(engine revving) - [Man] So there I was, traveling in a fried out
combi on a hippie trail; head full of zombie. I met a strange lady, she made me nervous, but took me in and made me some breakfast. As I made my way to the front door, I noticed a funny looking car poking it out of the garage. It looked familiar, but different at the same time. As her muscle-bound male companion handed me a Vegemite sandwich, I asked him, "Hey! What's the deal with
that red car in the garage?" They said, (Australian accent) "You know it comes from a land down under?" And I was like, "Cool." It's the company that gave
Aus a car to call its own, giving birth to some of the most serious down under icons along the way. You Aussies asked for it, we're gonna give it to ya. This is everything you need to know to get up to speed on Holden! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi! You like my new hair? (beeps) (grandiose choral music) Speaking of Holden, if you like holdin' on to the hair that you already have, try Keeps! It's super easy, and all you do is consult with a doctor, who helps you find the right
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that deliver to your door, Keeps is super affordable; only ten to thirty five dollars a month. I'm gonna you in on a little secret: if you use our code, you get your first month for free. Enough said daddio! To receive your first month
of treatment for free, go to keeps.com/uptospeed, that's k, e, e, p, s, dot com. Slash, up to speed. Now, back to some Australian V8 fun! Holden is an Australian institution, bearing the standard for speed demons all over the land of the southern cross. The Commodore, the Monaro, the Torana, all... (pauses) (incorrect number dial tone) are all names that any self-respecting, roo-riding Aussie knows. They hold the same prestige as the Camaro, GTO and Nova do over here in the States. As a matter of fact, some of their cars actually
made it here in disguise, and we will talk about those later. - Let's get ready (gear shift sound) (engine revving) The Holden company
opened its doors in 1856, making saddles for horses. After about fifty years
of hand crafting saddles for some beautiful,
majestic, buff-ass steeds, Holden decided to shift gears, getting into the Auto body game. What they would do is build bodies for imported GM's and Ford's, and stick a little Holden
badge on the finished car. They weren't completely
Aussie-built machines, but it was a start. In 1931, my Dad was born, and GM bought Holden, merging it with GM Australia. Out of the marriage came
General Motors - Holdens Ltd. The company was stoked to get building some authentic Aussie automobiles, but would have to wait until after the end of WW2. During the war, Holden
Manager Lawrence Hartnett was plucking some shrimp off the barbie, enjoying a can of Cooper's, when he got an idea. - (Australian accent)
Hey, I've got an idea! How about we build our own
car for our own country. Built by Australians. That would be awesome, ay mate? - [Guy] But Lawrence was alone. With no one but a single Kookaburra keeping him company. The bird just laughed and laughed, and flew off into the sunset. - Cuckoo! Kookaburra! - [Guy] Even so, Lawrence
knew it was a sign. With every flap of that
magnificent bird's wings, his lungs filled with exuberant fervor. He hurried up and ended World War Two, and rushed home to get started on his car. That's what happened, look it up. [Guy] While Holden's
re-skinned GM's were good, they weren't tailored to Australia's unique road conditions and lifestyle. - [Camera Operator] Been
here nearly half a day now, and just no traffic at all. (goat bleats) - He wanted a car that would split the difference between small British town cars and beefy American Sedans. Holden sent a team over to Detroit to work with Robocop and GM on building this new car. What came back was the Holden 48-215. And in 1948, it was the first car manufactured in Australia. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi! [Guy] Farmers wanted a Holden, but didn't wanna ruin the back seat after throwing a few sheep back there. They love their sheep! They wanted something with a bed or, as they call it down there, a tray. Which makes more sense, and is way less creepy
if you think about it. Why do I need a bed in my car? Holden got crackin' on
a more practical 48-215 or Coupe Utility. In 1958, they took the car,
put a freaking bed on it and unleashed it on the Outback. With both Holden and their rivals at Ford producing car-truck things,
Australians would now, forever, have a ute to call their own. About 10 years later, in the early 60's the country had a growing obsession with a little thing called racing. Australia's biggest race
was a 500 kilometer run around the Mount Panorama
circuit in Bathurst. It was a big deal because
every car on the track had to be stock, meaning
the cars you saw winning were the ones you could buy. It was just like my dad used to say, win on Sunday, sell James'
bike for poker money on Monday. Join car racing is basically
how NASCAR here is in the US. Winning at Bathurst is like
winning at Daytona or Talladega. In the beginning the race was dominated by small, nimble little Brits like the Ford Cortina, Mini
Cooper, and Warwick Davis. This was until Ford
developed their Falcon GT powered by a scrappy little V8. It dominated the long
stretches of the track and got Holden thinking, (Australian accent) "hmm,
maybe we should do that mate." "alright." Holden designer Peter
Nankervis started drawing up a new car on the back of
his little trapper keeper. The looks were undeniably GM
but distinctly Australian. Peter's design made its debut in 1968 named for its southern
region in New South Wales. Monaro, and what's a sweet car
without a sweet theme song? Nothing! (Monaro theme song plays) Holden's objective with
the Monaro- Monaro? Monaro. Was to make sporty driving
available to every Australian. Fun cars from other countries
came with high price tags but since the Monaro
was built in Australia, it was more affordable. So the Monaro- Monaro- would be powered by 327s imported from America. The engine made a respectable
250 buff kangaroos and took the Monaro to the next level. It was time to take it to the track where the car was first dreamed up. October 6th, 1968, a day
that would live in the hearts of Aussie auto racing devotees forever. Both the Monaro and the Falcon
GT were entered in Class D, a precursor to today's V8 supercar. After a hard-fought battle
of over 500 kilometers, 3 Holdens stood on the podium. A fact made even more
impressive by the fact that there's only 3 spots on a podium. You got your 1st, you got
your 2nd, you got your 3rd, Holden, Holden, Holden. (engine revving) In the 1970's vans were taking over the US but nothing says hey man I like to party like a van with shag carpet, a mattress, and an airbrushed freakin'
wizard on the side of it. Things weren't much
different in Australia, all the kids were buying vans of their own to party in and Holden took notice. Holden's head of design
Leo Pruneau had an idea, (Australian accent) "hey
mate, how 'bout we go put 'em on arrow front of one
of our Belmont panel vans. I bet the kids would really
like that aye? "Sure." But the modified Belmonts
flew off the dealership lots. Holden knew they had something. Across the tailgate read
one of the greatest names in automotive history: Sandman. (riffing) Sleep with one eye open,
gripping your pillow tight, in your van! The Sandman was in
production for only 6 years but left a huge mark in the
hearts of hard-partying Aussies all over the country. A few of you, may have
been conceived in one. (engine revving) Racing had become an integral part of Holden's brand identity
but unlike the Monaro this little guy was a little guy. The Torana was a compact car great for economical commuting and city living. That was, until Holden took a few of them and outfitted them for
Bathurst domination. It was a pretty rad
combination that racked up back to back Bathurst wins, but
the L34 had a few big flaws. The rear drum blakes-
(computer error sound) the rear drum brakes were
flimsy and prone to overheating, the transmissions and rear
diff kinda sucked too. With Ford's Falcon XBGT quickly
catching up it was clear that the Torana had to be faster. The L34 was now called the A9X, Holden completely redesigned
the rear suspension and replaced those crappy drum brakes with some state of the
art things called disks. The 5-liter V8 made 146 kilowatts in 406 Newton meters of torque. For you Americans that don't
know the Queen's maths, that's 220 buff horses in 300 torques. Hashtag queens maths And you can't talk about
the A9X without mentioning perhaps the coolest part, these real, functional, bolt on fender flares, so big tires can fit underneath. This is why I love Holden
and you should love Holden. They put a freakin' rocket
bunny kit on a 4-door sedan. (engine revving) Unfortunately, the Torana did not continue the Holden Bathurst win streak but it did win the Australian
coin car championship in 1978 and '79. The A9X finally won at Bathurst
by a whole 6 laps in 1979 which helped launch the career of legendary Aussie race man, Peter Brock. - (race commentator) Whoa, he's
almost in trouble that time I don't think I've seen Peter
Brock so far out of line for- - Fast forward a few years, it's 1986 John Farnham's, "You're the Voice" is ruling the Australian airwaves, Crocodile Dundee is absolutely
destroying at the box office and Holden is refreshing
their Commodore midsize car. Throughout its life so far
the Commo was available with Holden designed
inline 6's or small V8's but that- wooh- all that
was about to change. Starting in January of '86,
every car made in Australia had to run 91 octane fuel. This was a problem,
because Holden's engines couldn't run on 91 octane fuel. Ugh! Blimey! It would be too expensive
to have their old engines and it wasn't like they
could borrow an engine from another country
that already ran on 91 I mean, that would be crazy. - Uh actually they could.- Shh! So that's exactly what they did. Holden called up Niss-unn
as they say in Australia and they were like,
(Australian accent) "aye mate, our cars need to run on 91
octane but our engines can't so can we borrow one of yours
until we figure it out?" and Nissan was like
"(gibberish and giggling)" (Australian accent) "What?" (Japanese accent) "Uh, yeah you can." Holden purchased Arby 30
Inline 6 engines from Nissan, the same engine that
powered the R31 Skyline. Yuh, lighting! (lightning bolt crash) Just 6 months after launching the RB30, The Commodore was available-
yeah!- with a turbo, double lightning! (2
lightning bolt crashes) Which pushed power up to
151 appropriate kilowatts or 201 horsepowers for you
jerks on the other colonies. (fart noise) The turbo charge Commodore could haul butt with a top speed of 124 miles. (engine revving) The Australian police bought a ton of 'em and they used them as
highway interceptors. That gets my pants tight,
freakin' Mad Max, yeah sign me up! These police models were known as BT1's and since these things are Nissan-powered people loved tuning the
absolute crap out of them and taking them to the
strip. (incoherent cheering) In 1987, Holden teamed up
with a British racing outpick, Tom Wilkenshaw Racing to develop a new homologation race car for Group A racing. The new partnership would
operate under the name HSV or Holden Special Vehicles. How does he do that? Just spinning words on
his finger out of nowhere. Their first project was a Commodore with an outrageous body kit,
the Commodore SS Group A SV was designed in a wind
tunnel believe it or not and produces 25 percent less drag than the previous Commodore Group A car. The plastic body kit
featured a fat front air dam, heat extracting hood, slotted side skirts, and a huge rear spoiler. Seriously, this is a bigger spoiler than Jon Snow dying
again. (upset exclamation) The Group A SV was powered by Holden's new fuel injected 5 liter V8 and
featured a few little tweaks. Those mods made the 5 liter
good for 240 horse-powers. That's good enough for 0 to
60 in 6 and a half seconds and a victory at the 1990 Bathurst 1000 only 5 years-okay it's
all starting to add up- only 5 years before Post Malone was born. (trippy music) Fast-forward a few years to the mid-90's. GM's director of design for Asia-Pacific and Native Aussie,
Michael Simcoe was at home with a drawing of a 3rd-gen VX Commodore. With a piece of vellum paper,
he outlined the 4-door sedan and filled in the rest
with a 2-door design. Satisfed with his work,
he brought it in to Holden and people started to
see it and they liked it. They were like, (Australian
accent) "Michael, we have to build this thing mate." And he was like, "Really?"
And they were like, "Yeah!" So they did! And they
brought the concept car to the 1998 Australian
International Auto Show under the name, Holden Coupe. Journalists and the
public got to see the car and they liked it too! Holden couldn't let a good thing go, so they brought the Coupe
into production in 2001 with the official name of Monaro. The legend, was back. You could get it with
either a supercharged V6 or a Gen 3 5.7 Liter
GM V8 which is sicker. In 2004 the Monaro got updated styling and the Corvette-sourced LS1. Now this car might look
familiar to all you Yanks because you might know
it as a Pontiac GTO. Apparently GM didn't even have plans to bring the Monaro to the US because duh we never get anything
cool but the story goes that GM North America chairman, Bob Lutz read a glowing review of the Monaro and decided to make it happen. (deep voice) "Johnson,
why am I just learning that we have a sweet 2-door
with a V8 and that it's great?" "Um, Uh, I'm sorry
sir." "You get that car, and you bring it stateside
now, we'll call it a Pontiac." (manic laughter) "Yes sir, right away sir. Right away Mr.Lutz." While the GTO was available for 3 years, Holden stopped producing
the Monaro in 2006 so we stopped getting it too,
cuz it wasn't getting produced but it wouldn't be the last
Holden that we would get in the States the 2008 Pontiac
G8 is a rebadged VE Commodore and the 2014 Chevy SS
is a Commodore as well. The VF Commodore went
into production in 2014. HSV produced 3 different models,
first was the club sport, it got a 425 horse-powers
LS3 under the hood, tweaked body work, and a HSV battery. Above that is the GTS which
kicks it- bam!- up a notch. GTS rocks a 577 horse-power
LSA, to date the HSV GTS is the most powerful car ever produced by an Australian auto maker. Lightning, lightning,
lightning, lightning! But, it wasn't the most Australian. What could be more Aussie
than a 6-speed sedan with nearly 600 horse-power you ask? How about a freaking ute? (engine revving) The HSV Maloo GTS put the
fun back in functional. Without all that weight
over the rear tires, the Maloo is a bonafide burnout machine and probably the coolest thing
ever devised by human minds besides Limp Biscuit's seminal
album, Significat Other. Unfortunately, The VF
ended production in 2017 marking the end for
Commodores built in Australia. In fact, that was the end of any car being built in Australia. Holden began its life
by importing GM bodies and putting their name
on 'em, and it looks like that's what they're gonna
do again for a while. Thank you guys so much
for watching Up to Speed, if you didn't watch this, I
wouldn't be allowed to make it. Make sure you don't miss anything,
hit that subscribe button hit that like button, you
wanna watch more donut content, here's two other videos
that I highly suggest. Follow me on Instagram @JAMESPUMPHREY, follow Donut @DONUTMEDIA, I love you.
