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By
EWAN KENNEDY
7 November 2011
The
National Museum of Australia in Canberra has proudly unveiled one
of its most prized automotive possessions, the first Holden ever
sold. General Motors Holden has the first car built, this one was
the first to be retailed.
The 48-215 Holden is very close to being original in appearance
and mechanically. Though it didn’t come into the custody of the
Museum until 2004, it’s known that it had a fair bit of
restoration work done by TAFE students, probably in Wangaratta in
the late 1980s. It had been sitting at the back of a panel beating
shop for most of the intervening period. This resulted in a fine
dusting of overspray that took a huge amount of hard work to clean
off.
Paddock bashing is a sad fate that many old cars had to endure.
This Holden had hit something very hard, so hard that the engine
moved forward on its mountings and the suspension was damaged.
However,
the engine and gearbox have been scoped internally and are still
in good running order. The clutch had to be replaced, as did most
of the brake components.
The first mass-produced 48-215 Holden left GMH’s Melbourne
factory on Monday 29th November 1948. So important was the new car
to Australia that Prime Minister Ben Chifley was there to welcome
it. On first sighting it Chifley exclaimed, “It’s a beauty”.
A six-cylinder engine was used as a compromise between British
cars, which were mainly fours, and US models, which usually
offered V8 power. The Holden six, which had its block painted grey,
had a capacity of 132.5 cubic inches and put out 60 bhp, about 45
kW. It was a low stress unit which was flexible, tough and easy to
work on. It was mated to a three-speed manual gearbox with a
column shift.
Australian roads were rough and rugged in 1948 and the Holden
coped with them admirably. You could hammer Holdens down dirt
roads without everything shaking apart and without the suspension
continually.
The
first Holden’s official name of 48-215 was never in popular use,
the car was simply known as ‘the Holden’. The following models
were given the names FJ, FE, FC and so it was later assumed that
the first model must have been an 'F-something'. So the title FX
came into popular use, the 'X' standing for unknown.
Unfortunately, the Holden 48-215 featured here isn’t on
permanent display at the National Museum, but rather will be
brought out from time to time to feature in other displays. Tours
of restoration facility in Mitchell, ACT, where this car and many
other automotive items are stored and maintained are carried out
from time to time. Contact the National Museum of Australia in
Canberra on 02 6208 5000 or through www.nma.gov.au/.
Admission to the museum is free and it’s open from 9am till 5pm
every day except December 25.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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