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Originally Posted by: Dr Terry  Originally Posted by: HK1837  L34 was definitely ONLY an engine option. It just came with a heap of extra stuff. L30 in a HK did the same, if you optioned L30 on a HK GTS it got you Saginaw transmission, 10 bolt salisbury etc. If you optioned L31 on an LH it got you M21 transmission, nodular 2.78 banjo, dual exhaust, front and rear spoliers and front sway bar.
A few comments to make there. It appears that the LH Torana PO Number XU2 name was going to applied firstly to the SL/R 5000 & then this was changed to what became the L34 package & then dumped altogether. It sounds like they were making it up as they went along, all under the shadow of the supercar scare. when it comes to the HK L30, that again changed as they went along. At the initial HK release (sedan/wagon - Jan-1968) L30 only came in one flavour, Powerglide only. The only other mandatory item was the nodular 2.78 LSD. You didn't even get disc brakes! There was no "extra stuff". The same applied at the ute/van release. When the Monaro was released things got complicated. GM-H introduced PTCs (Powertrain Combinations). Depending on the vehicle, L30 could've been built with either a Saginaw or Powerglide, 10-Bolt or Banjo diff, & the Powerglide was either column shift or T-Bar console shift. Several combinations were listed named PTC 1, PTC 2 & so on My point is, did an HK V8 GTS Monaro have the Powerglide standard with the the Saginaw as an extra cost option, or was the Saginaw standard & the Powerglide sold as a reduced cost (or delete) option ? The other way to look at it is all of the combinations were optional & you just ordered what you wanted. Byron, do you have any HK ordering procedures that would clarify this? Dr Terry No. XU2 was what people call the L34. It was always going to be what was later released but with no PO code, it was just then known by its engine code. SLR5000 was created as simply an SL/R with a 5.0L engine to fill the gap left by XU2. There was never going to be an LH with a 5.0L L31 engine, the D69 versions were intended to be the standard car, and the one optioned with the 4.2. XU2 was going to be based upon SL/R but be a different car with unique capacity engine, just like the LC XU1 was. LJ was meant to be like this too with the GTR getting a 2850S. The best way to look at the "L34" is to imagine the HK PO XT2. The GTS327 was until earlier in 1968 going to be option XT2 on an an 0737 GTS. The engine PO was L34. That car would never have been called L34, it would always have been the GTS327, no-one would have known it was the XT2. XT2 got you L34, M21, G88, rally wheels, D70 tyres, dual exhaust plus the rest of the unique GTS327 stuff. Basically just like the XU2. The only reason XU2 would be well known is because GMH chose to put PO code XU1 as the name of the LC-LJ car, rather than call it the GTR3100 or the like. Yes that car is different as it had no RPO code, L34 wasn't the car it was the engine. My point was though it wasn't uncommon for an engine option to become mandatory with a whole suite of other stuff. HK GTS was one example, you couldn't just walk in to a GMH dealer in say August 1968 and order L30 by itself. You had to accept the cost of the imported Saginaw (or Powerglide) and the 3.36 10 bolt rear axle unless you chose to order another ratio. If it was in a HT V8 Kingswood sedan and you wanted to option a 308 you had to accept the cost of the M21, Salisbury, bucket seats and console shift. Yep there were PTC combinations for V8 HK from July 22 1968. PTC3 (L30 M35 with G88 or G94) on a HK GTS was $355. PTC6 (L30 M21 with G88, G89 or G94) was $400. In general though any car came standard with a manual back then unless it was already standard with an auto. HK is probably the exception where manual wasn't applied automatically against any engine option, you had to actually state if you wanted manual or auto. Although it had happened before durabilty and excess stock reasons, EH 179 was mandatory with auto for a time, and in early HT the optional 307 was mandatory with automatic with no automatic choice on V8 models unless you also took the 307 engine. |
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