Retroautos. All images copyright GM Archives Thanks to John Kyros at the GM Heritage Centre for the research.

Transcription

1 Collectible & Classic It s about the cars! All images copyright GM Archives Thanks to John Kyros at the GM Heritage Centre for the research. RETROAUTOS April 2014 ISSN

2 Everyone has an opinion about the 1965 HD Holden, especially its controversial blade-sharp front mudguards. How it got those guards is one of the great stories of Australian automobile folklore. Separated at birth: The 1965 Opel and Holden cars. Dates on the photos are just 10 weeks apart. The HD was shaped in Detroit by Leo Pruneau and Don Laski in mid Ironically, Leo became Holden s design supremo in the early 1970s. Speaking to, Leo told us About the HD story: In 1962 Don and I had, just finished the 1965 Opel Diplomat Kapitan and Admiral models and Bill Mitchell, boss of all of General Motors (GM) design around the world, gave us the job of doing the Holden, which was then given the code letters EF, not HD. That came later. Leo adds that Don and he used many of the Opel styling themes on the Holden, including the rear window which is concave in side view and convex in plan view.

3 More images of the 1965 Opel Kapitan Holden sent their top engineer, Reg Hall, to Detroit, to watch the clay prototypes of the HD sedan and wagon take shape. This smart idea meant the designers and Hall could overcome any engineering issues created by the styling as they went along. Leo picks up the story: Originally we had the car with front mudguards very similar to the Opel s, and the HR Holden s, which were flush with the grille. But Mitchell thought the car looked too short he liked really long cars---so he told us to make the front guards jut out ahead of the grille, like the Oldsmobile Toronado. Well, Reg Hall protested that it would be too hard to manufacture and told us cut them back and that s what we did.

4 April 1962 images of Leo s first styling clay for the EF/HD, taken in the styling courtyard at GM in Detroit

5 The familiar HD shape is starting to emerge in these May 1962 photos. Note the kick-up through the rear doors, which was later flattened for the production car. The front fender blades are squarer in shape.

6 Holden s engineer Reg Hall sits and looks at the front end of the EF/HD in the GM styling studios in Detroit. Then a week later Mitchell came back to the studio and ordered us to lengthen them again. Anyway, this lengthening and shortening argument went on for a couple of weeks and Don and I would cut them off and stick them back on again. Of course, Mitchell was always going to get what he wanted because he was the big boss. He convinced Holden s management to go with them and that s the way the HD Holden went into the showrooms. Leo also tells the story about how the EF code was changed to HD. Apparently, when Holden management and its new CEO, David Hegland, were in Detroit viewing the fibreglass model of the car before it was to be shipped to Australia,

7 someone in the group semi-joked that they ought to change the code from EF to DH in honour of Hegland s appointment. Hegland objected to that, so it was switched to HD, and that s how the HD became the HD. Below: The fibreglass model of the HD ready for Holden executives to review, on 22 nd August It was still called the EF, but that would change on this day. I was right there in the group when it happened says Leo.

8 Initial sales of the HD were strong but the styling was too futuristic for conservative Australians. When sales started to slow Holden brought forward its next model, the HR, with its blunter front end. When Leo was later transferred to Holden the first car he wanted to see was the HD and those damned front guards! he says today. Confounding the urban legend that HR was styled after the HD went on sale, photos in GM archives, seen here and dated January and April 1964, clearly show the HR shape was locked away a full year before the HD hit the showrooms, so someone was hedging their bets!

9 In November 1961, the Holden EF/HD program was commenced in Detroit. These images show two very early styling ideas from that month, which parallels the development of the 1963 Chevy Nova, also pictured here in colour. Indeed, one of the clays (top) is simply a slight variation of the Nova. The next page contains more of the two EF/HD styling ideas, before Leo Pruneau was given the styling assignment.

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11 By the end of May 1962, the EF/HD styling was basically all wrapped up. Two and a half years later it was released to the Australian public.