Posted 13 March 2012 - 07:07 AM
Here is something you may find of interest
I had started a band called 'Witchcraft' in Adelaide.
A lot of the guys in the band were from Elizabeth, and we were all doing apprenticeships at the time (I was doing watchmaking).
Our Bass Player was a guy called Joe (so no last name as we just called him Joe the wog).
Joe was an apprentice at GMH in Elizabeth, a very good apprentice because he got apprentice of the year two years running.
Sadly Joe is longer with us, he was killed in a ski-boating accident in the early eighties.
Joe had been working across the road from the main plant at Elizabeth, it was a private company but was owned by GMH.
I have heard the word 'skunk works' used.
Anyway this place used to do the right hand drive conversions on Chevs and Buicks for the government fleet, they also had a lot to do with the Statesman (350 V8) and Monaro's going to Sth Africa (changes to components and badges etc).
Anyway, Joe tells me they are building some XU1 V8's and that he is going to build his own car, would I help him and drive him down etc.
Joe purchased, through the employee scheme, a brand new XU1 Torana, dark blue, and a brand new crate 308 that he had delivered across the road.
He drove the XU1 for a few days or weeks not sure how long and then on Saturday I followed him down to this place and started working on his car.
Now I will tell you what I saw there, there were at least six but maybe more XU1 Toranas going through conversions from six cylinders to V8's.
Some already had stickers on the back with XU1 V8 (not XU2). Joe was given space at the back of the workshop.
We were given or read the riot act (no photos, don't ever tell any one etc).
Joe was given the engineering and data sheets including the parts lists and was able to get the parts from the store as they became available (THIS IS IMPORTANT).
Over a period of three or four Saturdays we converted his XU1 to an XU1 V8 complete with all factory parts and decals.
Our oganist, a guy called Danny, bought the XU1 motor off Joe but never paid for it causing Joe to leave the band latter on.
One Saturday morning we arrived and were ushered into the bosses office, he told Joe to get his car out straight away or he would lose it.
We were missing one part that had not been finalized (this may be important to you) the part was the throttle linkages (they had not been made yet, I think there was a problem with one of the brackets on the firewall).
We fitted a makeshift throttle cable by using some venetian blind cord and drove the car to a mates place in Elizabeth.
The car would take off in fourth gear it had that much torque.
Joe told me the following Saturday that GMH Executives had come in a very short period of time after we had left and closed the place down.
They sent all the staff home for a number of days.
All the Toranas plus a couple of other cars were destroyed.
One of the other cars that I think was destroyed was a cross between a HQ Monaro and a Transam, it had doors that opened with a part of the roof (ie the door top cut into the roof section).
Another car that was there at the time was the GTR XU1 which was minus wheels and drivetrain and sitting on top of a container in the back yard under a green tarp (that obviously wasn't destroyed).
I can't give great details on dates and times or full details because quite frankly I was young and stupid and back then we had little or no concerns about history or what might happen.
The recollections are sketchy but I clearly remember the cars were XU1 V8's (XU2 was used by the airconding fitment apparently) and there were at least six but may be more.
I have no idea what ever happened to Joe's car but it would be an original XU1 V8 because all factory parts were used (except the throttle linkage).
I have mentioned this to Harry Firth and when I told him about the throttle linkage he smiled and told me he didn't think they had solved that problem.
This is not some one told me or I heard it in the pub, it is my own personal recollections (and I was not a Holden guy I was a Chrysler guy so didn't have that much interest other than helping a mate).
The band folded a few years later because we all had to concentrate on our apprenteships (we did come second to Jimmy Barnes and the guys in the Battle of the Sounds and I remember Barnsey showing off one night after he had adjusted the brakes and rake on his black Dodge Phoenix, he put it up on its nose in the middle of the street in front of us).
I don't know about any of the other cars built in Victoria or Qld only what I saw in Elizabeth.
