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ExportHolden Offline
#1 Posted : Sunday, 17 December 2017 6:58:36 PM(UTC)
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This is a story/video I had a bit to do with. I hope that you might enjoy it as much as I did with my involvement in it.

The last LWB Holden
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#2 Posted : Sunday, 17 December 2017 8:24:22 PM(UTC)
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Great read.

Just goes to show how versatile these cars were/are.
The WB could be offered with a bench & column shift - something seen today as a bit of a down-market thing, with the Commodore wheel not helping the matter, but it still did it with style.
The WM showed the same - fitted with a base model dash, and low-rent wheels, it still looked good.

We will never see the same value in our local car market. Closest others come is $65+ for a RWD V8 of questionable reliability, where Holden offered the V8 from mid-40s up.
Cheers,

Mick
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HK1837 Offline
#3 Posted : Monday, 18 December 2017 8:14:38 AM(UTC)
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Can it be edited or is it set in stone? There is a couple of things not right that you might want to fix if you can, nothing major but still not totally right. See below. Good writeup though in any case!

1968 not 1967 for HK Brougham. There may have been a body built in 1967 but no Brougham was assembled until 1968 (same as HK Monaro). I don't think it was even called a Brougham or had a unique model code until 1968.

"there was no volume-selling large-car to replace the HZ Kingswood, therefore no Statesman replacement either." Doesn't make sense. There actually was a WB Kingswood, in utility variety only and a WB Statesman?. Should read "HZ Holden" rather than "HZ Kingswood".

"So the only luxury car Holden offered after the last WB Statesman in December 1984 was the noticeably smaller premium VK Commodore model, the Holden Calais." People will argue otherwise, but the VK Calais was not a Commodore, so the word COMMODORE should be removed so it reads "premium VK Model, the Holden Calais". The general concept is the VK Calais is related to the VK Commodore as the HZ Statesman is related to the HZ Holden, but the Commodore name is not applied to the car, just like the Holden name is not applied to the HZ Statesman.

"The WB’s body was more than just a tarted-up rehash of its predecessor, the HZ Statesman; only the bonnet and the front doors were shared." Essentially true, however the guards are all but the same (they are as different to HZ guards as the WB Statesman front doors are the HZ doors). The floor and the sills plus some other internal panels are the same too. The WB to the HZ is in reality only a small amount of changes more than a HJ is over a HQ, many of which changes are not unique to Statesman - they are on all HJ. One look at WB Holden and Kingswood models shows you some of the things changed over HZ that the WB Statesman got but a WB Holden would have got too, like the guards, radiator support, bumper, frontal treatment, seats etc etc.

"Even though the WB’s 126kW 5.0-litre V8 is pretty anaemic these days – and the three-speed Tri-matic auto has a very clunky downshift – in the early 1980s, the Statesman was pretty quick and refined for a large, luxury car." WB didn't get Trimatic until 1982 model year. It had a TH350 from the start of 1980 through to almost the end of 1981 calender year. And you couldn't get a column shift, bench seat WB Statesman until Trimatic became standard fitment. It would be good to mention the HDT Magnum here too.

"While numbers aren’t available for Statesman exports in the peak HQ years (1971-1974, when Holden even exported the Statesman as a Chevrolet to South Africa and Southeast Asia, and to Japan as the Isuzu Statesman DeVille), Holden was down to 21 WB Statesman exports in 1980-81, to a dribble of primarily Southeast-Asian markets such as Hong Kong." The Statesman also went to NZ as a Chevrolet IIRC. Would be a good place to mention GMH's folly here of not tooling the HQ for LHD which substantially killed its export markets. They built LH and LX Torana LHD but not HQ, despite the original HQ design being a LHD car for the US market.

One piece of info that really should go here, but due to years of brainwashing and clever wording by GMH no mainstream journalist will publish it. It is the HQ Statesman that was the original sedan design for whatever the HQ was before it was sent to GMH to develop into the new HQ Holden. GMH were sent the designs for the sedan (became Statesman), wagon and utility on the normal wheelbase and the coupe on the short wheelbase. GMH designed the HQ sedan off the coupe, and all the advertising and spruce about the "new 100% designed here" etc Holden was always about the sedan. This is why the HQ Statesman, wagon and utility all look like they were designed by the same person or team, yet the coupe is so radically different, and then the sedan looks like the coupe. GMH modified the HG van's turret to fit the ute, and made the HQ van using the HQ ute. Then also made a LWB version, the cab chassis by using the utility's cabin with different quarter panels and a flat panel under the rear window rather than the C-section where the tonneau cover clips. Thus they had a SWB sedan and coupe. Mid or normal wheelbase sedan (Statesman), wagon, ute and van and a LWB cab-chassis. Leo Pruneau always says his first design job when he first arrived here was to "fill in the hole in the nose of the new HQ", ie he did the grille.
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If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?
ExportHolden Offline
#4 Posted : Wednesday, 20 December 2017 7:19:08 AM(UTC)
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Thanks for the feedback. It was difficult to write because I had a strict word limit and so much that could have been said was left out. I chopped and changed it so many times and still wasn't happy with what was left.

I'll see if I can get the 1967 date and the confusing HZ Kingswood reference changed. There were some subbing changes to this story (not by me) that I asked to be fixed up. It's also a bit difficult to keep asking for it to be edited when people have a thousand other things to do.

Even though the Calais (and Berlina) were not Commodores they were known as such, just as the Statesman was known as a Holden Statesman. Not technically correct, but by the time you explain it... the reference I made was also meant to highlight that Holden's luxury car post-WB was a smaller, Commodore -based car.

WB Statesman changes - I thought front guards had a cut-off that HZ did not, where the front undertray attached? Anyway, I referred to Terry's book 60 Years Of Holden with the WB changes over HZ.

The Trimatic was used for most of the WB production run, and was in the car used in the video/photos. I simply didn't have the space to get into the details of different transmission use.

I should have thought of WB Statesman exports to NZ and should have included them, so yes that part could have been a lot better.

I didn't know about the Statesman being the original sedan design. Interesting!

I showed the video to several friends and the non car-nuts, well, there eyes started to glaze over at about 1min. All most people will remember is "This is not the first time Holden has stopped producing a luxury car".

HK1837 Offline
#5 Posted : Wednesday, 20 December 2017 8:07:04 AM(UTC)
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The WB guards do have a cutout, but otherwise basically the same. The point was, WB front doors are also different to HZ, probably as different as the guards are.

I do get the “known as” however I think using what the manufacturer intended is the correct way to do it.
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wbute Offline
#6 Posted : Friday, 22 December 2017 8:28:17 PM(UTC)
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What’s different with the doors? Apart from holes for the mouldings?
HK1837 Offline
#7 Posted : Friday, 22 December 2017 8:46:55 PM(UTC)
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Inner skin. They also differ for mouldings as mentioned plus wher mirror goes and bright work around the glass. Nothing major, but more actual changes than what is changed on the guards.

Does the captive nut at the top rear of WB guards change thread like the removable clips?
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If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?
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