Arabic version: سيارة HQ كينغسوود تحمل ذكريات عائلة تروران إلى بيردوود

According to ABC News, Trent Truran and his daughters Eloise and Maya are preparing to take his grandfather’s red 1973 Holden HQ Kingswood to the Bay to Birdwood historical car rally. The journey from Glenelg to Birdwood has become a yearly family ritual, and this will be their fifth time entering the vehicle.

Mr Truran’s grandfather bought the Kingswood in 1975 after it had spent two years as a company car for Phillips Electrical. The car travelled across the Nullarbor and regularly across South Australia to visit his son, who was publican at Morgan in the Riverland for many years. Mr Truran said his grandfather would stop at the Mount Mary Hotel when the car overheated near Mount Mary.

The vehicle’s 186 engine with an HP head is its only non-original part. Mr Truran’s grandfather replaced the original 202 Trimatic in an effort to address the overheating. His grandmother called the car the Red Devil, and it carried her to her 80th and 90th birthday celebrations. Mr Truran said people often wave or share their own Kingswood memories when the family takes it out on dry days.

Almost 500,000 HQ Kingswoods were made at Holden’s Australian factories from 1971 to 1974. Bay to Birdwood director Dane Wilden said original-condition examples were becoming harder to find, although it was not known how many remained registered nationally. He said entries have shifted over time, from cars built in the 1940s and 1950s during the event’s early years to late-1970s and 1980s vehicles that evoke childhood memories for many owners.

The Truran family has also bought a 1975 FJ55 LandCruiser, the same model Mr Truran’s father drove. Mr Truran and his sister Sarah had unsuccessfully tried to locate their father’s original vehicle before buying one offered for sale in Loxton without checking whether it started. If it receives mechanical clearance, the LandCruiser will travel to Birdwood on Sunday behind the HQ.