Holden Restores its Hurricane Concept

[Wretched]

MEET the Holden Hurricane, a low-slung two-seater equipped with an inbuilt navigation system, reversing camera, electronic instrument displays and climate-control airconditioning.

While that description could fit dozens of sports cars you can buy in 2011, the Hurricane was built more than four decades ago - in 1969.

It holds the honour of being the first concept car ever built by a company that became famous for designing jaw-dropping show-stoppers, including the latter-day Monaro in 2001.

The 1969 Hurricane a Holden concept car fully restored and unveiled today at Holden in Port Melbourne today.19th October 2011.

Codenamed RD001, the Hurricane was the fledgling Holden research and development department's first finished product. It remains one of its most startling efforts not just for the futuristic design, but also the forward-thinking engineered into it.

The navigation system, for example, relied on a series of magnets embedded in intersections along the intended route. When the car rolled over them, a dash-mounted panel informed the driver which way to turn.

A CCTV camera was also mounted on the rear bumper, feeding pictures to a small black-and-white television screen mounted on the centre console.
The 1969 Hurricane a Holden concept car fully restored and unveiled today at Holden in Port Melbourne today.


Following a life that has included time spent in a museum in Echuca, but also a stint at a trade school where apprentices practised their welding on it, a small band of Holden employees began restoring the Hurricane in their spare time in 2006.

Holden unveiled the restored Hurricane yesterday, with its re-emergence only serving to underline the technology that proved to be decades ahead of its time.

Some of its ideas proved a bit too revolutionary, though, such as the canopy that hydraulically lifted above the body in lieu of doors, along with seats and a steering column that could be electrically raised to help occupants climb in or out.


Holden's manager for Creative Hard Modelling, Paul Clarke, was one of the leaders of the restoration and helped to ensure the car was restored using original parts or ones made to the original specification.

''The Hurricane plays a crucial role in Holden's story and the company has such a great sense of history and heritage that it was very important to bring RD001 back to life. It's been a challenging but incredibly rewarding process,'' he said.

The Hurricane will be displayed this weekend at the Motorclassica event at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/th...#ixzz1bGEwLdi0

http://www.theage.com.au/national/th...019-1m86v.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iezc14zdYCM

Very cool. I do like some of the "technology" in it, even for 1969.
The next one they need to do is the Torana GTR-X.

[mik]

i wonder how much GT 40/corvette influenced the design? a nice effort anyway.

[aussie muscle]

built by a company that became famous for designing jaw-dropping show-stoppers

Holden? really?

good to see the hurricane has been restored to original spec (it was done in the late 80s in silver, complete with 80s style wheel covers)

compare it to what toyota's show car that year

[Angeldust]

didnt even know that this existed.

[Bossxr8]

I'm thinking the rear vision camera would be as big as a small suitcase, and the small black and white monitor was really a 30cm TV as big as an average cardboard box, as was the technology at the time.

The engineers would have been thinking, how do we get vision from the rear view camera, when one would have said "just stick a small TV in the dash".

[AMGC63]

Holden must have some surplus Govt funds they need to get rid of this financial year....

[bobthebilda]

What a stupid article, everytime they build a VE, they are creating cars from the past. Designed in 2003, first built 2006.

[smciner1]

Good to see they restored this part of their Heritage.

[2011G6E]

About time...what an amazing car that thing was, and still is!

This thing was only a concept car...however the GTR-X revealed at the same time was a fully production ready car, using off-the-shelf GTR-XU1 running gear, and if it the bean counters had let it be produced, it would have changed the face of Australian cars forever. Look it up as well!
http://www.canberratoranaclub.com/history/gtrx.htm

[Gothefalcon]

Originally Posted by smciner1

Originally Posted by MRJUCY
Simple give the car a rev & have a listen a Windsor makes a sort of wheezy drone similar to an angry Hugh Grant when a Clevo will sound like Satan has woke up with a hangover & realized he is out of coffee & cigarettes

Hmmm.... this depends on which windsor you are reffering too... The later EFI versions of the Windsor all have a Clevo firing order.... so will sound like a Clevo!

[Sprint]

Thats funny cause the holdens i know are broke as5 punks.

[XRtowcar]

Think it was a cool effort.
Wish they could of made and sold a handful.

[XESP351]

Originally Posted by Wretched

The navigation system, for example, relied on a series of magnets embedded in intersections along the intended route. When the car rolled over them, a dash-mounted panel informed the driver which way to turn..

So have I got this right? The intended route must have those magnets put in intersections before the trip is made?

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

This thing was only a concept car...however the GTR-X revealed at the same time was a fully production ready car, using off-the-shelf GTR-XU1 running gear, and if it the bean counters had let it be produced, it would have changed the face of Australian cars forever. Look it up as well!
http://www.canberratoranaclub.com/history/gtrx.htm

i don't believe holden ever really intended or expected the gtr-x to go into production. i think it was just media hype (something that holden are good at) and wishful thinkers.

i've got one of holden's GTR-X original brochures.

[Pub247]

Originally Posted by XESP351

So have I got this right? The intended route must have those magnets put in intersections before the trip is made?

You do realise it was 1969 and gps wasnt even inventing/set up then. FFS they only just made it to the moon that year.

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

Holden? really?

I'm not sure if you're serious or not but when i look at this i think their concept are pretty damn good. I think the hurricane and the torana concepts are good effort too

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by XESP351

So have I got this right? The intended route must have those magnets put in intersections before the trip is made?

had to work with what they had available.
Similar to that of GPS, it required someone to launch a few satellites into orbit before it could be used to map out the trip.

[davenl5l]

another holden concept that never got built 40 yers and nothing has changed

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by davenl5l

another holden concept that never got built 40 yers and nothing has changed

You do realise that concept cars are not there to be put into production?
Concept cars are there to showcase the company's new technology and or future design. Companies use them to gauge customer reaction to any new or extreme designs that will influence future products.

Tell me how many concepts have been put into production by any company?
Some have, but many haven't. That isn't the point of the concept car.

[davenl5l]

yes but they could stop pretending that they might build them

[FGXR6TUTE]

How many concept cars have Ford Aust. made?

[barra240t]

Originally Posted by davenl5l

another holden concept that never got built 40 yers and nothing has changed

Didn't Holden build the Monaro coupe from a concept in 1998?

[trippytaka]

This is an example of the reason why Holden continues to dominate the Australian media coverage.

This was such a simple exercise for them, but the amount of return on investment was MASSIVE. All major online papers, motoring, plus motoring print, and even internatioal online coverage.

It's not that hard to capture the hearts and minds of consumers when you have people pushing your brand and linking it to the past all the time.

My hat goes off to them for, yeat another, perfectly staged marketing exercise.

[XESP351]

Originally Posted by Pub247

You do realise it was 1969 and gps wasnt even inventing/set up then. FFS they only just made it to the moon that year.

Yeh I'm pretty sure I knew all that.

What I was getting at was, who was gonna put those magnets on intersections, it wasn't going to be Holden, so were they going to convince the government to that for them?

[XESP351]

Originally Posted by Wretched

had to work with what they had available.
Similar to that of GPS, it required someone to launch a few satellites into orbit before it could be used to map out the trip.

Yes but was GPS available in cars before satellites were available? That's pretty much what Holden did with the 'Navigation' in that car.

Anyway, not knocking them, good on them for trying something different and looking outside the square. They still do that to this day.

[barra240t]

Originally Posted by FGXR6TUTE

How many concept cars have Ford Aust. made?

Ford's last production concept was the R7 in 2002, which became the Territory I think.

[Gothefalcon]

Originally Posted by FGXR6TUTE

How many concept cars have Ford Aust. made?

They also made the AU twin cab (with rear suicide doors) concept ute... which holden then put into production !!??? (with normal rear doors)

[Gothefalcon]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

What a stupid article, everytime they build a VE, they are creating cars from the past. Designed in 2003, first built 2006.

Well... this is normal for all car companies.... By the time the next new model is released.... they are already hard at work on the next ! It does take 2 - 5 years to develop a facelift/all new model !

[351capri]

Originally Posted by trippytaka

This is an example of the reason why Holden continues to dominate the Australian media coverage.

This was such a simple exercise for them, but the amount of return on investment was MASSIVE. All major online papers, motoring, plus motoring print, and even internatioal online coverage.

It's not that hard to capture the hearts and minds of consumers when you have people pushing your brand and linking it to the past all the time.

My hat goes off to them for, yeat another, perfectly staged marketing exercise.

My first thoughts exactly. Fords marketing should take note. All i seem to read about in the paper are articles promoting holden as being the greatest thing since sliced bread. ( even to the point of comparisons to other marques which are obviously better equipped, or more economical , or more powerfull, which the holden product somehow manages to win.) ford on the other hand are only in the please help/ advice columns for poor service or breakdown complaints!!

[Gothefalcon]

Originally Posted by Wretched

You do realise that concept cars are not there to be put into production?
Concept cars are there to showcase the company's new technology and or future design. Companies use them to gauge customer reaction to any new or extreme designs that will influence future products.

Tell me how many concepts have been put into production by any company?
Some have, but many haven't. That isn't the point of the concept car.

Absolutely right !! Concept cars are there to showcase possible design direction and ground breaking new technologies ! Only certain elements of these then filter down into mainstream models ! The reverse camera on this concept may have been twice the size of todays fixed speed cameras... but look what forward thinking it was !! Nearly half the cars produced have them standard now... and a navigation system shown on a screen in the car??
In the 60's & 70's.. the average "Joe" would have looked at that and thought "WOW!! I bet that will never happen!!" and yet... they're a dime a dozen now!! It even had a steering column that moved up and down... Ok.. to allow you to get in and out, in this case... but most cars today use similar technology for the adjustable column !!
Concept cars are supposed to be about pushing the boundaries... plenty of concept car ideas have disapeard, once shown... only to resurface many years later when more modern technology allows them to be made (like sat-nav)... or allows them to be produced affordably !
The Holden engineers on this project showed they were real forward thinkers of their time, and should be aplauded for it !! It showcased to the world that Australia is an inovative country which, given the opportunity, can design and develop new and exciting cars (and anything else we want)!
I'm a blue oval boy, through and through.... but I'm an Aussie first... and I think we should all be proud of these sorts of achievements! I say "well done" to the team which created this car initially... and to the latest team who restored it back to it's former glory !! This is a significant part of Aussie motoring history... and it should be looked after for all the years to come ! Well done Holden !

[Gothefalcon]

Originally Posted by 351capri

My first thoughts exactly. Fords marketing should take note. All i seem to read about in the paper are articles promoting holden as being the greatest thing since sliced bread. ( even to the point of comparisons to other marques which are obviously better equipped, or more economical , or more powerfull, which the holden product somehow manages to win.) ford on the other hand are only in the please help/ advice columns for poor service or breakdown complaints!!

The Ford Marketing department (globally) was once renowned as being the best marketing & advertising company in the business !! Sadly... it looks as though the bean counters at Ford have slowly stripped away their budgets, over time.... Now... you're lucky to see a Ford ad... and when you do... it's about as exciting or interesting as finding a stone on your driveway!!
Sadly... it seems the only "Buzz" that Ford want to create these days... is the sound of their electric chair... when they get put out of it's misery !!