Holden HQ Statesman

Introduction

In the early 1970s the big three Australian auto manufacturers were offering a luxury ride for the up-and-coming Aussie executive. These were prestigious vehicles, to our mind every bit as good as the foreign competition - even if they didn't have the brand cache that the Europeans enjoyed.

With the success of Ford's Fairlane, Holden were a little late to the party with their Brougham. Brilliant as it was, and now incredibly collectable and a real gem for the car collector as they are incredibly rare - at the time the Brougham was not quite up to the Fairlane's standard, and had copped a bit of flack from the motoring press. Holden decided to start again with the HQ series. Same formula of course - long wheelbase and oodles of prestige goodies. But now the General was serious - and the new "Statesman" represented the best on offer.

Ford Led The Way

This was a market area pioneered and developed by Ford's Fairlane. Ford laid down the guidelines for this size of vehicle, and both Holden and Chrysler followed the formula exactly. From an engineering standpoint this meant utilising the regular family sedan {Holden, Falcon and Valiant), on an extended wheelbase without major changes to the engineering specifications including engine, transmission, suspension, brakes and steering. The end product was known in the industry as a long wheelbase regular sedan and the specifications of the products from the three manufacturers were very similar.

The only real variation between the Big Three could be seen from their different marketing approaches - which largely showed up in sheet metal, interiors and to a disappointingly minor degree, engineering techniques. Fairlane had always been the pacemaker, and therefore it provided the great enigma in the crucial area of product engineering. The car was originally conceived as a highly individual prestige sedan quite different in appearance from the Falcon it grew from and aimed at presenting a completely separate "big car" image to sell on showroom floors as an executive status symbol.

Strangely, the 1972 ZF Fairlane took a dramatic about-face, with an exterior presentation that made it difficult to pick from its smaller brother the Falcon and an interior that was virtually identical. Chrysler's entrant in this market sector, known simply as the "Chrysler" or "Chrysler by Chrysler", initiated this approach when it was released in November 1971. GM, whether by design or imitation, elected to follow the original Fairlane approach and, for 1972 and their HQ Statesman, made the only distinctive long wheelbase sedan in terms of exterior appearance. This gave the General an edge over Ford at the showroom floor level, but GM still faced a mammoth task to completely over-take Ford's domination of the market.

On The Showroom Floor

While we usually refer to the HQ Statesman being a 1972 model, it actually hit the showrooms in July 1971 - and it made an instant impact. The Statesman was an overnight best seller (for the market segment) - and it's success in September and October were boosted by the new model impetus and dealer registrations. Given the Statesmans competition were almost dollar-for-dollar and specification-for-specification - the Holden got an early lead most likely due to its good looks. There were cheaper variations of the Statesman too, which Chrysler, for example, did not offer. It was impossible to buy a "Chrysler by Chrysler" in a stripped down version. The Chrysler's big selling point was that you didn't have to option it up to get a luxury car. All the goodies were already there - including a 360 CID engine.

It was easy enough to option the Statesman, or for that matter the Fairlane, up to the Chrysler levels - but given there were cheaper variants available explains in part why both Statesman and Fairlane enjoyed more sales success. If you optioned the Statesman up to Chrysler specifications there was very little difference in the price of cars - although if you research the options lists of Holden and Ford, to create an identically specified car to the Chrysler made both more expensive - particularly the Holden. We doubt, however, that many buyers went through the option list with a fine-tooth-comb to figure out the Chrysler was actually offering more for less.

Behind the Wheel

Behind the wheel the Statesman had the wood over the Ford and Chrysler competition. It had a short bonnet and its extremities could be picked easily. Drivers of various heights had only marginally different fields of vision. Unfortunately looking out the back was not quite so good, the rear extremities being poorly defined. The Statesman did afford a deep glass area and more angular body lines which, while not making it perfect, made it a lot better than its rivals. The Statesman had large rear three-quarter panels (C pillars) which cut vision for lane-changing and turning manoeuvres. The high seating position and generous glasswork in other areas overcame this to some extent.

The 308 and 350 Statesman

While optioning a V8 added to the cost of the Statesman, there was no denying these were popular option boxes that were ticked. The 350 CID in particular offered bags of torque - and both V8's were quiet and smooth and afforded reasonable fuel economy given their cubic capacities and the weight of vehicle they had to haul. The GM engines were locally manufactured and drove integrated air conditioning units without apparent loss of performance. The V8's were mated to a three-speed Trimatic which was used in the rest of the HQ range and was manufactured locally. It was a reasonably responsive gearbox, to the extent that the lever never needed to be employed for manual shifting even for cornering. A quick jab and the carburettor would send the transmission instantly into the gear you wanted for optimum performance. And it took a lot of punishment too - if the Trimatic in our Dad's HQ Premier tow-vehicle was anything to go by.

Being this responsive did make the big Statesman a little less smooth than overseas and local competition - but this was only evident when heavy throttle applications were used. Otherwise it was a delightfully smooth, rapid and quiet transmission system. The transmission selector on the Statesman was mounted on the floor being a T-bar floorshifter in the central console. There was plenty of fake wood trim to make the cabin feel a little more luxurious too.

To challenge the European competition, the locally manufactured product needed to have a well sorted suspension setup. It had to be supple with plenty of cushioning power for a good ride, and advanced engineering to completely isolate road noise. GM had this covered, in part by using a separate front chassis frame, and also by setting up the rear axle location properly and ditching the use of a leaf spring "live" rear axle setup - something neither the Fairlane or Chrysler could boast. That made the Statesman, given its extra length and bulk, a remarkably well mannered car - difficult to induce pitch or bounce and far less choppy than any previoys Holden had been.

On the Inside

There was no denying that the Statesman was built for a combination of ride and handling at an advanced level. It was very quiet on the road as it was equipped with Dunlop SP Sport Radials. The steering was light and easy too, thanks to the Bendix variable ratio power with 2.6 turns lock to lock. Some said it could be operated with one finger, which while not a recommended driving style, at least your finger would be well insulated from kickback because the Statesman almost had none. A pretty good effort by the General. Stopping power was provided by power-assisted discs which were fitted as standard. These were not prone to fade under extreme conditions and provided very little trouble for owners over the years - they too were a great setup - capable of providing braking even when the Statesman had a caravan or boat hitched behind.

Like the HQ sedans, the Statesman had the handbrake located beside the driver's seat. Much of the switch-gear inside the cabin was carried over from the HQ Holden models as well - but these were very well built and to have created new designs, tooling and manufacture really would have pushed the cost of the car too high for very little if any improvement. It did mean, of course, that some idiot down at the pub could claim the Statesman was just a stretched Kingswood - true on some levels, very un-true on others. Such as the seats, for example. While not world-beating, they were compliant and designed to take a wide range of different body shapes and sizes. In a country such as Australia where the one-size-fits-all mantra did not go down so well, these comfy buckets were nigh on perfect.

Seat belts were a thing back in the early 1970s - primitive and, by today's standards, very much an after-thought add on. The Statesman employed a type of inertia-reel seat belt system which was far more advanced than normal static seat belt systems that were the norm at the time. In all, very few short-cuts were made in the manufacture of the Statesman, even if plenty of parts were carried over from the standard HQ range. The well sorted suspension, in particular, put it ahead of the competition. And there is no denying that, in the looks department, the HQ Statesman was a winner.