The fiberglass body has three sections: canopy, engine hood and body shell. Hurricane was finished in an aluminum flake-based metallic orange paint.
In a stroll down memory lane – 0r is it gasoline alley? – Holden has restored its first concept car – the 1969 Holden Hurricane. In what remains the threadbare hype at use by automakers – then and now – Holden Hurricane was created “to study design trends, propulsion systems and other long-range developments.” Predictably, the Holden Hurricane dominated headlines when it debuted at the 1969 Melbourne Motor Show.
Codenamed RD 001, the Holden Hurricane is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-seat sports car. RD 001 was the first product of the what was then called the GMH Research and Development organization, staffed by engineers working in conjunction with the Advance Styling Group at the Fishermans Bend Technical Center in the 1960s.
Nothing even remotely like it ever saw production in Australia, although – ironically – former GM executive John Z. DeLorean marketed something sort of like it under his own name decades later. Nonetheless, Hurricane has been restored as a labor of love by a group of Holden designers and engineers. The restored Hurricane will be on display at the Motorclassica car show at the Melbourne Royal Exhibition Building from October 21-23.
Some of the Hurricane technology did see industry production – such as electronic digital instrument displays, station-seeking radio, automatic temperature control air conditioning, rear-vision camera and an automated route finder, which was long before GPS. And Hurricane’s V8 engine was actually from the new Holden V8 engine program which entered production in late 1969 – right down to its 4-barrel carburetor.
“At Holden we have always prided ourselves on our ability to look into the future through our concept cars,” said Michael Simcoe executive director of what is now GMIO Design. “It’s amazing to think that the features we take for granted today were born out of creative minds over 40 years ago.”
