Chronicles: 1974 Year In Review

The tail lights were no longer in the bumper, but was that enough reason to trade in a HQ?

Holden recognised a niche market with the outdoor surfing culture of young Australians, and responded by converting their "Tradesman's Van" into a high performance and highly desirable Sandman "Shaggin Wagon" in 1974...

Fit a Wankel Rotary Engine to a HJ Premier body and what have you got? The Top-Of-The-Line Mazda "Roadpacer"...

The 1974 Ford Gran Torino, still thought of fondly today by those that remember the show "Starsky & Hutch"...

Arguably the ugliest car of the decade, the Vanden Plas Princess 1500...

The premise for Peter Weirs 1974 film "The Cars that Ate Paris" was a good one, pity the movie was such a dog...

In April 1974, Michael O'Brien introduced the world to 'Streaking', a phenomenon that had, until then, been the domain of US College Campuses...

The facelifted HJ Holden was an improved and updated version of the long running and very successful HQ Holden. It was distinguished by different grilles, wraparound front and rear lights, larger bumper bars and slight revisions to the front-end sheet metal. Interior changes included full-foam seats, a new instrument panel, a revised ventilation system and upgraded equipment levels.

The biggest-selling variant, the Kingswood, now boaster a larger capacity engine and power-assisted disc brakes as standard equipment. The Kingswood "Deluxe" package included the most commonly specified options while keeping the total price under $5000.

Later in the year, the HJ version of the Statesman was announced. The De Ville became the base Statesman, and an even more upmarket “Caprice” version was announced. This boasted more luxury equipment that any car GMH had previously produced.

Sandman versions of the panel van and utility were strongly marketed to increase Holden's presence in the fast expanding recreational market (a small number of HQ Sandmans had been built earlier in 1974 but the variant was not produced in large volumes until the HJ series).

On the engine front, the HJ was the first model line-up since the HK not to offer the '350' V8 as a option. In an interesting move, HJ Premier bodyshells were exported to Mazda in Japan where they were fitted with 13B Wankel rotary engines. This hybrid became Mazda's top-of-the-line domestic model, known as the “Roadpacer”.

1974 saw the release Peter Weir's new film "The Cars That Ate Paris". Set in a fictional small Australian town of Paris, the townsfolk deliberately caused car accidents, then sold or salvaged all the valuables from the wrecks as a means of sustaining their local economy. If you have not seen the film, we suggest you don't bother - not everything old is golden...

The car that was undoubtedly the star of that year was the 1974 Ford Torino, made popular in the Starsky & Hutch TV show. A recent survey of the USA's favourite cars from TV shows had this ranked at number 6, although the 2003 film re-make may have reminded many of the cars existence.

The divide between Australian and British carmakers became very evident when you compared the youthful HQ Sandman to the Vanden Plas Princess 1500. The latter was a strange brew, obviously very Austin (Allegro) but with typical Vanden Plas touches such as leather and wood interior, picnic tables et al.

But the nose treatment was, to be kind, bizarre. The Princess never went on sale in Australia, and we are not sure how many were to be sold in the UK, but think this could well be a very collectable car in years to come, if only for its sheer quirkiness.

In other motoring news, John Goss and Kevin Bartlett took out the 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst in a Falcon; Emerson Fittipaldi's fourth place in the US Grand Prix was enough to clinch him the World Drivers Championship; The Toyota Corona station wagon was released at the Melbourne Motor Show; New Zealand's World Formula One Champion Dennis Hulme, 38, announced his retirement from motor racing. the ailing Leyland Australia company appeals for government aid after its market share drops to 4.8 per cent.

In England, and armed man confronted Princess Ann in an attempted kidnap and extortion plot. 26 year old Ian Ball, later diagnosed to have mental health problems, was certainly not the smartest bloke on the block, and even admitted to police his attempt was "not bloody likely to work".

Ball had asked the Princess Royal to "come with me for a day or two" because he wanted £2m. Papers released under the 30-year rule show the spirited Princess told him "not bloody likely, and I haven't got £2m". Unfortunately 4 people were injured in the incident.

"Streaking" was to become a popular activity in 1974, and even the Academy Awards were not immune from the "craze" when 33 year old Robert Opal dashed across the stage where David Niven and several other celebrities were seated. "Just think," Niven remarked, "probably the only laugh that man will ever get is for stripping and showing his shortcomings." But it was in the UK where Australian Michael O'Brien would take streaking up a notch by running naked at the England vs. France Rugby match at Twickenham in front of 53,000 fans.

Grundy Productions launched its first drama series "Class Of ‘74", a five-night-a-week school drama produced for Channel 7. It became the "Class Of ‘75" the following year before being axed by the network. Most 70's teenagers would still remember the very catchy theme for the show, written and performed by Brian Cadd. Cadd would go on to create the theme for the Alvin Purple movies, and even Johnny Farnham's "Don't You Know It's Magic".

The Box, a new nightly series set to create the same controversy as Number 96, premiered on the 0/10 Network. It would finish the year as the second most popular program on Australian TV - behind Number 96. November: Countdown, with "Molly" Meldrum starts a 12-year run on ABC.

Formula One Championship: Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil) / McLaren-Ford

1974 Bathurst Winner: John Goss & Kevin Bartlett / XB Falcon GT

NRL Grand Final: Eastern Suburbs (19) def. Cantebury (4)

VFL/AFL Grand Final: Richmond (18.20.128) def. North Melbourne (13.9.87)

Melbourne Cup: Think Big (H. White)

Wimbledon Women: Chris Evert d. O. Morozova (6-0 6-4)

Wimbledon Men: Jimmy Connors d. K. Rosewall (6-1 6-1 6-4)

The Movies:

Gold Logie: Graham Kennedy (The Graham Kennedy Show, Nine) and Pat McDonald (Number 96, 0-10)

The Charts: