Wish list of factory options for the 1970's Sandman.

[wbute]

Full chassis design? They are still current today on most commercial vehicles!
The VL 6 was light years better than any other 6 Holden has ever had.
The Van craze was finished by WB. So perhaps they should have focused on a 4WD WB one tonner.

[Innuendo]

... just imagine that Sandman continued into WB, and that WB was updated into WD or WE or WF or whatever. By mid 1988 only just over 3 years after the end of WB we would have seen an injected 5 litre and 4L60 in a proper Holden.

Thank god that never happened. The UC infected WB was bad enough! Had they released "WD or WE or WF or whatever" that would have tarnished the great '70's machines even further. There wasn't a Holden built after HZ for the next 20 years that had any decent styling and just about no commercials. A VN/VS fronted WB Van or Ute - the mind boggles with the ugliness. '87 -'97 is just an embarrassing time for Holden and the automotive manufacturing industry in general, especially in styling.

[RAEME]

All the performance stuff that was available pre- pollution era.
A big block would have been great, but since we never had them here I reckon a 350, Muncie Rock Crusher, 12 Bolt LSD would have been a cool drivetrain in a Van. Imagine walking into the Holden Dealer and ordering that!

As far as the rest of the van goes, I would have ordered;


GTS guards
Statesman front
Air conditioning (I wouldn't have ordered it then as a teenager, but now I've got it I don't want to live without it)
14x8" front & 14x10" rear mags with BFG T/A50's
Leather Statesman bucket seats
Power windows

That would be something Holden could have built with available parts and would have been a good move, since nearly everyone did most of that after buying one anyway.

I don't think I can say any more then you took my thoughts and put them in writing.

[Big Rob]

Thanks for that.

It's the van I dreamed of owning then, but couldn't afford to build it or buy it. I did have a HK with a 350/Powerglide/10-bolt, & Premier front, GTS guards, dash, console, seats, etc... but I was only 18 and couldn't afford the initial purchase price of a HQ or later. It was pretty tough for a P-plater though and the local cops used to pick on me constantly.

[HK1837]

Full chassis design? They are still current today on most commercial vehicles!
The VL 6 was light years better than any other 6 Holden has ever had.
The Van craze was finished by WB. So perhaps they should have focused on a 4WD WB one tonner.

The Nissan 6 and boxes might have been OK in a VL but would be useless in commercial application, the gearboxes and clutches wouldn't have handled 2700kg of tonner.

[HK1837]

Thank god that never happened. The UC infected WB was bad enough! Had they released "WD or WE or WF or whatever" that would have tarnished the great '70's machines even further. There wasn't a Holden built after HZ for the next 20 years that had any decent styling and just about no commercials. A VN/VS fronted WB Van or Ute - the mind boggles with the ugliness. '87 -'97 is just an embarrassing time for Holden and the automotive manufacturing industry in general, especially in styling.

UC styling was based on WA which was based on what Europe were doing with whatever the VB was based upon, not the other way around.
I agree that a VN fronted W commercial would have been awful but at least they'd have built a commercial between 1985-1991.

[Dr Terry]

What's wrong with the unleaded VL 304 carby V8 ? They had big valves heads as standard & even with their lower compression ratio went harder than a stock VK V8. They had a Rochester & a HEI dissy, it was quite a good package.

The VL RB30-E was typically Japanese, beautifully built & good in early life but they didn't age too well, especially the electronics. I've now closed my workshop where I serviced & repaired 1,000s of VLs, & now I sell parts for them. Distributors (crank sensors), injectors, fuel regulators, idle motors, air flow meters, ECUs, etc. etc. all have a higher failure rate nowadays than their V6 equivalents, but they are good for business.

As Byron has said, they would have been useless in a commercial application, not enough torque.

Dr Terry

[HK1837]

What's wrong with the unleaded VL 304 carby V8 ? They had big valves heads as standard & even with their lower compression ratio went harder than a stock VK V8. They had a Rochester & a HEI dissy, it was quite a good package.

More a comment about their modern day usage rather than what they'd be like in their day. Stuck with cats and the inability to legally modify them too much without making them non-emisssions compliant. Plus the lack of a manual box, although given HDT and HSV fitted a T5 to their VL's I guess we may have seen a WD/WE with a T5 behind the VL's 304. As a standard thing though a ULP, carbied 304 with trimatic would have been a pretty good thing in a W size ute or tonner. I guess the fact the old 202 was due for extinction and they knew the 3.0L Nissan engine would be a dud in a commercial was one of the big reasons the WB finished when it did. Other reasons like low sales etc of course! If you really wanted a 6cyl ute or van you could have bought a Ford.