1977 HZ Holden

While police in England were searching for the notorious "Yorkshire Ripper", and Aussie kids were watching Rocky and local TV hero Graham Kennedy star in 'Don's Party', at the movies, 1977 saw Holden release the final revision of the HQ series. This was the fourth in the HQ, HJ, HX body style.

The big news with HZ was the introduction of RTS (radial tunned suspension), and four wheel disc brakes. RTS was already fitted to LX Sunbirds and Toranas, with the HZ the first full size car to gain the new suspension - and it made a big difference. Handling was greatly improved, and other manufacturers were forced to look at their own suspension systems to keep up.

Aside from RTS, the new Holdens incorporated minor exterior changes, including a revised grille and higher boot lid. The interior received upgraded trim and improved instrumentation. The Belmont sedan was dropped from the range and the Kingswood SL added. As well as sedan and wagon version of the Kingswood, Kingswood SL and Premier, there was an HZ GTS sports sedan. The light commercial range featured Sandman van and utility variants, both with GTS trim and a 4.2-litre V8 as standard.

New Statesman sedans were announced shortly after the rest of the HZ range, also equipped with RTS and four wheel disc brakes. As the name implied, the RTS system was designed to tune the suspension to the characteristics of radial tyres, which were now fitted to all Holden HZ passenger cars. By relocating control arms and changing castor, camber, spring rates, bushes, shock absorbers and steering components, Holden engineers produced a car with less body roll and better tyre adhesion.

The HZ was available powered by a 3.3-litre six cylinder '202', 4.2-litre V8 '253' or 5-litre V8 '308'. These were matched to three and four speed manual gearboxes and the three-speed Trimatic auto box.

Prices commenced at $6,377 for the six cylinder base Kingswood, while the V8 Sandman van was priced at $6,867.
In all 154,155 HZs were built with production ceasing in 1980.