[SlickHolden]

After stretching the British Viva so it could house Holden's six-cylinder engines, Holden launched a clean sheet all-Australian LH Torana in 1974. It was intended to revive the EH in toughness, packaging and size as Holden faced fresh new European and Japanese four-cylinder competition based on the same wheelbase as the EH Holden. Except this time, Detroit forced Holden to lose almost 100mm in wheelbase and killed any potential for the Torana to be a comfortable five or six seat family car. Because it was engineered to offer four, six and V8 engines, it was also much heavier than its four-cylinder opposition yet its cabin was significantly smaller. If that wasn't enough, the HQ's vintage US-handling philosophy was also imposed on the Torana, an even bigger handicap when its opposition was so advanced.

Only the Torana's toughness and racing pedigree kept it alive. By the time it gained Radial Tuned Suspension, it was also too late.
For many Holden people, it was the ultimate insult that Holden lost both the Australian Kingswood and Torana model lines to a basic German 2.0-litre four-cylinder model of the same dimensions that Holden originally specified then lost for the LH Torana. The money that Holden then had to spend to transform the forgettable Opel Rekord into a single sedan variation that could meet Australian demands and survive Australian conditions soon exceeded what it would have cost to transform the complete Kingswood and Torana ranges locally.

That car was launched as the VB Commodore, a model that ultimately cost Holden its commercials, its mainstream family and fleet car market and long wheelbase prestige niche. By the mid-1980s, the process had left Holden drowning in a sea of red ink. Why Holden would not want to link its vital new VE Commodore with such a period of upheaval should now be evident. Holden's clever two-tiered Torana and Commodore family car range also died with the Commodore, a combination that some argue is more relevant today than ever. Because the VE effectively returns Holden to the autonomy it enjoyed in 1971 without the heavy-handed interference, you get a sense of why the VE launch is such an emotional and defining moment for those Holden employees who survived the worst of this period.

Come back to CarPoint later this week for Part II: How Australian was each Commodore and how is the VE different?

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