Holden Restores its Hurricane Concept

[Full Noise]

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.

Yep, they’re at it again, the marketing machine rolls on. The marketing team there could sell ice bergs to Eskimos, and many of the general public fall for it.

They talk about the car being ahead of its time, well to a degree, however, let’s have a think about what was happening in the motoring world back in 1969. Ford had dominated world GT racing with the GT 40, it had already won four Le Mans 24 hrs when this Hurricane concept was released.

The first GT 40 was released in 1963 so they had plenty of time to copy the general idea of the car and do what Holden do best, copy someone else’s idea and say that it’s their own.

I do like the Hurricane, except for the pig ugly rear clip that has no rear wheel arches (did they think that it looked futuristic or something) but in my opinion, the car just smacks of “me too”.

Holden had to jump on the bandwagon at the time and today’s marketing team know how to keep public interest in their products in the news. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is on the 6 oclock news if it’s a slow news day.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

Yep, they’re at it again, the marketing machine rolls on. The marketing team there could sell ice bergs to Eskimos, and many of the general public fall for it.

They talk about the car being ahead of its time, well to a degree, however, let’s have a think about what was happening in the motoring world back in 1969. Ford had dominated world GT racing with the GT 40, it had already won four Le Mans 24 hrs when this Hurricane was released.

The first GT 40 was released in 1963 so they had plenty of time to copy the general idea of the car add do what Holden do best, copy someone else’s idea and say that it’s their own.

I do like the Hurricane, except for the pig ugly rear clip that has no rear wheel arches (did they think that it looked futuristic of something) but in my opinion, the car just smacks of “me too”.

Holden had to jump on the bandwagon at the time and today’s marketing team know how to keep public interest in their products in the news. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is on the 6 oclock news if it’s a slow news day.

Seriously Holden made a car that was well ahead of its time, with a tiny engineering team and budget and it was all done here in Australia - a long, long way from detroit and the main resources of GM.

Its a great accomplishment then and now. Ironically those posting to american blogs give this more credit then you can muster.

If Holden get credit, its because its due. If Holden get it into the press then why not. Its a unique part of Australia's automotive history and we should all be glad it is still around to be enjoyed so many years later. The guys who worked on restoring this car, did a tremendous job and if they get a moment in the sun publicity wise, then good on them. They earn't it for six years of giving up their own time to preserve this piece of our uniquely Australian automotive culture.

I'm sure the staff at Ford engineering are just as excited and pleased to see this car back on the road and getting another moment in the media's spotlight, as you are not. It was a great engineering effort and I am sure they see past the badge to appreciate that.

[aussie muscle]

it says here that the body for the hurricane is not original..

A new, polyester resin body replaces the original epoxy resin body that remains in storage

http://ninemsn.carpoint.com.au/news/...urricane-27287

Originally Posted by DanielXR8

we should all be glad it is still around to be enjoyed so many years later.

i remember seeing a picture of the torana GTR-X concept car sitting forlorn in a back paddock of the holden plant, where it sat for many years before being rescued, so daniel, you're right, we almost lost that one.

[Gothefalcon]

Sure... there are better quality/engineered cars than Comondores & Falcons around... but you have to pay heaps more for them.... and the gap is steadily closing !! The auto industry in this contry needs more than one player to survive because their isn't enough volume from one to keep the aussie suppliers in business otherwise !! There are, and always have been, a lot of really clever and innovative people in aussie industry... and if they get to showcase thier talent from time to time... the world should take notice and we should ALL get behind them !! You might say Holden are resting on their laurels this time around... but I preffer to see this as a dedicated buch of people willing to put their time and efforts into making sure that an important part of our (not just Holden's) Aussie motoring & industrial history is looked after, as they all should be !! Yes the GT40 was around before... Yes it beat the pants of a world sports car dominator, in Ferrari... that was what it was designed to do... (Some of the GT40 versions aren't that pretty either) the Hurricane was designed to show that Aussie manufacturing was not a back water somewhere at the end of the earth... and we can mix it with the rest of the world !! The fact that the car still looks as good today, (&we can all be picky about bits here & there) is a testiment to the team who conceived it !! A lot of concept cars cant even drive at all.... so this one is pretty good, just for that !! We should all be proud of those who achieve... when it helps to further the cause... especially our "arch enemy" !!