Despite achieving its 40th anniversary, the 1974 HJ Holden range is almost forgotten today. Coming after the successful HQ model, which sold almost half a million units in three years, the HJ has always lived in the shadow of the HQ. And that makes it an ideal “starter” classic, as prices are reasonable and parts numerous and cheap.
1976 Holden UTE
The HJ was styled by Leo Pruneau and he remembers the task. ’’Max Wilson, who was the boss of Holden at the time, did not like the recessed grille of the HQ four door sedans. He wanted them looking more like a current Chevy”, says Leo. Leo also wanted to visually lift the rear end of the HQ, which he’d always thought looked a little droopy.
1976 Holden Premier
With those parameters, Leo and his team set to work. The front end was squared off
and the grille widened and wrapped across the front of the car. A bigger bumper bar was fitted. The indicators came up from the bumpers and into the corners of the mudguards.
The Premier’s grille was a cross-hatched affair, while the Belmont and Kingswood version featured horizontal bars only. The GTS grille was fully blacked out and a big GTS emblem was glued right in the centre. No mistaking that one in the rear vision mirror!
1976 Holden Monaro GTS Sedan
The overall result was a front end which was more consistent with General Motors design language, reflecting a handsome cross between the 1974 Chevrolet Impala and the just released 1975 version.
Down the back, the tail lights were taken out of the bumper bar and lifted up into the rear mudguards on the sedan. The two soft creases on the boot lid were sharpened.
This raised the visual height of the back end. The GTS also gained a rear spoiler. In fact, the whole car was visually sharper and had greater road presence than the softer looking HQ.
1976 Holden Kingswood Limited Edition Hardtop Coupe
Inside the dashboard and seating covers received a mild make-over. The HJ also saw the end of the imported 350 cubic inch Chevrolet V8, which meant the Monaro 350 disappeared from the line-up. Gone too was the poverty pack, base level Monaro.
Cost considerations meant that the Monaro, station wagon, Ute and panel van retained the HQ tail lights and rear mudguards. The HJ Holden is a robust workhorse with parts readily available. It should be on your list if you are seeking your first classic car.
Mazda Roadpacer
Everyone knows the story of the strange Mazda Pacer. So let’s tell it again , as it is such a great story of automotive expediency. It starts out with HJ Premier body shells being exported to Mazda in Japan where they were fitted with Wankel rotary engines.
Mazda Roadpacer
This hybrid became Mazda’s top-of-the-line domestic market model, the Roadpacer. Sales were dismal. So lots of gloom gloom, and not much zoom zoom.
1971 Holden Statesman
The shaping of the HJ Statesman was done at the same time as the sedan. “Max Wilson thought the Statesman should be more like a Cadillac”, says Leo Pruneau. The Statesman’s conversion into a small Cadillac was in two parts. The first was the development a new flagship model, the Caprice.
Packed with every option available and boasting an interior swathed in leather, the Caprice sat above the De Ville and competed directly with Ford’s lengthy, luxury, land yacht, the LTD.
1974 Holden Statesman
done at the same time as the sedan. “Max Wilson thought the Statesman should be more like a Cadillac”, says Leo Pruneau. The Statesman’s conversion into a small Cadillac was in two parts. The first was the development a new flagship model, the Caprice. Packed with every option available and boasting an interior swathed in leather, the Caprice sat above the De Ville and competed directly with Ford’s lengthy, luxury, land yacht, the LTD.
Meanwhile, Leo and his styling team shaped a more imposing chrome grille and bumper bar combination, with the bottom of the grille extending below the bumper bar. This was a design motif on both the Cadillac and the Chevrolet’s top of the line car, also called a Caprice.
The recessed tail lights of the HQ Statesman were filled in with more prominent ,vertical lights, which wrapped around the end of the guards. As with the sedan, the front turn indicators were raised into the mudguards. The fluted hubcaps on the Caprice were taken directly from Cadillac.
1974 Holden Kingswood
The HJ also saw the end the Statesman Custom. Essentially a Kingswood in the long wheel base body, the HQ Custom was supposed to appeal to hire car companies. It came with hard bench seats and a six cylinder engine as standard.
Chevrolet Caprice
The finishing touch was a stand-up bonnet ornament on the Caprice which Wilson swiped off the yet-to-be-released 1975 Chevrolet Caprice. “He came back from a trip to Detroit with it in his pocket”, remembers Leo, “and we just put it on the bonnet.”
And so began the rise of an enduring brand name in Australia. If the rationale for the Caprice was to be a competitor to Ford’s LTD, then by all measures it has been very successful. Forty years since its debut, the Caprice still sells. The LTD, and Fairlane, have gone long ago.
1974 Holden Kingswood
