgraded sheet metal from the Premier passenger cars. The B06 could be ordered for non-ambulance use, but given the One Tonner was the least appearance-conscious workhorse in the range, up-speccing was the preserve of the few. (Image: sv1ambo)
I’ve been waiting for an original One Tonner to appear in front of my camera, and its been a while coming. These commercials were the proverbial Grandpa’s Axe; being put through heavy-duty use and with components and body panels easily replaced. Survivors are relatively numerous, but given their tradie custodians, they have mostly been customised by those good with their hands.
When I saw this example, I jumped out of the car for a few shots. The grille and lettering is original spec, but the bumper is – alas – taken from the passenger cars. And that centre-mounted Holden crest is an additional addition.
This one was shot near home, but it has a Kingswood front clip in its entirety.
These have the split grille from the top-of-the-line Statesman; a popular enhancement when those nose cones were still freely available at the scrap yards.
And of course there are the GTS tributes.
I got talking to the owner of this one. Stupidly, I can’t remember what it’s running, but as you can see from the photos he treats it very well.
Then I saw this badge, and I thought he was putting me on. Nup; this is an HZ One Tonner with Radial Tuned Suspension.
When the HQ was in development, Chief Engineer George Roberts decreed that the car would have a ‘boulevard ride’ much to the dismay of his colleagues. Formerly at Cadillac, Roberts’ inclinations veered towards cruising and away from performance. Hence the HQ suffered terminal understeer that was post-rationalised as a passive safety feature.
It was not until the 1977 HZ that this shortcoming was rectified. The entire front suspension was overhauled with, as Joe Kenwright describes it: ‘new front suspension upper control arms and location, new positive castor and negative camber front end geometry, uprated springs, bushes and shock absorbers all round and an anti-roll bar at the rear for all models’, and given the name ‘Radial Tuned Suspension’ – a term used in the US as well but I’m not sure if it denoted a similar configuration.
Around Christmas I found what looked like an original One Tonner. Grille – check; correctly mounted turning signals (amberised in 1973) – check; Holden lettering – check; bumper bar – check. An ‘Appearance Package’ model.
And although the fender badges are not visible in this shot, this one’s an HZ as well.
So here we have the best of the breed; HQ front sheet metal with RTS. As I was delighting in its presence, its guardian appeared out of the bottle shop. He’s the second owner of this recent acquisition and, although not subjected to a Pebble Beach Survivor Class appraisal, he thinks it’s all original and is pretty chuffed with it. He plans a respray and adding LPG to the 253 and that’s about it. I never thought to ask, but apparently the chassis is prone to cracking, so I wonder whether it might have been replaced. More likely repaired if at all.
In 1978, Holden released the Commodore. This was a strange time for GMH; they had originally planned for this model to supplement the larger HQ-based passenger cars and the HZ continued until 1980. But ultimately plans for the HQ platform-replacing WA series were discarded, and the Commodore became the ‘fullsize’ range.
But the Commodore was a downsized model, and the 1980-onwards WB series continued with the ute, panel van and One Tonner, as well as the Statesman at the prestige end. The One Tonner received WB sheet metal with a headlight, grille and bumper treatment shared with the panel van.
Within a year the WB One Tonner was wearing the face of the ute. As you can see here, it was still differentiated from the WB Statesman shown on the trailer. For a look at the teardown and buildup of Tunner’s Holden 1 Tonner, click here.
The WB One Tonner was the last of the line, finishing up in 1984. From 2003 to 2005, Holden briefly revived the One Tonner in VY II and VZ form. Ford belatedly introduced their own version for the 1999 AU which continues to this day.
I remember the originals from my youth, the white detailing leaving a vivid impression. I don’t recall ever seeing the grey-trim version, so maybe that’s something to start searching for. But to be honest, after finding this example I’ve emerged quite satisfied from my quest for the elusive genuine Grandpa’s Axe Holden One Tonner.
Further Reading:
Joe Kenwright’s comprehensive overview of the One Tonner at Truck Jungle
Good to read you
Love these lines.
It is not easy imagine Australians roads, without the UTE, or these one-tonner declinations ??
Thanks Fernando
Perhaps inspired by Ford’s Superbird???
This is a replica of the motor show car, the limited edition production cars had the same decal in 1/10th size!
I passed on a green XA Superbird. 302. One owner. $10k about 8 years ago, but dodgy circumstances.
OMG it’s the CC effect again. This photo of Queen Street Auckland in the mid 1970s came up in an old NZ photo stream I subscribe to. Odd as AFAIK they were rarer in NZ than Australia
Love that red baker’s van, never mind it’s an airbrush job. It looks like a supersized version of the car based panel vans we had, like the Ford Escort Van, although I never saw this kind of compact vans without windows in the rear doors.
That ambulance with the tag axle is a beast !
Yep, we got the panel vans as well. Fullsizers like these, the Falcon and the Valiant, as well as the Escorts and I’m not sure but I think we also got the low-roof ‘Bedford’ based on the Vauxhall Viva. You’ll note the Holden Panel Van in the range shot near the top, Ford’s 70s range below.
I have actually seen this ‘bread van’ type of rear on modern one tonners, usually sitting on top of the flatbed and made in heavy duty treadplate to protect the tools inside.
Plenty of specialist body builders put out one tonners, by the way Don the ONLY difference with the ute chassis is the two gussets between the cab and the rear axle kick up tailshafts are the same wheelbase is the same its only those two stiffeners that differentiate Holden didnt need any new mechanical parts it was always going to be a workhorse with low compression engine 173 or 202 not a performance vehicle hence the super low gearing stock 3.73:1
Bryce, have a read of the text in the brochure shot of the yellow chassis. One Tonner: 120.4″, Ute/Panel van: 114″.
According to Truck Jungle, ‘The only downside to this was the limitations of its extended tail-shaft which left Holden’s most powerful V8 engines off the options list.’
A kingsize DAF 33 baker’s van, that’s what it is !
Clearly we were not as hungry for bread as you guys.
You guys must eat some super-heavy bread.
Actually, our baker hauled his bread in an Opel Rekord wagon. The same type as the red Commodore wagon in your article.
I look at that 21st century One Tonner and my first thought is “GTO flatbed”.
Don, you created a Monaro fanboy out of me and now you are fanning the flames with this one-tonner. Good job on your influence.
This is a very intriguing vehicle as it combines so many diverse elements into one vehicle and the end result works so well.
Don, this is such a great piece and read. Thank you. I was wondering why they had to make the HQ One Tonner’s front clip look so agricultural and Tonka-like, versus the other models – but then again, maybe that was the point – to make the O/T look like a no-nonsense workhorse.
I love the artistry in the ’68 HK ute print ad – great stuff. And as an aside, I dig your use of Australian slang – I am almost tempted to start using phrases like “I’m chuffed!” in conversation.
Joseph Dennis,I have mixed with politicians and some of the richest and poorest Australians in my 59 years and not once have I heard any Australian,until now,use the word “chuffed”.That word is commonly used in Great Britain.Agree re the very agricultural front of the Holden one tonners.I really like the body design of the HQ Holden,saw a beautiful HZ Premier station wagon in metallic gold just yesterday.
I have heard “chuffed” before…
The agricultural/Tonka-like grille was designed to fit in with the styling of (GM) Bedford trucks. Proper trucks that is, not pickups!
Very interesting, had never heard of these. To riff from Joe Dennis’ point, the styling that is both like the passenger line but not like it reminds me a bit of the Studebaker Champ that was a similar mashup between truck and car, complete with the crude grille and bumper.
The Champ is what what came to mind too.
Isuzu did the same thing with the Wasp, which had the front half of a Bellet sedan for the cabin.
Cool! Never heard of these.
They only brought a small number (update: 122!) into Australia, so you can imagine how few survive 50 years later let alone are still driveable!
I saw a Prince Miler flatbed at the recent Japan day at Como Park. My first ever.
And this Stout pops up every now and then.
In the U.S. folks would get their knickers in a knot when a vehicle sported the GT badges so common in the 60s and 70s. And after seeing it applied to a whole range of body styles (including pickup trucks) from a whole range of manufacturers….the last place I expected to see those 2 letters was on a flat bed truck, and a factory-produced flat bed truck.
After 21 years in the Navy and numerous trips overseas, I really wished I could have gotten to Australia. The cars, the people, the beaches, the beer…..maybe one day when I win the Powerball?
The GTS tribute (Holden never did a ute or 1-tonner GTS) is missing the GTS fenders that have vents behind the wheel. It was popular to swap in a ‘GTS dash’ which had full instrumentation.
From talking to some people, apparently what is driving some guys to replace their old Holden 1-tonners is rising insurance rates. As parts availability dries up the cost of repair rises. This is worse for the WB models due to their unique headlights.
That ambulance pictured in front of the Trans Australia DC-9 looks for all the world like a slightly scaled down ’74 Impala.
Evolution really has worked differently down under. These are the platypuses of the automotive world, combining such a low and sporty cab with a rugged bed (“tray”). The juxtaposition of the two is a bit of a challenge for these eyes just not used to such an amalgamation.
Thanks for opening mine a bit wider even.
Wait until Don finds a Tasmanian Overlander sub species of the HQ Holden they are quite something.
Kiwibryce,a Tasmanian engineer who established a large crane business in Tasmania also started modifying Volkswagens into dune buggies.He also was the man who designed and built the four wheel drive Overlander Holden utes and panel vans.The late Arthur Hayward was quite a pioneer.My younger sister and Arthur’s daughter attended the same elite private school,Broadland House,and were close friends.I met Arthur one day in the early 1970s when my mother and father dropped my sister off at their house for the weekend in dad’s 1965 Buick Skylark.Arthur had imported an immaculate black/black first series Oldsmobile Toronado which he happily showed to us.What a beautiful car the Olds was.An Overlander van sold at auction in Oz last year at Shannon’s classic car auctions,a very rare machine.In 1973 my father sold his immaculate EH Holden ute to my cousin and bought a new HQ ute,the dealer had no manual gearbox utes at that time so it had an automatic gearbox.He hadn’t had the HQ very long when the dirt logging roads turned to mud after heavy rains and I remember him saying that the new ute was useless in those conditions,the wheels would just spin in the mud,no traction.He returned the HQ to the GMH dealer and bought the EH back from my cousin.In 1975 he bought a new HJ Holden ute,253 V8,3 speed manual on the column,what a petrol/gas guzzler that metallic burnt orange thing was.For many decades Australians referred to Peugeots as the French Holden but no person ever referred to Holdens as the Australian Peugeot with good reason.Light years apart in terms of handling,steering,comfort.I saw an immaculate red WB ute just last week,probably my late uncle’s ute.One tonners did not sell well in Tasmania and if my memory is correct they also did not sell well on that larger island,Australia.
Great story Roderick. My brother-in-law’s father had one of the V8 ute racing teams (a relative) drop their race ute at his farm not far from a race track between events, apparently he was very disparaging about the race ute’s ability to negotiate sloping wet grass!
To expand on the “French Holden” name, the 1948-53 Holden looks somewhat like the Peugeot 203. Both were a handy thing on the 1950’s Redex Trials etc.
After the demise of the one tonne Holden a minor cottage industry sprang up converting Panel vans into utes and one tonners making panel vans quite hard to get, I ran several HQ vans for travelling they were great no dog tracking with the leaf sprung rear axle and the terminal understeer was easily cured by fitting radial tyres on the front HQs originally had cross plies which are awfull and make the stupid steering box ahead of the axle arrangement even worse.
In 1973 I drove a new Leyland P76 120 miles from Launceston to the dealer in Hobart.For the return journey I was given the keys to a near new HQ Holden sedan.Even on flat straight sections of the highway the HQ would wallow from side to side at the front like a boat in a swell.The P76 in comparison was quite remarkable.Many years later I mentioned this to my father and he replied that it was just like the new black 1948 Buick he bought,it did the same thing.My father bought that Buick in 1948 when he was 33 years old,a very expensive and hard to obtain car post world war 2.I often wonder with the immense resources of GM why in 1973 a Holden drives a bit like a 1948 Buick.Where was rack and pinion steering and all those other fine engineering advances the Europeans had been enjoying for decades? Not Holden,stuck in the past and completely overshadowed and outdone by people who really knew how to engineer fine handling cars.
You need to realise how Australian cars are engineered first, they are no designed to handle finely there are very few roads in OZ that require decent cornering ability.
Peugeots despite the great handling did not sell huge numbers in OZ I dont know where you get the idea of them being preferable from and as for the awfull P76 people stayed away from them in droves and made the HQ Holden the most popular Australian car ever, The P76 might have had a few good ideas from Triumph and Rover incorprated into it but the end result was an ugly poorly assembled nightmare for the customer, it didnt sell which tells the true story of it.
My father, GM to his bootstraps always said never let any regular customer drive a Peugeot, you’ll never get them out of it. True dat.
Well off Aussies might have driven Buicks but most Aussies were perfectly happy in their Falcons holdens and Valiants,
The lack of a one tonne Holden led the panelvan modification industry and they couldnt build them fast enough to keep up with demand ,Holden One Tonners were THE most popular ute on the market, Maybe the squatocracy never took to them but most people loved them.
The biggest hurdle the P76 faced was that buyers in that segment had to make a conscious decision that they didn’t want a Holden (since ’48), Falcon (since ’60) or Valiant (since ’62), but wanted to try a brand new model from a company that had never sold in this segment of the market before, and whose reputation was somewhat tarnished even before the P76 came out.
That’s quite some obstacle.
Peugeots – true. If you owned a Peugeot, it was a sign you knew your cars.
It was also a sign you had a lot of money they retailed at a lot more than Holden money, Leyland AU had several tries at an Australian car the P76 was the biggest failure but certainly not the first their reputation was already in the toilet due to lemons like the Tasman Kimberly duo.
Roderick, the problems with the HQ’s handling are touched on in the text, and mostly lie at the feet of Chief Engineer George Roberts who was an American from Cadillac. If you get a hold of the book ‘Heart of the Lion’ by John Wright, you’ll find quite a few Australian GMH staffers were not in line with Roberts’ thinking, but it was Roberts’ call. That’s not to say we were necessarily capable of producing a performance and dynamic experience to match the best of the Europeans.
A friend used to have a WB panel van, quite a rare machine.
Old Pete,a shearer/farmer mate in New South Wales owned a WB panel van,a bit rough,but very reliable.I saw him in Lithgow a few years ago and he now has a great condition WB ute.Another friend from the Blue Mountains owned for many years a 6 cylinder automatic WB one tonner in mid metallic blue with bucket seats and the extra gauges of the GTS dashboard.It was a comfortable and good looking vehicle.
Lot of Vauxhall DNA in it’s looks. My first car was a 71 FD Victor the same gold colour. More Aussie iron please, Don. Thank you for a great read
Actually, this one’s silver but night lights (and probably my cameraphone) have put a warm bias over everything. Thanks for the compliment Gem.
Holdens were always an Australian Opel/Vauxhall and still are today mostly apart from the Commodore/Cruz the rest of the range is just rebadged Vauxhalls.
Great piece Don. These things used to be just everywhere, but I haven’t seen one for ages. And although I’d probably never rerally looked into it, I wasn’t aware until reading this that the 1 tonner and ute had a different WB.
The GTS tribute is a very slick looking machine, and leads to one other factor that has contributed to the rarity of these nowadays. I recall from reading Street Machine in the 80s and 90s that so many rods and customs ended up with Holden 1 tonner chassis underpinnings. Probably after their superstructure had given up the ghost following a hard life on building sites and the like. How that sits with the reported cracking issues is anyone’s guess!
That’s interesting about the chassis used for rodding; makes sense. Used to love sticking my nose into Street Machine… SLR 8000!
I saw that car at a show a little while back, quite a wild machine with its all-alloy 500 cubic inch V8 (Chev based but all aftermarket), I think it was claiming about 900hp! Plus 18″ wheels and Group A touring car based suspension and braking.
Street Machine, I thought I was the only one old enough to remember that magazine!
A neighbour used to run this odd bod – ostensibly a WB commercial six-wheeler. This was the first WB-fronted One Ton I’d seen. He’d moved into town from a farm out the back of nowhere; not the kind of bloke to have fiddled the trim on his truck. Never did find out why he needed that second axle though.
The Japanese brands were fond of pointing out how much more of the overall length you could use for cargo with their flatbeds, and new Tonners were quite rare by then though they’d been very popular at first. Probably the increasing comfort of the Hi-Lux et. al. did them in.
BTW, the grey front end trim was used on the white cab. Coloured cabs had the off-white.
Truck Jungle has this white 1T with the grey hubcabs, but no shot of the front grille although you can just make out the grey front bumper.
Axle loading laws, One tonners could also be had with twin tyred Bedford CF rear axles for extra load capacity.
These would have to be an aftermarket conversion, likewise the ‘duallie’ conversion Bryce describes. I have heard of those being used as low-profile tow trucks that could fit into multi-storey car parks that traditional US pickup-based tow trucks could not.
The ‘two-tonners’ as they are sometimes known were reasonably popular.
To back up the above statement, here is another CC sighting
Now those are some serious sides on that tray!
Great article Don, if I can find the appropriate candidates I will do an article on the ute subcultures.
I ran across this “B&S ute” (ok, B&S one-tonner) a while ago. For others, that means a ute that has a bull-bar, huge CB radio antennas and most of all lots of stickers from events known as “Bachelor & Spinster” balls held in rural towns designed to reduce the numbers of same. The ute should also have a V8 and heavy duty suspension to allow high-speed cruising on unsealed roads.
On the surface this is a WB, but with the mix-and-match abilities of these models you never know.
One of my early teachers had a WB one-tonner, I remember a story of him returning from the forest loaded with so much sand that he had several buckets of sand hanging from the front bumper to keep steering control. The main bridge to access the forest was built from logs with planks on top for tyres to run on; it would be a very bad thing to drift wide!
I’ll add this one too, not sure if it started life as a ute or one-tonne, but I’ve seen a few of these twin-cab conversions. It looks like the rear seat would be more comfortable than Holden’s own Crewman from a few years back plus it has a full-size ute tray. Of course it is a good deal longer than the Crewman.
IIRC Colin Box in Colac was one of the guys who built these.
Appreciated John. B&S also have Mack dustflaps for rear wheels IIRC. Looking forward to your writings on our beaut cultures.
Nice post Don,
In the USA we have something called a Chassis Cab. This is ether a fullsize pickup truck or cab over truck.(when I worked at a Chevy dealer, they had several of the HD trucks with just the cab and chassis just waiting for a customer who would take it to a place that specialized in aftermarket bodies. Australian Ute culture seems to mirror US pickup truck culture. Do they have fullsize pickup trucks in Australia? I know they sell small pickups (such as the Ranger) but I don’t know about full size trucks. Are pickup trucks popular there?
Leon, we’ve had the F-series for a long time – for example by far the most ambulances during the 70s and 80s were F-series – but more recently they (and the GM equivalents) have been either small volume from manufacturer or grey import. John h is the real CC expert on oz utes as far as I’m concerned so maybe he or someone else can chime in with more detail.
That’s common practice around the globe. The rolling chassis + cab goes to a specialist/coachbuilder and they make the body. From a light Ford Transit (see refrigerator truck below) to the biggest diesel trucks on the market.
Fullsize pickups were built in Australia by Ford up until approx 1992, although I expect that more F-150’s than in the US would not have had a standard pickup bed (fitted with some sort of dropside tray). Almost no F-250/350’s would have had a pickup bed. GM and Chrysler pickups were common up to the late 70’s, along with larger Dodge trucks thanks to their tie-in with International. I saw a Chevy C60 dump truck recently but couldn’t get a photo.
Ford brought in factory RHD F-250/350’s from Brazil (2001-06), but other than that more modern pickups are all gray market imports, that cost a fortune due to having to be converted to RHD. I doubt you would find a new one under AUD$100k, only partly because the cheap versions you use for actual work don’t get brought in because they would cost so much more than anything comparable.
On the other hand, there have been relatively few passenger car-based chassis cab vehicles. Apart from the Holden and Ford mentioned in this article, I can think of the Ford P100 (Cortina and then Sierra based) from South Africa, Peugeot 404/504, the Russian VIS, some early Japanese machines and I think there have been some in South America.
Chevy pickups were available in NZ new through Chevrolet/Vauxhall dealers not Holden dealers but No F series Fords, strange that since they only had to come from Brisbane
We did get the F-250/350 new in factory-RHD from 2001-6 like Australia did, and the Australian assembled 1970s/80s F-150 were occasionally sold new here, but Ford NZ concentrated more on selling the Aussie-assembled Bronco in the early-mid 80s.
Amazing, when I was downunder in 86-87 these were all over the place. Time flies. Sigh…
Police, nuns, petrol can, refueling by the road…….that’s one way to advertise a car!
Every time I read a piece about Holden, I can’t stop myself spotting Vauxhalls in the pictures.
Today, it’s Vauxhall Victor FE
Superb article, as always, Don, thank you. An acquaintance (and former Commonwealth Games medalist) owned a One Tonner through the 90s and 00s. Bright orange (not the soft HQ orange) with white trim, which made for a very stark contrast. Even the (factory) orange paint couldn’t disguise the poverty-spec nature of it though
Thanks for the info. I have been trying to find out the history of my dad’s ‘2 tonner’ ute.
It’s registered as a HX, has the 253 V8 with tri-speed auto box and has the lazy 2nd axle on the rear with an alloy flat bed tray.