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Where it all began.........

Verynice

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awesome vid
 

50LTRv8

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Is that Greg Norman doing the voice over?
 

jakbob

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lol@holden making out like they designed it!!!

You know they did a lot more then just take a european body and slap an Aussie drive train it.
The vb commodore was actually based on the front of the opel senator and the arse end of the opel rekord(I think it was the rekord). They nearly spent as much money redeveloping it as what it would have cost to design a car from scratch. They had to do that because they found the original opel designed car would snap in half at the firewall if driven at speed over australian roads for any length of time. So there!
 

Gse

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The Commodore VB is the same as Opel Commodore C (thirt model) only with diffent engines.

VK-VL use the same chassie as the Senator A1/A2 that was availeble here in Holland in 78.

Exept Holden used thicker steel around the suspension under the bonnet for as far i know and saw during my holiday in Australia 90% of all Monza/Senators/Commodores/Rekords here in Europe have rust around the suspension domes...

I dont have idea of the engines in a Commodore VB but why did Holden not use the European Opel engines??
They are good and quit strong in that time the 3 liter injection was the fastest engine sold by Opel in 78 180hp and 248nm of torque (on the dyno the never got more than 170hp)

I own 2 Opel Monza,s one from 78 and one from 84 and i bought a brake upgrade kit in Australia the 330x28mm brakes and they fit for 100% on my 78 Monza only rear axel is diffent Monza/Senators had IRS and only the Commodore C had a diffent axel and the steering system is diffent than ours.
 

sle10pack

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Holden had to spend time trying to accommodate engines with shorter Opel bonnet - then the longer Senator was available. To enable the engines the Opel steering was replaced by rack and pinion. Front struts were redesigned. Unique front brake callipers’ as well. Dust sealing issues as well. Attached is a picture of the body changes required.

PS - I have owned 3 VB's and have a good 11/78 ready to restore...as I like VB's. I am in the finishing stages of a VB website where I have uploaded / transcribed 20 years of knowledge and literature. When done (next 2 weeks) will let you know.
 
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Calaber

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I dont have idea of the engines in a Commodore VB but why did Holden not use the European Opel engines??
QUOTE]

It was much cheaper for Holden to adapt the Commodore to accept the engines already being manufactured here. In addition, in the late 70's, V8's were still popular and it was considered essential that the Commodore be available with V8 engines.

Generally, the characteristics of Australian and European engines in the late 70's were quite different. Holden engines were reasonably large capacity, low revving and torquey, which suited Australian driving habits. Euro engines tended to be smaller, higher revving and less suited to Australian conditions.
 

sle10pack

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These Eurpoean characteristics werealso witnessed in the JB Camira. An engine that needed to stirred along for decent performance - add lack of oil changes and owners using tap water - these engines self destructed. The nature of these engines verus local driving style was going to clash. Added they initially were too small - ie the final JE had a 2.0 which if available from the outset would have been much better.
 

Gse

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YouTube - Opel Senator / Monza Promo 1979

Here is kind a the same clip of the Senator and Monza when they came for sale here in Holland.(its with Dutch voice)

It a sad thing Holden never took the Monza into production,its a great model.
 
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