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With satellite navigation and a rear-view camera, 1969's Holden Hurricane previewed a motoring future we take for granted today.
Original story published in Drive on 1 May, 1997
Holden has built only two concept models – and this one was literally saved from the municipal rubbish tip.
The futuristic Hurricane was designed by Holden’s stylists and engineers in the true tradition of General Motors’ “cars of tomorrow”, ostensibly as a test-bed for the-then new Australian V8 engine.
The deep gold-bronze coupe caused a sensation when it was unveiled in 1969, with the new V8 midships behind the driver and a gorgeous glass-fibre body just over 100 centimetres high. There were no doors, just an electro-hydraulic canopy that rose and slid forward, the two bucket seats rising and falling with it.
It came equipped with a navigation system described then as the “Pathfinder automatic route indicator”, rear vision monitor through on-board camera, and oil-cooled front disc brakes. They have become production reality, along with the Hurricane’s other than-mind-boggling innovations like automatic air conditioning.
The project was called RD001 and was claimed to be safety-based; at the time Holden was building seriously underbraked 350 cubic-inch V8 street-legal Monaros for racing. The PR spin was that it would help apply aerospace techniques and materials to future Holdens.
Well, no journalist ever drove the car, although a few of us did get a proving ground punt in the later Torana XU-1-based GTR-X coupe, of which just two were built. After a few motor shows the Hurricane vanished, to be recovered at the last moment from a council tip site sometime in the 1970s.
In 1991 nine apprentice mechanics at Holden’s Port Melbourne training centre were given the job of restoring the Hurricane with a new five-litre V8, steering, brakes, and electricals. It was repainted metallic silver – but still only a few engineers have ever driven it. Drive, 1 May, 1997
What happened to the Holden Hurricane?
It seems almost inconceivable that a revolutionary concept like the Holden Hurricane was nearly lost for ever to that most Australian of institutions, the council tip. Not once, but twice.
The first time came in the early 1970s when Holden’s then chief engineer, George Roberts, gave the order to have the striking metallic orange wedge cut up and dismantled, an evisceration that would have robbed Australia’s automotive culture of one of the most forward-thinking and visionary concept cars ever made.
Its salvation came at the hands Holden’s then design chief Leo Pruneau, who, having heard of Roberts’ destructive directive ordered the Hurricane to be crated up and hidden in Holden’s design studio, away from the prying eyes of Roberts.
It resurfaced in the mid-1980s, underwent some minor repairs and after a new coat of – now Asteroid Silver – paint, was placed on display at the Holden National Motor Museum in Echuca, Victoria.
Following its stint touring the country (it also formed part of an exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum), the Hurricane once again disappeared into the bowels of Holden HQ, languishing and gathering dust in some forgotten corner.
The Hurricane resurfaced in the early 2000s and once more faced oblivion, this time at the hands of a group of Holden apprentices who were about to send the shining wedge-shaped beacon of Aussie design to the council tip.
Luckily for us, it was given a second stay of execution and in 2006, at the behest of GM’s then global head of design, Ed Welburn, work began on restoring the Hurricane to its former glory.
It wasn’t an easy task, with many of the Hurricane’s original components broken beyond repair or in some cases, missing entirely.
Much of the interior needed to be rebuilt from scratch while the original 4.2-litre V8 had also gone walkabouts. It needed replacing as did the wheel trims, the steering wheel, gauges, the brake fluid reservoirs, and even the pioneering rear-view camera.
The body itself was rebuilt, Holden’s restoration team opting for a more modern polyester-resin fibreglass over the original’s epoxy-resin material.
And the original Hurricane’s metal-flake orange paint was also recreated, sampled from a tiny sample found adhered to a piece of sticky tape attached to an original wind tunnel scale model of the concept car.
The restoration, carried out by a volunteer team of Holden’s designers and engineers who undertook the work after hours and part-time, took over five years, the final result unveiled to the public in Melbourne in 2011.
The Holden Hurricane in all its restored glory, now lives on permanent display at Australia’s National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia, a testament to the vision and ingenuity of a small group of designers and engineers from a far-flung outpost of General Motors. RM
Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.
