Holden Turbo Red engines, and more.
Holden and Garrett’s involvement in the period 1976 to 1984
By David Inall, Ex-Manager, Gasoline Automotive Turbocharger Applications, Normalair-Garrett.
Background
Having been made aware of and subsequently read Warwick’s entertaining outline of Garrett’s and my involvement with GMH in the 70’s and 80’s, I thought it might be of interest to some members of the Club to fill in a few details of which Warwick would not have been aware.
You can read Warwick's story by clicking here.
Acknowledgements
Even though two of the three would be unknown to Club members, I feel it only appropriate to acknowledge three men who had enormous influence on my career and the product I was subsequently responsible for creating.
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- Ken Drew Managing Director of Normalair-Garrett for my entire tenure at the Corporation. This company, based in Airport West, was 51% owned by Westland Helicopters and 49% owned by the Garrett Corporation. This % becomes an important element at the end of the story, so please stay with me.
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- Glen Holzhausen Manager of International Engineering at Garrett Corp Los Angeles.
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- Fred James What can I say about the man who many others here would know far better than me? I still remember his stories of Tank Development at Vauxhall during the War with somewhere between awe and disbelief. It is a total honour to be able to say I employed him after he had retired from GM, was bored and did me the huge favour of project managing the high point of my career at that time; the supply of 505 complete turbosystems, (not simply the turbo itself) to Mitsubishi Australia in order to create the Sigma Turbo. This being the first OEM turbocharged gasoline passenger vehicle built in Australia and one of the very first in the world.
Setting the Scene.
The 70’s were an interesting period in Automotive Engineering, worldwide, not simply Australia.
Really for the first time, fuel consumption was being taken seriously and exhaust emissions were beginning to also become a serious topic of conversation. In many cases these two objectives were in direct conflict with each other, given the technology of the day.
In the early 60’s, GM North America had played with Turbos on the Chevrolet Corvair and an Oldsmobile sedan. Neither application carried on, the first due to the Ralph Nader persecution of the Corvair model generally, the second due to product complexity requiring a level of vehicle operator involvement to which the US market was not accustomed.
Then came the 70’s, OPEC driven fuel Crisis’ (1 and 2) and suddenly downsizing / forced induction was back in discussion inside many Automotive Engineering Departments and their Tier 1 suppliers.
In 1968, at 19 years of age, I had built what I still believe to be the first turbocharged gasoline engine in Australia as part of my education. Having completed same, by 1976 I had been working at an Engineering business in Newcastle for a couple of years. There we created the first genuinely bolt on turbo kits to suit a variety of Australian vehicles. Holden Red, (of course), Ford Aussie six and Pommy four (1600 cc Kent) and the 1600cc Toyota in the Celica. The last being important, as it was the first real New Car, Dealer supplied program, being sold on new vehicles by Bill Buckle Toyota, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Our Red Motor Holden kit (of which I have recently purchased one of the last remaining ones in existence) won multiple Speedway Sedan titles in the mid 70’s.
That year, 1976, at the age of 27, Ken Drew head-hunted me to move to Melbourne as Manager, Gasoline Automotive Turbocharger Applications. Truthfully, at that time, despite my age, I probably knew more about gasoline turbocharging than anyone else in Australia. Which admittedly, was not saying much!!
Of course, the first thing I did, having started at Garrett was to make appointments to meet the Chief Engine Engineers of the various car companies. Hence, the start of my relationship with Fred.
So, some points worth noting.
- The 70’s marked Garrett’s transition from a purely diesel engine turbo manufacturer to gasoline applications. This eventually resulted in the much smaller, far more responsive, turbos which we take for granted today.
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- The 70’s were the start of the development and eventual adoption by the mid 80’s, worldwide, of electronic fuel injection. This had massive implications for turbocharger application engineering.
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- Here in Australia, the Garrett engineering group which I headed were the first in the world to adopt the now ubiquitous “split pulse” or “divided” exhaust manifold / turbine housing design in gasoline turbocharging to improve response. So, a genuine Australian first.
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- Throughout the 70s/80s there was continual debate within both Engineering and Marketing at the car companies as to whether V8 or Turbo 6 was the best way to go.
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Interface with Warwick’s Story.
This story could easily be far too long to be of interest or relevance to retired Holden employees. So, now I shall simply concentrate on filling in the gaps in Warwick’s story.
The infamous “Brown HX”.
In reality, this was only the first of multiple turbo vehicles / engines built for various parts of GMH between 1978 and 1984 by Normalair Garrett. Warwick’s recollection of its response is quite accurate as that particular package was not wastegated and boost was controlled by inlet/outlet restriction. Definitely NOT ideal, particularly from a response perspective!! We never provided an un-wastegated package to Holden again!! 😊
As is obvious from the image in Warwick’s story, this package was so early in what became known throughout the industry as Garrett’s “Strata” aftermarket turbocharger program that it used a SU carburettor. In practice, all production kits used Stromberg carburettors as employed by the XU1s.
Normalair-Garrett provided turbo examples of VB, VC, VH and even a pre-production VK, 202s to GMH Engineering on a regular basis. Had VL not gone Nissan, I still believe we had a shot at OE fitment with a turbo Black. Of course, even the Nissan used a Garrett turbo, so the Corporation won either way.
Along with the turbo sixes over the years, we also provided turbo 308s to both John Bagshaw and Leo Pruneau, just to name two. However, I would take some issue with Warwick over the cause of Bagshaw’s vehicle’s accident. If anything, those turbo 308s were TOO responsive, far more so than the standard vehicle and I suspect THAT was the more likely cause of the accident!!
Legal sale of Turbo’d Commodore sixes from Holden New Car Dealerships
Warwick wondered in his story how we managed to do this.
The answer is Commonwealth Second Manufacturer Type Approval.
This system existed at that time, (and perhaps still does) in order to facilitate companies taking OEM automotive product and subsequently modifying it prior to first sale. Think, Bus or Truck body builders, Ambulances etc. Essentially, one needed to re-prove continued compliance with any and all effected ADRs.
This is precisely what we did at Normalair Garrett for the Turbo Commodore program for VB, VC, VH. Over the three models, literally 100’s of vehicles were sold in this way. Just one of the effected ADR’s was obviously Emissions and that work was conducted at the now defunct Vic Gov EPA Lab at Altona.
My interest in the Holden 12 Port Head.
Warwick wondered about my interest in the 12 Port “Blue” head. Simple. I knew about it from Fred, of course and at the time I was campaigning what was probably the most powerful gasoline powered (Non drag race) Holden six ever built, before or since. Installed in Harrop’s old EH and driven by Wayne Mahnken, this engine eventually made (with a pre-production 12 port casting) 640 HP at 7,500 RPM.
Harry Watson’s Melbourne Uni Fuel Consumption project
Harry was, unquestionably a man well ahead of his time. I am not going to say others had not thought of his general approach, in other parts of the world; however, I doubt anyone in Australia had at that time. I know I certainly only thought about turbo’íng from a performance perspective. When he approached us at Normalair Garrett for assistance with the project, I remember thinking how quaint it was. However, you can clearly see my team’s design impact on the package as installed on the dyno at Melbourne Uni. Basically, it is essentially identical to a Normalair Garrett turbosystem of the time.
I know one outcome of Harry’s project, for fact. His work, as a starting point, led eventually, but directly, to the adoption of gasoline turbocharging by the VW Audi Group. I am sure there are others, EG Nissan, as Warwick alluded to; however, interesting where trends start, isn’t it?
I can’t believe there are politicians who still defend the shutdown of the Australian Automotive industry; however, I know there are such individuals. We are obviously destined to revert to the 19th century and become a nation of Miners and Farmers again. Upon which realisation I conclude I am happy to be the age that I am!!
Fred’s personal Strata 3 Normalair Garrett Turbosystem
I can tell you all precisely from where that originated and it had nothing to do with Fred’s time at GMH. It was a token of Normalair-Garrett’s appreciation, after Fred completed the project management of the Sigma turbo program.
Why it all stopped.
Warwick does not talk about this and perhaps he was not sufficiently senior inside GMH at the time to be aware of the Politics. Remember the Normalair Garrett ownership %?
The fact that Garrett only had a 49% minority ownership permitted the Australian MD, Ken Drew, a great deal of policy autonomy where it came to the manner in which we utilised Garrett product. We were the only part of the Garrett Corporation anywhere in the world engaged in total turbosystem engineering. Everywhere else in the world Garrett left all system engineering responsibility to the car companies. While Normalair Garrett were only working in the aftermarket, Garrett Corp turned a blind eye.
However, the success of the Turbo Sigma project for Mitsubishi was the final straw. There we were, undertaking all design and engineering responsibility and according to the American Garrett Corporate lawyers, exposing the Corporation to possible legal liability. They complained to the Joint Control Board of Normalair Garrett and we were shut down. Of course, this was all relayed at the time to senior Engineering management at all the Australian car companies, naturally including GMH.
So ended a somewhat unique and quite interesting element of the Australian automotive industry.
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Should any reader have any further questions regarding any of the above, they are more than welcome to
David Inall