Holden revives Hurricane

Radical concept car from the 1960s has been restored to former glory

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Holden MD Mike Devereux will unveil the Holden Hurricane concept car to the press this morning at the manufacturer's Port Melbourne facility.

The 1969 design study has been three years in the workshop undergoing restoration and will appear at the RACV Motorclassica this weekend. Developed to showcase Holden's advanced styling and engineering expertise — plus the then new 4.2-litre local V8 — the Hurricane with its Can-Am styling left show-goers gobsmacked when it made its first appearance at the Melbourne Motor Show in March of 1969.

Aussies were still coming to grips with Holden offering disc brakes, the Powerglide automatic transmission and a Chev-sourced V8 in local production cars, let alone a locally-developed V8. So the Hurricane, with its mid/rear-mounted engine, driving through a Pontiac transaxle to a C2 Corvette suspension system was like an amazing preview of the cars we would all be driving in the 21st Century — over 30 years in the future at that time.

See more pics of the making of the Holden Hurricane on motoring.com.au

Much of the Hurricane was hand-fabricated (bodywork, steel spaceframe and front suspension, as examples) and Holden's designers and engineers often implemented novel solutions for the tightly packaged concept car — including the remote location of the cam drive for the engine plus the oil-cooled front disc brakes.

Hurricane's history, after the hullabaloo of the original national motorshow tour, has been chequered. It was rotated through different Holden dealerships until the windscreen was damaged and was then repainted during the 1980s in Asteroid Silver, before finishing up at the Holden National Museum in Echuca.

The bods who restored the Hurricane had to create new arms to lift the canopy for access to the car's cockpit. Apparently the originals had gone walkies some years ago, exchanged for beer to lubricate the creative processes in Holden's engineering department. A new, polyester resin body replaces the original epoxy resin body that remains in storage. Durability and longevity is improved by using the new construction material. Holden was fortunate to have a sample of the original orange metal flake paint — not a standard colour in the GM palette — under a piece of tape applied to a scale model of the car used for aerodynamic testing. From this sample, the company was able to reproduce the original colour and reapply it to the car.

Holden followed up the Hurricane, clearly not a car intended for production, with the Torana GTR-X, a concept much closer to production reality. Nothing further came of either vehicle though.

As reports have it, the restoration of the Hurricane has the complete backing of GM's global head of design, Ed Welburn. Welburn is a concept car tragic, but is also an admirer of the work Holden has done in other areas — including the last Monaro, which was exported to the US as the Pontiac GTO. His respect for Holden's design and engineering efforts has led to the local arm being one of just three design teams in the GM world tasked with developing concept cars.

The general public will be able to gaze upon the Hurricane at Motorclassica from this Friday at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building located at Nicholson Street Carlton. Admission is $30 for adults and $20 for kids, with the classic car show running for three days and opening from 9am.

See more pics of the making of the Holden Hurricane on motoring.com.au