A make of
Holden from the 1970s. First manufactured in 1976 by
General Motors Holden, the HX featured the standard combinations engines,
transmitions and bodies that existed for all Holdens from the early seventies until the begining of the eighties.
Like most of the Holdens of the seventees, just about everything on a given model of the car was customizable and interchangable with other models, and various customized cars still drive the streets to this day. It was released as Kingswood SL (standard model), Premier (deluxe version), Monaro (the big V8 sports sedan and coupe), and Sandman (the awesome seventees panel van). Most of the models were available as sedans, utes and wagons.
The standard engine for the HX was the 202, a 3.3 litre straight six cylindar engine with the poorest fuel ecomony of any six cylindar engine ever built by Holden, although what it lacked in ecomony was more than compensated for by reliability and power. It was also available with 303 V8 for people with money and rubber to burn and could be fitted with a 186, a smaller six cylindar engine.
Transmitions ranged from the Tri-matic automatic transmition to three on the tree or four on the floor manuals. There were also kits available to allow owners to fit Toyota Celica five speed transmitions to their cars.
While by modern standards these cars are inefficient dinosaurs that were soon supersceded by the leaner Commodores of the eighties and nineties, they have a style that is almost timeless and many still look good today. Those that don't look so good are generally covered in dents and rust, a testiment to the "she'll be right" attitude of people who own a solidly built car, and they're still on the road and going strong. They tend not to blow much smoke and they just keep running, even if, as I've heard in one case, they are driven for three years without a tune-up or oil change.