Show and Shine
For those who don’t know, (and I don’t pretend to know a lot) Holden cars are made in Australia. They seem to be a big deal to John and his brother Graham.
GM Holden Ltd is an automaker that operates in Australia, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The company was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer. In 1908 it moved into the automotive field, before becoming a subsidiary of the U.S.-based General Motors (GM) in 1931. After becoming a subsidiary of GM, the company was named General Motors-Holden’s Ltd, becoming Holden Ltd in 1998, with the current name adopted in 2005.
Holden has taken charge of GM’s vehicle operations in Australasia, and on their behalf, held partial ownership of GM Daewoo in South Korea between 2002 and 2009. Holden has offered a broad range of locally produced vehicles, supplemented by imported GM models. Holden has offered badge engineered Chevrolet, Nissan, Suzuki, Toyota, and Vauxhall Motors models in sharing arrangements, with GM Korea, Opel and Isuzu-sourced models sold currently. Holden is also responsible for the distribution of the Opel brand in Australasia.
All Australian-built Holden vehicles are manufactured at Elizabeth in South Australia, and engines are produced at the Fishermans Bend plant in Port Melbourne, Victoria. Historically, production or assembly plants were operated in all mainland states of Australia, with GM’s New Zealand subsidiary Holden New Zealand operating a plant until 1990. The consolidation of car production at Elizabeth was completed in 1988, but some assembly operations continued at Dandenong until 1996.
Now from what I can gather, Holden people don’t like Fords, but that is a whole other topic…
John has an EH Holden (1964) and his brother is involved with the FE-FC Holden car club. Seems each year they plan something big where they congregate from all parts of the country to different states. One year, at one of these events, Graham proposed to Cathy, and this year in Perth, for the FE-FC Nationals, they would combine a wedding with the event.
Graham asked John and I to take photos of a few things, but one event was called the Show and Shine.
John and his brother Alan take a closer look at this car, they were having a giggle, I have no idea why.
Connected with this car club, Graham has seen a lot of sights and been all around Australia. His hat shows pins he picked up from everywhere. I was later told this is just one of two hats.
Graham’s (or should I say surferboy) car in the Show and Shine.
John asked me to be the Vanna White of the event.
Graham is interviewed on the radio promoting the event.
John gets up on a ladder to take a panoramic photo of all the cars.
Well it was sure different for me. Here are the photos of a lot of the cars there.
