Author: John Wright, Hardbound, 358 Pages, ISBN: 9781864487442, First Edition, 1998 - **Second-Hand book in good condition**

On 29 November 1948, the first all-Australian car rolled off the line at Fishermens Bend.

All who were there, Prime Minister Chifley included, believed they were witnessing the emergence of an independently strong industrial nation. Holden's 48-215 was everything its backers had hoped for, and supply never really caught up with demand. Its success prompted other manufacturers to set up production in Australia, both for the domestic and export markets, for complete vehicles, engines and other components. From then on, the Holden car stood for far more than four wheels to carry the clan.

There have been 26 models of the family Holden since the 48-215, as well as the smaller Toranas, Geminis, Sunbirds, Camiras, Vectras, Astras, Barinas and endless variations of each. Like the 48-215, all of them were a statement of their age: the Station Sedan bringing all the leisure opportunities of a continent to a mobile family; the EH of 1963, then Australia's fastest selling car, evoking economic confidence on wheels; the HK Kingswood somehow converging power and grace with pure Australian head-of-thehousehold manhood; the Commodore linking our fragmented industry to the global economy.

This superb book tells the story of each, of their significance to the motoring public and to the nation's consciousness, and of the company that brought them to be. In sweeping chapters that span the 1890s to the 1990s, John Wright takes us inside the
company of a proud Adelaide coachbuilder which has grown, with the backing of General Motors, to be the motoring brand which defines Australia like no other.

John Wright MA(Hons) is a motoring journalist of two decades standing, and has written numerous books and pamphlets on Australia's motoring heritage, including short histories of the Ford Falcon, Ford Fairlane, and Peugeot in Australia.

He has raced production cars and competed successfully four times in Targa Tasmania. John Wright is currently associate editor of Motor magazine and a regular contributor to the 'Drive' section in the Sydney Morning Herald. He is also a published poet and short story writer and has taught English at La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Among his current fleet of cars is a 1964 EH Holden 179 manual sedan.