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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition , where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot . Today we've got a couple of painfully cool old cars that ChrisLewis shot for us down on the streets of Brisbane, Queensland. We've got a pretty clean post-1969 Citroën DS and a mean-looking 1960 Holden FB wagon, plus ChrisLewis' Ford Fiesta XR4 in the background. Make the jump to see all the photos and read the description. galleryPost('DOTSBEBrisbaneHoldCit', 6, 'Holden And Citroen Down On The Brisbane Street'); Having recently moved north from my home town of Adelaide, South Australia to Brisbane, Queensland, I thought my days of seeing old beaters being used for daily transportation might've been over. Adelaide has a dry climate similar to Murilee's description of Alameda, and a lack of emissions testing or even regular roadworthies meant that I was able to drive around in almost anything I cared to...
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So you're taking the Holden Commodore SV6 out for a 93 MPH drive, you're firing your rifle out the window at passing kangaroos, and you've got five kilos of reefer in the trunk and a couple of pot plants in the back seat. Well, hell, at that point you might as well indulge yourself in a little bout of videotaped onanism, right? Sadly for Brendon Alan Erhardt, 39, the police disapproved of at least some of those activities, but at least they let Mr. Erhardt out on bail so he could marry his girlfriend. Thanks to 57Sweptside for the tip! [Northern Territory News]
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Not content to end up in a punky post-apocalyptic world because of an energy shortage, a la the great Australian film The Road Warrior , the Australian version of AAA is requesting the government implement some sort of average fuel limits similar to our CAFE standards. The NRMA thinks the move could save the country 1.4 billion gallons of fuel a year, as well as drop costs for the consumer. Lacking these standards, the Australians have produced vehicles such as the V8-powered FPV Super Pursuit Ute and HSV Tourer . As an alternative they could just stop driving with Koalas in their grilles . Said the NRMA president, "For too long, Australia's automotive industry has been allowed to play by its own rules, setting paltry voluntary targets and consistently building and importing cars that consume more fuel than their overseas counterparts." That's ridiculous; voluntary standards always work ... [ Drive.com.au ]
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The Australians are fighting the menace of VIN number tampering with new VIN stickers which cannot be removed or altered without being destroyed, making vehicle reconstruction and title washing significantly more challenging. Although we're not sure what's bigger news here, the fact that a cheap $2 AUS decal can markedly deter car thieves, or that the Aussies call VIN tampering "rebirthing." Join us for a collective shudder, and the full afterbirth details after the jump. Although we expect automakers to scream about the new sticker destroying profitability and requiring at least 10 years of development work to implement, we expect the program makes some serious sense. In fact, the numbers we've seen peg the potential savings at $240 million US dollars. Not bad for a cost per-vehicle of just $1.90. Apparently, some automakers have already recognized the writing on the wall. Hyundai is installing the new tamper-resistant stickers on its entire Australian fleet, and...
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We've been receiving DOTS Bonus Edition photos at a rate faster than we can post them at the current pace, so today we're going to have a special Bonus DOTS-O-Rama Sunday, with a series of vehicles captured in the wild by our readers. Today's theme will be Down On The California Street, and the first machine is this Holden ute that Froggmann found in Anaheim. How many California cities can you name that started out as a German utopian colony , had an all-KKK city government , and then became the happiest place on earth ? Just one! Make the jump to see all the photos and read Froggmann's description. galleryPost('DOTSBEAnaheimUte', 9, 'Holdenamino Down On The Anaheim Street'); Last week while driving through my old neighborhood in Anaheim, CA, I saw this parked over in an industrial parking lot. Yes I know it's cheating but given the expiration date of the plate this car has not moved in a while (Expired in 94). It looks factory but I have been having...
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newVideoPlayer("80s_Holden_Wagons_476.flv", 506, 423,""); Only Australians would make an early-80s station wagon advertisement that showed family-haulin' wagons getting sideways and backwards in hoonage sessions culminating in crazy jumps. We see the six- and eight-cylinder-equipped Holden Commodore and the (Cavalier-based) Holden Camira being put through some highly entertaining paces. Our only problem with this ad is the lack of wagons doing jumps with trailers attached.
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newVideoPlayer("70s_Holden_Shaft_476.flv", 463, 387,""); You can bet your life on the early-70s Holden Kingswood 's four coil springs and win with a jet-smooth ride... but will it cop out when there's danger all about? Looks like either Isaac Hayes made a deal with GM Australia or advantage was taken of some sort of copyright loophole. Either way, the Kingswood was the great way to move! Bow that we've had to listen to some outback lounge singer's interpretation of Issac Hayes, we need to flush all memory of that experience from our minds with a dose of the real thing.
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It's not even Australia Day, but we're hearing GM's giving their high-performance team down under a gift of power. Holden's Special Vehicles team announced last night they'll be fitting the US-built LS3 engine across their range of E-Series and WM Grange vehicles. That's the same engine found in the base model of the new Corvette as well as the one found in the Australian-built Pontiac G8 GXP. So that means the new ClubSport R8, GTS, Senator Signature, Maloo R8 and WM Granges will see a power boost from the current 307 kW (412 HP) and 399 lb-ft of torque provided by the ol' and busted 6.0-liter LS2 to 317 kW (425 HP) and 406 lb-ft of torque with GM's new 6.2-liter hotness under the hood. More cost-savings on the high-end across GM's global business? Check. More hooning power? Check. Greater potential for said hooning power to drop in price stateside? One would hope. Full press release after the jump. galleryPost('HSVLS3', 3, 'In Australia...
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newVideoPlayer("Holden_Ute_Evolution_476.flv", 463, 387,""); Given the current QOTD , it seems only right to have an Aussie-themed Bonus Classic Ad Watch today, so here ya go! This ad sort of reminds us of Robert Crumb's History of America , with its small towns evolving into McMansion-filled edge cities and tiny utes morphing into somewhat larger versions. But, by God, the Aussies never stopped making cars with truck beds, while Los Norteamericanos cruelly shunned the once-beloved El Camino and Ranchero.
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Here is where Shakespeare's timeless question gets stretched to it's limit; Does a rose by any other name smell just as sweet? Or adapted: Does KITT, recreated in part by Aussie coppers, bust just as many bad guys? The cool swooshy light show will be roofside instead of in the nose, but it does a lot of the stuff that got our collective 12 year old engines revved. How about starting with the solid base of a Holden Commodore VE, add realtime cameras that stream video back to base, voice recognition, automatic plate recognition, and get this - the ability to fire a GPS enabled tracking dart into a cars' backside. Now doubt hoons everywhere will respond with rotating number plates, hardened trunk lids impervious to darts, and lasers. Also, turbo boost. What? You mean life doesn't imitate art? [ couriermail.com.au ]
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All teenagers think that they're God's gift to motorsports and, unless they're a Foyt or an Andretti, chances are their skills don't quite match up to their aspirations. Take the case of a 19-year old hoon from Victoria, Australia, who apparently took what's left of this VY HSV Clubsport out for a test drive. While the young man became very familiar with the power and handling of the tuned Holden, he never quite got a handle on the brakes. galleryPost('holdenhoon', 6, 'Holden Hoon Test Drive Crash'); According to im4ges.com : "A 19 year old [hoon] took out a VY HSV Clubsport out for a test drive from Bundoora Holden in Victoria. On the drive back to the dealer he gave a little too much gas around the last corner before the Dealership, lost control of the car, mounted the curb and flew 10 metres over the gate into the Front Yard of the dealership!" We're guessing this kid doesn't get a good deal on financing. [ IM4GES via DIGG
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It would seem that although GM product czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz may be the #2 man at GM and the #1 man in our hearts, it appears he may have lost the battle for making a new GM ute a GMC . While we're disappointed we won't be able to continue hearing his excited desire for a " Caballero ," we're excited about news this morning from Automotive News that is quite possibly the most important piece of news we'll see on these pages this year. Here's the scoop -- as we've already reported -- we won't be getting a new Chevy El Camino . However, we will be getting a ute stateside based on the Holden and it'll be branded with the badge all about driving excitement. That's right kids, it'll be a Pontiac -- but not just any Pontiac. It'll be a Pontiac G8. But wait, there's more. We're also told we'll be getting a RWD wagon based on the Commodore -- and it'll also be a Pontiac G8. So basically the G8's going to become...
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Toyota single-handidly bested the combined efforts of Australia-based Holden and Ford in new car sales in October, a first for the Japanese automaker (though we're guessing not a last). Toyota has been the market leader in Australia for the last four years, but the 20,212 vehicles it sold in October just eclipsed the 19,621 vehicles sold by Holden and Ford combined. Even worse for the homeboys, Holden and Ford were part of only 7 out of 42 brands that didn't post sales increases in October. Toyota execs continued to be annoyingly polite, suggesting that their competitors would bounce back when they updated their lineups later that year. Sales of light cars are up 9.2%, but four-wheel-drives are leading the market with a 15% increase year-over-year. The best-selling car is still Holden's Commodore sedan, but Ford's older Falcon was down 22% through October compared to last year. Ford is pinning its hopes on a refreshed Falcon to turn things around next year. [Sydney Morning Herald]
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We're posting this out of raw spite, lust and jealousy. If you lived in Australia , you could walk out your front door, jump on the back of the first passing kangaroo and hop on down to the Special Vehicles wing of your local Holden dealer where the friendly (g'day) salesbloke will sell you a 407 horsepower 'camino. Not angry yet? The automatic transmission is optional and costs extra . Grrrrr! Sure the styling is less Mad Max than Georges Pompidou, but who cares? Sub-5 second factory car/trucks are the very fabric of dreams, 'camino dreams. How did Australia become heaven on earth again? [ via Motor Authority ] galleryPost('hsvmaloo', 4, 'HSV Maloo R8 Ute');
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Make way, youse mugs. It's Holden 's new Sportwagon. It's an Aussie station wagon with kung-fu grip the rear-drive underpinnings of Holden's zeta platform. Following a month of leakage , Holden introduced it this week at the Sydney auto show. The sport-oriented hauler on display was decked out with roof mounted DVD player, Bluetooth capability, multi-function driver information display system and zone-based front and rear park assist systems, which are standard issue on the VE Calais V-Series sedan. There's no word on whether the wagon construct will cross into GM's US line. Of course, Chevy could use another Kingswood station wagon with rear-facing seats, but without Oldsmobile it would be impossible to bring back the Vista Cruiser. galleryPost('holdensportwagon1', 8, 'VE Commodore Sportwagon'); Press Release: Holden's New Sportwagon Puts Excitement Back Into Practicality Sleek new sporty look for popular wagon GM Holden's sleek new VE Commodore Sportwagon made its world debut today at...
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