Closure of Heartland Holden in Penrith

[DJ]

From Vern, taken 21 Nov 2020.

Our car ( RH ) and Steve Rhind from Dapto made lovely sister cars with the Holden corporate livery ..cheers Vern ..

[Patrick_R]

Great phot Vern.

[my8thholden]

Thanks mate ,yes it is great shot ,we are both intending going to Broken Hill for 2022 Nationals ,so a shot similar there would also be great ,and any old Holden dealers or outlets along the way ,Old Blu told me to get enlarged shot and frame it ,I certainly will do that ..cheers Vern ..

[my8thholden]

You can also see the subtle difference between Empress Maroon ( LH car ) and Dominion Maroon ( RH car ) both India Ivory ..Both cars built at Sydney facility at Pagewood in 1958 ,and the LH car being the 16,185th FC225 to roll off the assembly line and the RH car being the 17,908th to roll off ,so they are 1,723 units apart ,I wonder what the production time was between them ?  ...3,6,8 months ??? some one will know,...cheers Vern .

[RET]

Comparing the chassis numbers will be more precise, because that tells you the sequence off the line regardless of body-shape.

But their birthdays will be way closer than three months apart. By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, closer to 3 weeks than 3 months separates them.

cheers
RET

[my8thholden]

Richard ,wow ,you reckon possibly 3 weeks apart ,thats very interesting ,I didn't note Steves chassis number ,Steve are you on this forum ?????  maybe you could send me his phone number RET as I want to offer him a copy of the image , i dont think he took any himself and if he doesnt use forum or facebook ,he might like it !!!Vern ..

[RET]

Vern,

I've sent you some contact details for Steve.

GMH made 191,724 FCs in 20 months. Assuming no ramp-up in production (since all plants already making FEs), roughly 9600/month, or ceteris paribus 3200/month/factory. But all vans and wagons are made in SA until November 1959 which means comparatively more sedans at the other two, and FC-225 most popular body, so with a licked finger in the air and taking away the number you first thought of, I reckon around a month separates them.

Of course, if Ken offers an age difference, I'll defer to him. He's the Guru.

cheers
RET

[my8thholden]

thanks RET ,that is interesting info ,I have spoken to Steve ,so thanks for that info also ,it will be interesting if Ken has additional information ..keep well Vern .

[mcl1959]

As Richard says, chassis number is all important. Unfortunately I dont have Steve’s chassis number recorded.
First I interpolated the data in my file to get a “best guess” chassis number for Steve’s car.
This came out as FC28573 S
This puts the two cars 2779 units apart on the production line
Pagewood made 60641 FC’s so 60641/20 = 3032 per month or roughly 99 per day
So my best guess is 2 and a half days short of a month apart.

Pretty good estimate by RET!

Ken

[my8thholden]

Thanks Ken ..Very interesting stats ,I spoke to Steve about his chassis number ,car is not at his place ,he is going to check his paperwork in due course ..I also posted on here a FC car another friend near me here recently purchased , I will PM you Ken with the details of his numbers .
Also as a matter of interest ,Cheryl and I were invited to the Hillman owners Club  Christmas function ,I had a couple of Hillman Hunters ,one of the members ( who has since passed away ) gave me the grey engine which is in our car ,as it is a "L" series engine number ..On speaking to the club secretary yesterday ,they are also neighbours ,he told me that particular engine was bought from the Holden dealer in Chatswood here in Sydney who would have been either Sundell Motors or Boyded Motors ,by the Department of Civil Aviation , Mechanical Training School ..Blues Point Rd ..Waverton ..where he was an instructor  ..nice bit of trivia ..

..keep well Vern .