But who funded that first all-Australian car, the Holden 48-215? Why did Larry Hartnett, the first managing director of General Motors-Holden’s, fall out with his company for over 30 years? Why was the EH called an ‘EH’? What competitive urge inspired the celebrated 6’cylinder Torana? And just how significant was the world-car Commodore to GM-H?

These are just some of the revelations in Heart of the Lion, the most exhaustive history of the Holden yet published. Written by noted automotive journalist John Wright, Heart of the Lion recalls the design strategies and significance of each of the 26 models of the family Holden produced since 1948.

In sweeping chapters that span the 1890s to the 1990s, Wright also tells the tale of a proud Adelaide coachbuilder which has grown, with the backing of the General Motors Corporation, to become the motoring brand which defines Australia like no other.

To recapture the essence of Holden, Mr Wright trawled through the extensive Holden archives in the South Australian Mortlock Library, and interviewed a host of present and former Holden employees and suppliers.

The result is a truly impressive work of history, over 370 pages in length with over 250 photographs, most in colour. Extracts from the interviews pepper the book to give an insider’s understanding of why all those cars looked the way they did, and what they meant to the people who drove them.

And the interviews remind us that, at the end of the day, a company and its product are only what its people can create.

While it reads as a complete history, Mr Wright acknowledges that any history such as this can only be selective: "A book like this is going to omit far more than it can tell. In truth 50 books this length could easily and entertainingly spin Holden yams. But I have tried here to locate the most important aspects in 50 years of Holden. It’s a beginning, and I hope everyone who reads Heart of the Lion derives some pleasure from the experience."

Part of that pleasure is to begin to appreciate from Heart of the Lion how the design and manufacture of each Holden model was a statement of its age.

While the original 48-215 signified the emergence of an independently strong industrial nation, the FB Station Sedan brought the leisure opportunities of a continent to the now mobile family. The HK Kingswood somehow converged power and grace with pure Australian head-of-the-household manhood, and the Commodore linked our fragmenting industry in the 1980s to the global economy.

Speaking at the launch, Holden chairman and managing director Mr James Wiemels acknowledged both the efforts of the author, and the value of his work.

"During your research and many interviews with Holden employees and retirees you will have gained an insight into our history that few before you will have experienced. In the next 50 years of our history, it will be seen as the definitive reference point for all wishing to know more about Holden."

Heart of the Lion honestly captures not only the highlights of the Holden company, but also its acknowledged low points. Mr Wright recreates the enthusiasm of the country and the company in the 1950s, when "the future beckoned [and] we could drive there in our Holdens". But he also recalls the company’s ill-fated responses to the oil shocks and mood changes in the 1970s to the point where, in 1986, GM-H was in a financially parlous state and rumours abounded of a merger with Nissan. -

That the company recovered to its position of restored strength today is in no small part due to the spirit of Holden enthusiasts both within the company and outside it.

The last page of Heart of the Lion evokes this spirit of Holden, and indeed the ghost of the HK Monaro. There could scarcely be a better close to this record of Holden’s first 50 years, than the Holden Coupe design study which stunned the nation’s motoring media at its unveiling at the Sydney Motor Show just over a month ago.