Hello

[Londoner]

I just wanted to say Hi really. I'm an ex-pat Kiwi and I grew up with Holdens and Fords (my first memory being our neighbours green 1968 Kingswood when I was 3). Having relocated to London some years ago, sold my trusty Fairmont Ghia XF and VK Commodore estate, I kind of miss our big 'Aussie friends' a lot. I bought a couple of 'Paradise Garage' 1:43 Commodores and Falcons as I left, and started a collection over this side of the world...

I happened quite by chance to come accross an excellent Autoart 1:18 Commodore Concept in Mustard, in a tiny model shop in Hull, and have since discovered Autoart make the Biante Range, which are fantastic!!

I will now be able to collect one or two more!!

Any suggestions on 'contacts' or suppliers would be very much appreciated. I have been in contact with Autoart, who have suggested, that as they make the Holdens especially for Australia, it would be easier for my to buy them directly, as they do not supply them to Europe (how did I get the Commodore then??).

Thanks.

Londoner.

[Nick Short]

Hello Londoner. It looks as though you're going to have to buy direct from Biante or via Aussie shops and auction sites over the web, as I haven't found ANY shops over here that do Biante or any other Aussie models. In fact they haven't even heard of Biante, which makes your find in Hull all the more amazing! There is a small import market for the full-size Holdens and Falcons, so maybe somebody in Hull knows a bit more than the average shopkeeper because of that.

[Graeme]

Dear Londoner,

If you're a true ex-pat, you'd know your VK was a bloody station wagon . We don't recognise this "estate" wank talk !!

Enough of the attempted humour; seriously, what money did you pay for your Concept Monaro ?

I only ask out of curiousity as I figure the exchange rate may well favour purchasing direct from Biante or other Australian sources.

[berkut76]

Hey Guys,
For some reason Holden Concept Coupe of Mustard Color as opposed to its black brother is readily available from normal AutoArt retail outlets around the world. I've seen it on sale in Europe and even my e-mail buddy from Russia got his hands on one. It's even featured on AutoArt main website. The retail price here in the US is between $40 - $45US. Perhaps admin could shed some light on this, but unlike other AutoArts this one comes with COA as typical of other Holdens made EXPRESSLY for Australian market.


Regards,
Sergey

[Londoner]

Hi, thanks for that. Ummm, I thought that my handbook said my VK was a 'station sedan', what ever that means......

Anyway, my 'Mustard Concept Commodeore Coupe' cost me £44, which equates to $124. Not good, but not bad.

Just signed up for a bigger house at the weekend, as my collection is growing much quicker than I had anticipated....
(my excuse anyway).

Are there any 1:18 road car models about of the XR6 + 8?

I love the forthcoming XC Cobra Coupe, and remember this vividly, when I was about 12-13 years old....

Biante is a fantastic range, and it is only a real shame that I have just discovered it's existance, and that they don't/won't sell them over in Europe.

Best Regards!

L.

[Graeme]

Hey there Big L,

I note your query regarding 1:18 scale models of XR6 / XR8.

Given that Biante have done the AU V8 Supercars it's surprising they haven't done related road cars, as they have with the Holden range. Then again, we don't see many Tickford Fords on our roads and the other AU's aren't as popular as the Holden and HSV cars.

If you want to consider 1:43 scale models, then Paradise Garage have done a range of 1990's Holdens and Falcons including the AU XR6 and XR8. Have a look at Gateway Models website for a view of their stock (listed under "Australian Models") and note that you can enlarge the image of each model by clicking on that image.

Regards from Graeme in Perth, W.A.

[Londoner]

Hello again, thanks for that.

I've got 3 'Paradise Garage' models, AU XR6, EB Falcon Futura, VS Commodore, I bought in New Zealand. Whilst they are excellent models, I'd prefer some 1:18's....


I'm surprised about the Falcon not selling, I always thought it looked really good. The 'just about to be released' model looks rather nice too. It is amazing what Ford and Holden manage to achieve on their limited budgets...

I drive an Omega, which is basically the current Commodore with smaller engines. I think it is a 'great looking' car. The HSV Commodores sell here in very small numbers but cost about £50,000, whick is quite a lot of 'moolah really.....

Maybe second hand....someday.

I know a few Falcon XR6's have made their way over here, but have only ever seen 1 for sale (and was too late!!). They were mostly driven around by 'Ford folk' when they were new.....

anyway I digress...This beats working......

Best do some.

Regards!

L.

[bayden]

Londoner. Don't believe everything you read. I can't vouch for W.A. but here in Victoria about every second Falcon seems to be an XR6 or XR8 and because of the state of the used car market you can pick them up for as cheap as $19,000AUD. I for one can't wait for some road going AU's. How about a Venom Red series 1 with full body kit admin?;)

[Graeme]

I know I'm off the original thread now but one last comment for Londoner......

Hard to believe but I remember that around 1990 the poms knocked out a pretty mean pseudo-HSV in the form of a Vauxhall
Carlton with Lotus tweaks and sporting a mean turbocharged (or was it supercharged ?) six cylinder engine.

Know what I mean guv'nor ??? I recall it was something really special and rivalled our Commodore Group A SS of the time.

[Londoner]

Hi Bayden,

I'm obviously not going to get much work done today, but hell it's Monday right???

Agreed, and XR in Venom Red would be excellent!! Looks good in Black too. My Paradise Garage one is White, and while I had 4 white cars in NZ, I certainly wouldn't own a White car in London. This really is a 'dirty town'......

I also put the 25th Anniversary Falcon GT, on the Biante 'wish list', as I always thought that was excellent.

I'd really forgotten how lucky we were in respect of our cars. I always remember Peter Robinson (from Wheels Magazine) saying that the Falcon + Commodore cars really were the best value for money road cars in the world.... They really are.

Regards

L.

[Londoner]

Graeme,

Yes you're right, there was a Lotus Carlton which could reach 180 mph, but they haven't done anything as interesting for several years now....

These cars are increasingly more affordable, but finding one that hasn't been modified or crashed can indeed be difficult.

Also Insurance over here is (to put it bluntly) stupid, and insanely expensive. It therfore means that owning such cars can be too costly. I pay £800 per year for a standard 'small engined' Omega.....

Mind you once a car is 10 years old it qualifies for 'classic' Insurance. It used to cost me more to insure our little Citroen Saxo (which was new), than it did our Silver Shadow II for a year......

I can only imagine what the HSV 'supercharged nutter-b*stard' model would cost to insure over here... Probably about £2500 per year....

[bayden]

Here's a pic of my series 1 AU for you Londoner!

[bayden]

Sorry, pic didn't work.

[Londoner]

bayden

Email it to me directly if you like...

allan.graham@bbc.co.uk....

L.

[Nick Short]

Londoner - the Lotus Carlton is the only thing we Poms have made to rival any Aussie muscle car (3.6 twin turbo, 377 bhp), but there are a few genuine Aussie classics out there. There's a GTS Commodore and XR8 here in Oxford, plus various Landaus, XBs, XAs, a Brock Commodore and apparently heaps of Chargers in various places. I'm still trying to track 'em down! An Aussie car register is in the process of being set up to keep track. The XT-XB Falcons were actually officially sold in the UK through a Ford importer, although numbers were small, but a few must still survive! I've been sent a photo of an XB GT 2 door in orange with black vinyl roof, parked in a street in Glasgow, of all places, but I don't know if it still exists - the photo was taken in the 1970s.

[Londoner]

Hi Nick,

That is interesting, I didn't know that any Aussie Fords were actually imported...

Not surprised that they didn't sell though, as a lot of 'Brits' just don't like big cars.... We have wider roads and more space 'down under' to drive them I guess......

I was aware that the Chrysler Valiant Charger was sold here in the 70's, and have seen one just off the North Circular near Southgate, as I pointed it out to a colleague.

I did see a 'current' Commodore/Calais speed past when I was in Colindale (North London), which looked rather nice.

I knew that Ford had brought in a few Tickford cars a couple of years back and have seen one for sale. I guess I'm not looking at the right publications??


I always thought that the Carlton 3000 GSi was quite a nice motor. A few of those were sold through the Holden Dealer Network in NZ as Opel Omega 3000 GSi's......
Regards

L.

[Nick Short]

Yes, the GSi was like a "baby" Lotus Carlton, with a smooth straight 6 and pretty good-looking too! The Vauxhall Royale/Opel Monza nearly made it to Oz as a Brock Special, but it got canned fairly late in the process.

As for imported Aussies, I found a couple of magazine ads listing the UK model line-up in 1973, which included the XA Fairmont, Futura, 2 door and LTD, plus a 1975 ad listed Fairmont, Fairmont "Estate" (that word again) and GT ! Things weren't exactly buzzing then, but got posotively dormant until recently, when Tickford got involved. As you say, there are some cars coming in, and Autocar magazine ran an article on the EL GT which Tickford had brought over. For Commodores check out www.ukhsv.com who are importing the whole range! Tom Walkinshaw is after all a Brit! A future issue of Australian Muscle Car (Chevron Publishing) may feature Aussie cars in the UK. I hope so!

[Nick Short]

Correction: www.hsvuk.com Sorry!

[Graeme]

I have a story buried in one of my Wheels magazines of the times which indicated that Ford Australia's last foray into UK exports was the 1980 LTD with 5.8 litre (351ci) V8.

I recall that Ford UK wanted something to run against the Jaguar XJ6 and XJ12, but it didn't sell that well. As with the sister Falcon XD which was not sold in the UK, the car looked too much like a pumped up Grenada, yet it was priced above the XJ6.

[Nick Short]

You know something - I would rather have had something like the XD ESP than the Jag, but that was because at the time Jags were heaps of dung and spent more time in the garage than running. Think British Leyland with metallic paint, and you're close - awful quality.....

[Londoner]

Nick, I know what you mean, but admit to having a kind of mis-guided fondness for the 'Leyland Rogues'...

I even owned an SD1 in NZ for a while, and whilst It broke down 4 times in 9 months (gearbox, clutch, brakes, master cylinder, and started to rust...excellent for a 1985 model...), when it was functioning properly, it was fantastic.... I rememer doing 125 MPH accross the Hauraki Plains in my old Rover, and it suffering complete brake failure 2 days later.......

Jag's and Rovers of the 60's and 70's were very special.....

I always had a soft spot for my dad's best mates Blue XA 4.1 Auto
Falcon. I was 9 when they got it, and apart from a dodgy starter motor from new, it never broke down once.....

L.

[Nick Short]

Hmmm, you have got it bad, haven't you?! The SD1 twin plenum Vitesse was a beast of a car, and the standard SD1 Vitesse was pretty cool, especially with the Walkinshaw-designed "big mouth" front spoiler!
There are some exciting Pommy cars around now (Stealth B6, TVR Tuscan R, for example) but most of the ones I like are from the 50s to 80s.......Long nose D Type Jag, XKSS, Chevron B16GT (still made now!), McLaren M6BGT, Lola T70 Mk IIIB, Ford GT40, RS500, MG Metro 6R4, Vauxhall Chevette HSR, Jag XJ220S, XJR15........All very nice cars, and very different from Aussie performance cars. But much as I like them, being a Pom I guess I went for Aussie cars because they weren't familiar, and they had the aura associated with Bathurst, to me one of the best tracks (and races) in the world. Hence the Cobra - it had to happen eventually!

[Nick Short]

I forgot to say - rust in an SD1 is easily explained. Most of the cars were left in a wet field in Oxford for up to 2 years before even being registered as new (!) and my mate's job from time to time was to "refresh" the cars by removing the grass and weeds growing up inside the engine bay, and wiping the algae off the roof.......Rover were still doing that in 1999, when they had a field (the same field!) of cars just after they'd facelifted the model line-up. So, off went a team armed with new headlamps and grilles, interiors etc, and duly brought them up to "new" spec before registration and delivery to their unsuspecting owners.....

Back in the early 80s my dad went to look at a one year old SD1 and when he lifted the bonnet there was rust everywhere! And at one point the number of Rovers coming back from the USA as faulty exceeded the number being shipped there......