Gentlemen.

Sorry to bother you all again.

Now this one I know is an FE.



My dad was a keen motorsport fan, something that continued even after he went blind in 1958.

He took this at The Australian Grand Prix around Albert Park Lake in 1956. It was not yet a round of the World Championship, but was still held each year, and this year was Melbourne's turn.

There were numerous supporting races and this was one of them.
It was called Production Racing in those days, and just to prove that Holden vs Ford is not a recent thing, here's one of the Ford's the FE was up against, a Customline with an engine quite a lot bigger.



Hope someone likes the old photographs, taken on a 1955 Voigtlander Camera on Ilford film.

AstraTony.

Gentlemen.

This is my first time here, so I hope you'll forgive me if I don't get it right the first time.

I am not an owner of an FE/FC, and the closest I come would be my current car, a 2001 rebadged Euro Opel Astra, after having spent 35 years in 4 Corrolla's and a Camry.

We live here on Queensland's Gold Coast, and recently, my wife and I visited our daughter and her family in Rockhampton.

On one of her days off midweek, she took us on a 300 Km road trip, mostly to show her mother the craft shops in some of the far flung towns.

Just outside Biloela, we stopped at at the entrance to one of the large farms where a covered trailer was parked. It was loaded with lovely huge pumpkins and was parked there about a mile or so from the homestead using a sort of honesty approach. You know, take a pumpkin, drop a dollar in the tin, or 3 for $2.00. Huge pumpkins too. Made some lovely soup.

Parked in the huge paddock of the farm on the opposite side of the road was this, which I just couldn't help pointing the digital Kodak at, and snapping.



Later when I downloaded the days photographs to my daughters computer and worked on them with the Kodak, and the Adobe Programs, I closely looked at this photo of the car.

My 9 year old grand daughter was watching me work with the photographs and she asked me what it was, showing an inordinate amount of interest in what was in all reality, just a rusting old hulk.

I looked closely, knowing that it was one or the other, but sometimes the difference between the slight cosmetic changes of those early Holden's becomes a little blurred, accentuated more in the Commercial models.

She was inordinately insistent, and I told her that it was an FE Holden Ute. I based this mostly on the strip of rust just in front of the door there where the chrome strip or the stylised chrome 'Holden' badge might have been, as I think this was one of the designators on that model.

Now that I'm back at home, I looked around for someone to provide the definitive answer, and this is where I hope you guys may be able to help me.

The Ute obviously has a broken back, and it looks like it might have actually made it into a third life, after being originally purchased as a farm vehicle, but the fact that it was in a farm paddock encourages me that it might actually still be with the original owner.

Third life! Well it appears to have been lowered, and wide wheels and rims fitted, and look at the filler cap there. Is this standard, a replacement or has it ended life with an LPG tank?

Man this guy waffles on some of you are saying.

I'm constructing a photo album for my precious 9 YO grand daughter, and what I would like is to include this photograph, and immediately underneath include a current photograph of an original restored Ute of the same vintage, and I was hoping that one of your readers might direct me to a photo that he wouldn't be offended if I was to download and print for the album.

Again, gentlemen, Thank you for taking the time to read this long Post, and for those of you who have persevered this far, I apologise for taking so much of your time.

AstraTony.