This is a Holden Commodore SL from 1983, although it’s largely known outside of Australia, the Commodore was one of the most common cars on the road Down Under through the 1980s and well into the 1990s.
📌 The Core Development
This is one of the nicest-looking VH Commodores we’ve seen come up for sale in recent memory, it’s been kept wonderfully original throughout, but it now benefits from a respray and new chrome work, moldings, body seals, locks, and window channels.
The VH was the third generation of the Australian Holden Commodore , a car that had actually started life in Europe with an Opel badge on the hood. By 1974, Opel’s concept drawings for General Motors’ new mid-size “world car” had reached Holden at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne. In mid-1975, Holden designers went to Germany to study it. They found that the Holden six and V8 wouldn’t fit under the short nose of the four-cylinder Opel Rekord E.
🔍 Background & Sector Context
Holden strengthened the body significantly before the Commodore went into production, it also kept the Rekord’s live rear axle rather than adopting the Senator’s more advanced independent rear suspension. In Australia, toughness is often preferred over sophistication. Image courtesy of Holden.
The solution was to graft the longer front of the six-cylinder Opel Senator onto the Rekord body, the same combination Opel used for its own Commodore C. Holden also persuaded Opel to swap the planned recirculating-ball steering for rack and pinion, which the V8 needed for clearance.
📊 Industry & Real-World Impact
Australian testing was famously harsh, one early Rekord prototype was scrap by the time just 930 miles (1,500 km) had been completed on the roughest tracks at Holden’s Lang Lang proving ground. Another split in two at the firewall in the Flinders Ranges. Strain gauges recorded loads 300% above anything Opel had tested, and Opel’s engineers at first asked Holden to check their equipment.
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🔮 Strategic Outlook & What Lies Ahead
Holden strengthened the body significantly before it went into production, it also kept the Rekord’s live rear axle rather than adopting the Senator’s more advanced independent rear suspension. In Australia, toughness is often preferred over sophistication.
The first Commodore, the VB, went on sale in October of 1978. The VC Commodore followed in March of 1980 with an egg-crate grille and revised “Blue” engines with new cylinder heads and electronic ignition. From mid-1980 it also offered a 1.9 liter Starfire four, which was essentially just the 2.85 liter six with two cylinders chopped off. Holden built 121,807 VCs, and the Commodore was Australia’s best-selling car in 1980.
