Southern Tablelands Heritage Automotive Restorers Club Inc.

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10^th Anniversary Dinner July 2011	Car of the Month

Malcolm and Raelene Stewart’s 1977 Statesman De Ville

Photos by Steve Cole.

1977 Statesman De Ville

The Statesman was an important vehicle for Holden. Since the mid-sixties Ford had dominated the larger saloon market with the Fairlane. Holden fought back with a crudely designed Brougham based on the premier but the car lacked the long wheel base of the Ford.

Ford’s advantage was that Falcon and Fairlane were based on existing American platforms. With the development of the HQ Holden meant a long wheel base wagon and a platform for the new Statesman. This series left the sixties behind and ushered in one the strongest periods in Holden’s history.

The Statesman was not badged or marketed as Holden. I struggle to find any reference to Holden on my car. This was an attempt to create exclusivity similar to Lexus but nobody was fooled in part because they were only sold at Holden dealerships and because they looked suspiciously like any other Holden!

Nonetheless they met their task of providing real competition for the Fairlane and I think, sadly for Australia, have now outlived the Fairlane. A good part of the reason for Stateman’s survival has been the achievement of export volumes to the middle east, China and now the USA with the release of the car as a “Police Special”. The US police car market is nearly as big as our whole market. US cops want rear wheel drive and a cabin that can take a divider between front and back. The statesman is the only realistic car in the GM stable that meets this specification.

My Statesman is an HX which is the third incarnation of the series. The series was HQ 1972, HJ 1974, HX 1976, HZ 1977 and finally WB from 1980 which ran to 1984. Holden stretched this platform for an incredible 15 years and my WB is pretty well identical in spec to the HQ with the majority of important parts interchangeable.

The HQ Statesman offered the 202 six, the 308 V8 and the 350 V8. The smaller 253 V8 was never offered but typical of Holden a few do exist. The Chev 350 was dropped in the HJ leaving the 308 with the six version also abandoned as the oil crisis was forgotten.

By the time my HZ was made the issue of emissions has raised its head and my car’s 308 V8 puts out 216 BHP down from the 240 of all previous 308s including my Brougham. By the time the “black” series of this engine was produced power was down to under 145 BHP but with fuel injection and computer management Holden got it back to about 240 BHP when it was re-incarnated in the VN.

My Statesman is a local car and I bought it off the original owner, the Cadona family who own Fyshwick Building Supplies. The car is very original right down the hubcaps. John Cadona lives next door and he knew I had an interest in that generation of Holdens. He told me he had his Dad’s old Statesman and would I like it. The price seemed reasonable for a car of this age and I thought I could make it another hobby. So expecting a well worn 30 year old I went to see the car I had already committed to buy. I was amazed to find a car that could have come off the showroom floor yesterday. It has less than 150,000 kms and the paint and trim are perfect.

About the only problem I could foresee was that there nothing to do on the car!

The statesman falls into that category of historic vehicles where people are surprised to see it carrying historic plates. “Is it really that old?’ they ask.

The truth is yes but the reality is so are we.

Article by Malcolm Stewart

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