Geelong All Holden Day (1st Annual)

After a couple of years without a Victorian All Holden Day, it was great to see the Geelong FX-HZ Holden Car Club put their hand up to arrange a replacement and to get this huge event back on the calendar. Whilst Geelong is typically recognised as the birthplace of Ford Australia, it didn’t stop them from getting hundreds and hundreds of Holden’s into town! The Geelong Showgrounds proved to be a fantastic place to hold such a big car display.

It was an early start for us to get down to Geelong. I had the Torana all washed the night before and ready to go, so I groaned when I woke up on Saturday morning to rain and terrible conditions for a car show!! What a waste of time washing the car!! No worries though. Most people met up at my house and we cruised down together in convoy just after 7am (in pouring rain) with my Torana, Deb’s EH, her Dad’s EH wagon, and Jason’s VH Commodore (not forgetting of course DC who followed in Anna’s car). Half way down we were also caught up by Warren’s huge van, towing Brett Smythe’s LX Torana Hatch. He only fell a week or so short of having it registered, after being off the road for a big tidy up for quite some time, so it was great to see it out and about again, looking a million bucks!

I forgot how long the trip was to Geelong, and it was made all the more painful as my needle and seat in the carby had mysteriously decided now was a good time to stick open. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from Ferntree Gully all the way to Geelong, refusing to idle or run under 3000rpm, that was NOT a fun drive!!! At least the rain stopped half way down and as we arrived at the showgrounds we thought it was going to turn into a beautiful sunny day. How wrong we were……

The chamois’ came out in force after setting up the cars in categories according to their models. Out with the tyre black and we were done. Before too long, the first downpour from above – I hid in the car listening to the radio, wishing I wish in a mate’s Torana who was sitting there watching Gone In Sixty Seconds on DVD! The rain stopped again, so out with the chamois again! Then we decided it was time to have a good look around.

With every Holden model covered, from the 48/215 (FX) right up to the latest Monaro’s, you couldn’t ask for much more variety. The overall quality of cars was astounding too. Plenty of stockies and classics, and plenty of hotties! There was also a fairly decent indoor trade display, with plenty of gear available to buy and some cool stuff to look at. We caught up with Dave J at the Shannons tent for a while – before the rain came down YET AGAIN! This time we stayed in the trade display shed out of the weather.

Before long the sun popped back out to say hi, but this time I gave up trying to keep the car clean – instead I spent the rest of the day with a grin watching others chamois their cars down 8 or 9 times. You gotta love it!! It also allowed me to fix the carby up too.

There were some interesting cars on the day that got my attention, including a 4WD mud-racing Torana, a stack of late-model high-tech engine transplants into early models, some impressive turbo setups, plenty of immaculate show cars, a handful of interesting airbrushed cars, a couple of all-out drag cars, an EH with XY Ford tail-lights (don’t get Deb started on this one), and who could forget the ‘Feral’ Ute who was revving the old beast up all day long. Lots of chrome, triple carbed 6’s, huge V8’s, shiny paint, .

Getting towards the end of the day, it was trophy time. We gathered around clinging to umbrella’s trying to stay dry (yep, it had started raining again). Traditionally, the All Holden Day has been well known for unbelievable amounts of trophies covering both original and modified cars for every single model. This year they were cut right back to a single overall winner and runner-up in combined categories. Nonetheless, there were still an incredible amount of trophies up for grabs!! The general feeling was that it would be great to split categories up into original and modified. A big Congratulations to Jason Clemow with his yellow VH Commodore sedan (HYPED) for taking out 2nd Place in the VB-VC-VH category – well done & well earned! Some tough competition there too.

Despite the shocking weather, it really was a great day. I was amazed at such a huge turnout in those conditions, it was a credit to all the owners for getting the cars out, and putting on such an impressive display. It has already been confirmed that they will run it again next year on the same weekend, and I highly recommend you get down for it. Apparently next year they will also be combining it with a swapmeet too which should be good for a look (Andrew is banned from the swapmeet!!).

- Brett Schubert