Holden Hurricane returned to glory

Holden, the Australian arm of General Motors famous for its thumping V8-powered super-saloons, has lovingly restored its first-ever concept car from the late 1960s.

Debuting at the 1969 Melbourne Motor Show, the sleek Hurricane concept was a mid-engine, rear-drive, two-seat sports car that embodied a variety of conceptual technologies that were years – decades even – ahead of its time.

The Hurricane featured a digital instrument display, station-seeking radio and automatic temperature control air conditioning. Commodities impressive in their own right, but somewhat overshadowed by the Hurricane's rear-vision camera and turn-by-turn route finder, which relied on magnets embedded in the road that would illuminate arrows on the IP.

"At Holden we have always prided ourselves on our ability to look into the future through our concept cars," said Michael Simcoe, executive director 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."

The Hurricane, codenamed RD 001, stands at less than one meter tall and uses a hydraulically-powered canopy in combination with 'astronaut type' power-elevating and rotating seats to facilitate ingress and egress from the cabin.

The project to restore the RD 001 began in 2006 and has been a genuine labor of love for some very dedicated Holden designers and engineers volunteering thousands of hours of their time.

Paul Clarke, Holden's manager for Creative Hard Modeling, has been largely responsible for managing the restoration. He ensured as many of the original parts as possible have been used or remade using modern techniques to 1969 specification.

By John O'Brien