FC...the 500,000 Holden

[FE_UTE]

Heres a pic of the 500,000th Holden being loaded onto a carrier...imagine following that truck to the dealer
bloody hindsite eh!

[customFC]

Hey FEute
Very nice pic.
Not seen that 1 before.
You wouldn't find that car at any dealer!
The car was given to the Royal Flying Doctor Service soon after rolling off the line.
It was put into service in outback Qld with some cool RFDS logos on the doors.
What a historic car that would be if it turned up in a shed today with both the GMH and RFDS history.
Regards
Alex
ps. Any chance of a bigger scan of that pic or details of where it is published?

[zulu]

I wonder if one of our boffins could work out approximately what body # this Holden wagon would be?
How many FX + FJ's + FE's + FC's then subtract till you reach the magic body number.

Who knows, one of our clan might be driving this beast around

Do you have any pics of it in it's Flying Doctor livery Alex? Nice pic Gary

[mcl1959]

Not hard really, the 500000th car was built on 22 Oct 1958. After examining the Melbourne chassis records I think the chassis number for this car would be between 8-19000M and 8-20000M based on a guess that the car would have been registered about a week or two after the manufacture date.

I don't have any Melbourne 229's in my data base between these 2 chassis numbers.

Ken

[customFC]

Here's some pics of the 500k wagon celebration and presentation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.




Here's the text that came with the pics.
Launch of the 500,000th Holden - Production of the Australian motor car, the Holden, passed the 500,000 mark late in 1958 - Manufacture of the Holden began in 1948 - General Motors Holden's Limited of Fishermen's Bend, Victoria, makers of the car, marked the completion of the 500,000th - Holden by presenting the vehicle to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The Managing Director of General Motors Holden's Limited, Mr Earl C Daum making the presentation of the 500,000th Holden, a station sedan, to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which provides medical aid to remote areas of Australia's vast inland.
Employees of General Motors Holden's Limited with the 500,000th Holden car which they helped to build at the company's Dandenong (Victoria) plant
I have 1 crappy pic of the RFDS wagon when it was caught up in floods in Qld.
It is from a GMH People magazine that was on ebay years ago. I bid, but someone out bid me in the last second. I will dig it up.
I think there was also a competition to win the 500k Holden at the time, but the winner did not get the actual car, but a substitute car.
Regards
Alex

[TTV6FC]

Nice pics Alex.What is the car in the background?Doesn't look like FC/FE but more like FB/EK or Chev,but then the dates are wrong?

[customFC]

1958 Vauxhall would be my guess.

Regards
Alex

[EffCee]

1958 Vauxhall would be my guess.

Regards
Alex

They must be the ugliest car ever built

[TTV6FC]

Certainly looks like it,nice work. ::)

[customFC]

Here's the article I promised to dig up all those years ago.






And here is a pic from an advert that I recently acquired showing the logo on the door.


Regards
Alex

[zulu]

I wonder if this may have been it's replacement?





Click to enlarge

Gary

[Lamo]

I cant read that article. Any chance you can scan it in at high res?