FJ Holden 50th Birthday Bash

[customFC]

This past weekend saw a gathering of earlies at the National Museum in Canberra to celebrate the 50th birthday of the FJ Holden. Over 100 "Humpies" were on show, and our club had a weekend run to take it all in.
Here are some pics.
Regards
Alex

[customFC]

More pics.

[customFC]

Still more pics.

[customFC]

Another batch.
Regards
Alex

[Wayne]

Alex
Top photos was good day sorry could not stay longer.
WAYNE

[normd]

Hey Alex
   Nice shots , mate , Humpies Galore , didn't know there were so many .... I'm sorry I missed Saturday
  Picked up these couple of shots on Sunday in the park





  Cheers

    Norm
  PS the Ambulance comes from the next town from here "Temora"   80 k's away

[Shayne]

Gr8 pix Alex.  Thanks.

[RET]

We took the opportunity to grab another school photo on Sunday, since there were a few forum users around at the time, some of whom we hadn't met before.

From Left to Right we have:
CraigA, colt, RKT, PTB, graham_fuller, normd, alfio*, Cat, RET, Jonesy, JR, Revhead_FC

We also met "smithy" that weekend, but he wasn't about at the time the photo was taken.  Neither were gp, Tailshaft_Tim, Beetroot, Kathy and probably more that I can't think of right now

cheers
RET

* Alfio has recently got his computer up and running, so will soon be a forum user.

[craiga]

Here's one for Alex, a shot of the only good looking Morris Minor in Australia   Taken at the Sunday Marques in the Park run in Canberra. Lot's of good ideas on this one.

[RET]

Yeah, I know it's not a Holden, but I still thought it was pretty damn cool.  Apparently it was built by students at the Tech College - whoever said kids today couldn't make their own fun?

[slim]

Wish I could Have been there , Tell me more about Cats Bra and RETS boxers at the trivia nite . ??  Sounds interesting  

[zulu]

Top shots Alex, Luv the caravans & Ambo
Gary

[FC0058]

Great photo's looks like it would have been a great weekend.

Cheers Jim

[colt]

Hey, RET, I must have missed the one about the boxers!
A very BIG thank you to all from the FE-FC club of NSW for coming to our Trivia Night. Nearly 3 tables! Your suggestions have been taken on board for any furure events. A quick question that did'nt make it:
Which Holden model had speedo, fuel, temp & oil gauges only?
Also thanks to the 48 & FJ club of NSW & the EJ & EH owners & Drivers club of NSW for making the trip. We had travellers from QLD & VIC, admittedly here for the FJ show, but came to our do regardless. A big thank you to Eve from Holden, Don Loffler and Terry Bebbington for coming along also. Also many thanks to the local Canberra clubs for their efforts
Regards, Colin.

[customFC]

Glad you liked the pics. Sounds like the weekend continued to be an interesting one.

Here are a few extra pics just for Zulu.
The top pics are the inside of the Ambo.
All original appointments apparently.
The guy even had the light and siren going for awhile.

I have seen that Morris before. I think it was originally done by Adam @ Rebel Restorations.

Sorry I missed you Norm.

Regards
Alex

[craiga]

Nice shots Alex.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was a chance meeting with a Holden racing legend - Des West.

Des West raced many early Holden's and at one stage (maybe it still stands?) had the record for the fastest grey motor powered Humpy down Conrod Straight at Bathurst - 126.6 MILES PER HOUR!!!!!

Des entertained us for about 30 minutes with some exciting stories - including one of his 1956 visit to GMH at Fishermans Bend. Des had a Holden dealership and was therefore invited to attend for a technical course on a new automatic transmission. When the training was complete the engineers took him to the experimental garage where he got to drive one of the automatic test mules. No big deal except this car didn't look like any other Holden on the road in early 1956. He could never work out what that car was until 1961 when the EK was released. He had driven an EK nearly 6 YEARS BEFORE RELEASE!!!!

Des is a legend - he came third at Bathurst in 1969 with Peter Brock driving a HT Monaro - Peter Brocks first Bathurst 500 mile race in a team run by the legendary Harry Firth.

This is a model of the car produced by Biante.





And came 7th in 1970 driving a Valiant Pacer  

Des spoke of the many modifications they used to make to the early racing cars - how about bending the diff housing to get 1 degree of Camber - and 1/8" TOE IN!! He reckons whenever the car was parked they would remove the rear wheels so no-one could tell the diff had been modified. Another was valve springs placed on top of the lifters and held in place by collets welded to the push rods - he told stories of 160 HP normally aspirated grey's pulling 7200 RPM!. So many revs that thet would weld the synchro circlips in place to stop the gearbox self destructing. How about a home made inlet manifold running triple 1 3/4" SU's - shedloads of fuel getting thrown at that thing

A very rare opportunity to talk to a fascinating and down to earth man. VERY enjoyable.

Cheers,

Craig.

[HARKO]

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was a chance meeting with a Holden racing legends - Des West.and Norm Dawe


Had to give you a bit of curry mate  

[normd]

Hey Harko
   Man , The ONLY disappointing part of the weekend ..  as I walked up to the FE/FC display an older fellow was walking away ...  Craiga says "Guess who that was ... Des West ....." Missed him by 30 seconds  :-/

   Norm

[gp]

Hey Guys,
It was great to catch up with you all on the weekend. As Colin said, thanks for supporting our trivia night. Sorry I missed out on meeting some of you (e.g. Normd), I didn't realise you were there. maybe next time.

By the way, the first picture Alex posted of the yellow FJ Ute with caravan, is one of my old cars. I can't believe it still looks this good with 15 year old paint! I'm sorry that I sold it   (that also goes for some of the other cars I've had, but I guess you can't keep 'em all).

Some great pics Alex!  

Cheers,

Graham Pryce

[RET]

I have to concur with the others - the time spent with Don Loffler and Des West was a highlight I'll remember for a long time.

I have to say tho, I have my doubts about that EK story.  Unless GM-H stylists had access to pre-production drawings of Chevrolet, it is an unbelievable coincidence that the FB could look so much like a '57 Chev.  In early 1956 I doubt Chev would have had more than a handful of 57 prototypes or pilot cars built - and in those days the new year's models would be unveiled with great fanfare around October.  The technical course Des referred to was pre-FE release, so must have been earlier than July, and presumably earlier even than the Modern Motor 'scoop' on the FE, which would make it sometime in the first half of the year.  It just doesn't seem reasonable that GM-H could have a vehicle in sheet-metal 4 years before it was due to be released.  It's possible that a clay model of the FB could have existed in 1956, but highly unlikely, IMHO.

However, I think it would be quite possible that he meant he was disappointed in the FC* because he had seen a prototype FB.

None of that in any way detracts from the rest of the stories that Des told us.  The work that was done on those grey motors and gearboxes was just amazing.

And just to fan those other flames, Des reckons the 'Canadian Block' is a myth, too.  How far a grey could be bored out simply came down to how straight the bores were to begin with.

cheers
RET


* And that's not an opening for the FE=Failed Experiment FC=Facelifted Copy routine...