ALL AUTOCARS

The Ford Transit Connect is a small and boxy European commercial vehicle. It's hugely successful and Ford is bringing it to the U.S. market this summer. For a vehicle that can carry 135 cubic feet of stuff, the base price of $21,475 is very business-friendly. Throw in its 22/25 mpg EPA fuel economy ratings and it makes good economic sense compared to a full-size Ford E-series van. Its little 2.0-liter inline-4 engine mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission isn't very exciting, but it's durable and wallet-conscious.

Originally introduced with the HK range as a two-door hardtop coupe, the Monaro is a name uniquely etched into the psyche of any Australian motoring enthusiast. Finding success at Mount Panorama, and at the sales desks of Holden dealerships around the country, the Monaro was a symbol of everything that was great about Australia. Powerful, individual and jingoistic, the Monaro was the envy of many young car enthusiasts through the 1970’s.

Fans of the Falcon GT and Valiant Charger may have derided the Monaro, but it was because of the competition, both on the race track and at the showroom, that 1970’s Australia offered such a wonderful array of quality performance machinery. They were always highly desirable, and inevitably they became highly collectable. Will the lucky owners of the V2 and VZ Monaro’s appreciate they are merely “breaking in” the collectables of tomorrow. We hope so.

The Monaro is an automobile which was produced by Holden, the Australian branch of General Motors from 1968 to 1977 and then re-introduced onto the Australian and New Zealand markets in 2001. It was discontinued in late 2005. Since 1968, three generations of the Monaro have been produced.

He Holden Camira was a mid-size car produced by Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors (GM) between 1982 and 1989. It was Holden's version of GM's J-body family of cars—GM's third "global" car platform. After an initial good sales run, Camira sales dropped significantly, and was discontinued in 1989. The Holden Apollo, a rebadged Toyota Camry was introduced as the Australian market replacement, with New Zealand instead offering the European-sourced Opel Vectra. In all 151,807 Camiras were built. The original Camira, the JB series, was introduced in 1982 with a major trans-Tasman marketing campaign. The Camira replaced the Sunbird and Torana, although an interim four-cylinder version of the Commodore bridged the two-year production gap.

A station wagon version was introduced the following year, and its bodywork was exported to Vauxhall in the United Kingdom for the Cavalier wagon.[2] Some Camiras were also exported to right-hand drive markets in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and Singapore. The wagon variant was specifically a Holden design, and was actually a major demand Holden had in the overall "J-car" program. A five-door hatchback, based on the Opel Ascona/Vauxhall Cavalier "J-car" was proposed for the Camira, however due to Holden's financial losses at that time it never made production. There was only one engine, the carburettored, naturally-aspirated, transversely-mounted 1.6 litre four-cylinder engine delivering 64 kilowatts (86 hp). The transaxle offering was a four-speed manual on the SL and SL/X, with a five-speed unit specified to SJ and SL/E variants. A three-speed automatic with lockup torque converter was optional on the base model, but standard on the SL/E.

The Camira was Wheels magazine's Car of the Year for 1982. While superior to most other cars of the day in terms of ride and handling, the 1.6 litre Camtech engine was regarded as "underpowered" by much of the motoring media, and the Camira suffered from a litany of quality control issues which included smoking engines in early models, lack of drainage holes in the doors, paint quality and lack of adequate fan cooling resulting in overheating in Camiras fitted with air conditioning. This tarnished the Camira's reputation. Camira first came out as the JB series in August 1982 and promptly received a car of the year award, mainly because the judges loved its Euro-like handling and feel. A world car in the General Motors empire, it was built in Australia but carried a fair bit of imported design. This meant that in some ways it wasn’t totally suited to local conditions, particularly in the outback.

These mid-size Holdens have a good cabin with space for four/five adults if they don’t mind juggling the seats to make space for one another. There’s a large luggage area, with the Camira station wagon being a particularly good load carrier. In November 1984, while it was still flying high on the new-car scene, the Camira received a rather controversial sloped-nose facelift for the JD version. Holden backed off and the shape became more conventional in style with the JE in April 1987. Initially all Camiras were four-door sedans. In April 1983 a spacious five-door station wagon was added to the range. Interestingly, the wagon was an Australian design (the sedan was penned overseas) and all wagon rear ends were built here, even those sold in European markets.

The Holden Torana was a car produced by General Motors–Holden's, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors (GM). The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "to fly". It had its origins in the British Vauxhall Vivas of the mid 1960s. The first Torana appeared in Australia in 1967, and the four-cylinder versions of the Torana became known as the Holden Sunbird in 1976. In 1979, the Torana was phased out, followed by the Sunbird in 1980.

The next generation of Toranas appeared in October 1969 and were available with either a four or six cylinder engine. The inline six had a capacity of 138 in. The six-cylinder cars had a longer wheelbase of four-cylinder models, a more aggressively styled slightly longer nose to accommodate the larger engine, and offered a choice of three and four-speed manual gearbox or a three-speed Trimatic automatic transmission. The Torana was Wheels magazine's Car of the Year for 1969.

Body styles were all new and available in either two or four doors, and were offered in S or SL trim. Bench or bucket front seats were also an option, along with disc front brakes. A more-powerful 161 in³ engine was made available soon after the model's release in the more upmarket SL and in the two-door sports model, the GTR, as a 2600S with a two-barrel Stromberg WW carburettor. Later in production, the 161ci engine was replaced with a larger 173ci version (badged as the '2850') which also made it into the last of the LC GTR cars in two-barrel form.

In 1970 the first genuine performance Torana, the GTR XU-1, was developed by Holden along with Harry Firth of the Holden Dealer Team for competition in popular Series Production racing series in Australia as well as in off-road rallying. However, the main purpose of the Torana GTR XU-1 was to keep Holden competitive against the big and powerful Ford Falcon GT-HO V8s in the Hardie-Ferodo 500 (Bathurst) endurance race that is considered to be the jewel in the crown of Australian motorsport.