That’s it. No more car manufacturing in Australia. Following Ford and then Toyota, Holden finished building its last car today, a Commodore SS, at its production facility in South Australia at 10:45am this morning. This was the last-ever vehicle to be produced in Australia. We were all sad to first […]
Australian
Editorial: How the Coalition ended car manufacturing in Australia
Well, here we are at the end of almost a century of car making in Australia, following Ford closing down its local factory in October last year, and Toyota shutting its doors this week, and Holden just around the corner. How did we get here? Our beleaguered automotive industry has […]
For Sale: Gosford Classic Car Museum announces mega auction
A monster collection of classic cars, supercars, and mouth-watering muscle cars will go up for auction later this month at Gosford Classic Car Museum’s first public auction. Supported by Pickles, the massive event will see up to 70 vehicles go under the hammer. And not just any old vehicles. We’re […]
Exclusive: Plans for Australian-built electric cars pushing ahead
Although Toyota and Holden are only two months away from closing their Australian manufacturing operations, one company in South Australia is determined to bring a new Australian electric vehicle to market. PerformanceDrive spoke with Paul van de Loo, the director of South Australian engineering consultancy firm Applidyne and Red Automotive […]
Top 10 fast Aussie sixes – Part One
The V8-powered muscle cars from Ford, Holden and Chrysler will always be regarded as the outright Aussie-made kings of the road in Australia, but there were a number of six-cylinder performance models produced over the decades. Here we take a look at 10 such cars, and a few more which […]
The story of the great Aussie coupe run-out
Australia produced some classic home-grown muscle cars during the late Sixties and early Seventies, which brought American-style two-door coupes to local showrooms. Volume-selling four-door sedans were massaged as designers mimicked the best of styling trends at the time to create unique-to-Australia performance coupes, giving Aussies high-performance motoring with reliability, cheap […]
Australian Federal Budget adds Advanced Manufacturing Growth Fund
As a part of the 2017-2018 Federal Budget, an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Fund has been allocated for the manufacturing sector. This is to ease the pain to the components and manufacturing industries once Holden and Toyota cease local car production later this year. $100 million is set to go towards […]
Top 10 most obscure Aussie-developed Holdens
The countdown is on to a new era for Holden. For the first time in 70 years, the ‘Lion playing basketball’ will no longer come to represent vehicles put together in this country, but cars the company assures us are still for Australia. Over the years, many Holdens have reached […]