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With GM Holden last year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Holden to roll of the Fisherman's Bend production line, is still seems to this scribbler the Holden I know started with the 1963 EH.
To me the EH was a turning point. Maybe it was the new engines, the smart new design. Possibly a combination of both. Make no mistake the first 48-215 (FX) was a significant step forward for the Australian motor industry. It was, after all, our first mass-produced local car. But to mark a point where Holden came of age, for me it was the EH. Possibly this is because my first car was an EH: a white 1963 sedan with red upholstery and fitted with the smaller 149 cubic engine and three on the tree.
It was a one-owner with around 30,000 miles on the clock. By time I sold it about six years later it had about 100,000 miles up, had never missed a beat, had twin Stromberg carburettors, a two inch exhaust and was lowered by two inches at the back end. I had also installed an after-market guage holder that went next to the binnacle and could be bought at a place called `Brian's Speed Shop.' You could place either three or four guages in this extra binnacle.
The EH was the first of the Holdens to have the new `red' motors, replacing the `grey' motors that had been under the bonnet of FX, FJ, FE, FC, FB, EK and EJ models. There were two engines available, the 149 cubic inch and the 179 cubic inch, although there was low compression variant of the 149 also available. The easiest was to distinguish between the 149 and 179 was that the 179 had a badge on the right hand side of the boot proclaiming `179' and flanked by a chequered flag. Our family was into Holdens and especially the EH. My father, Roy had a turquoise 149 manual, my uncle Keith a green metallic paint 179 auto, and my uncle Les a dark green special 179. At the time I though the EH was the ants pants. On reflection the clutch was pretty heavy and with no power steering it was a dog to park. The red vinyl bench seats (only the Premier had bucket seats) was a bum-burner in Mebourne's hot summer days, and as this was the era of `hot-pants' my then girl-friend, and now wife, insisted on a rug or seat covers on the front pew. The EH was a major facelift of the 1962 EJ model.
The two models are quite different in appearance, with the EH squaring off at the front and back with small fins, a squarer roof line, a sharper grill and bonnet, and a chrome strip going along either side to the centre of the rectangular tail-lights mounted vertically, which shared both brake light and indicator. The EJ had a similar strip, but is drops towards the back before also going to the centre of the fairly insipid tail-light. The EJ must be seen as a stepping-stone to the EH.
Its shape was similar and a radical step forward from the FB/EK models which still resembled medium size Chevrolets from the mid 1950s. The EJ model introduced the `Premier' name to the Holden range, a name that would continue for more than 20 years. The EJ Premier introduced a number of firsts for Holden. It featured bucket seats, leather upholstery, heater, wool pile carpet, whitewall tyres and floor console in addition to extra body bling.
Heaters, by the way, were not always available in cars of this era, and were often an option. EJ Premier also came standard with a three speed Hydramatic transmission. The EH and EJ were identical in width at 1727mm and had an identical wheelbase at 2667mm. But the EH was longer at 4511mm compared to the EJ at 4493mm. Interestingly, even though the EH offered new engines and a sharper appearance, both cars cost the same: $2102. Both cars were also runaway sales successes with the EJ selling 154,811 units and the EH 166,274, of which 10,798 were shipped to 55 countries in 1963. In all there were 256,959 EHs built in just 18 months.
There was also a limited edition sports model produced called the S4 for the racetrack. It combined the 179 engine with a three speed manual transmission, had bigger brakes, bigger fuel tank, wider track and toughened clutch and tailshaft. This car is best known when linked to the name Norm Beechey, who was the `Peter Brock' of this era. Stormin' Norm Beechey terrorised race tracks as a talented, but aggressive, driver in many marques and attracted factory support from Ford, Holden and Chrysler. He is also well known for racing an improbable Chevrolet Impala, but Holden fans loved him in his S4 EH, rego number PK 751.
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