My adventures Down Under 

And then, in 1986, my son Fraser was born there, cementing my connection to Australia for life. He has since become an Australian citizen and now lives in New Zealand. As for me, I left Melbourne late in 1986, wondering if I would ever return.

Jump forward to 1990 and I’d left Ford and found myself working for Tom, running his new design studio, TWR Design. If you’ve read my previous Ti stories (How I designed the DB7, Major Tom), you’ll know already how very special this time was for me, for really it signalled the proper start of my career.

At the time Walkinshaw was winning at Bathurst, he half owned a company called JaguarSport, through which TWR took current Jaguar models and modified them both mechanically and aesthetically. It is here that seeds of the Jaguar’s sporting ‘R’ sub brand were sown. Tom duly offered a similar business model to Holden and also to take care of its race team as well. Having won Bathurst, the European Touring Car Championship, Le Mans and back-to-back World Sportscar Championships, his stock could hardly have been higher. A deal was struck and HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) and HRT (Holden Racing Team) were formed.

I was delighted to have a reason to start visiting Melbourne once more – although for a while I worked remotely from the UK. This time the factory and office were in the Notting Hill suburb, and it was my job to design new body parts for the next generation of HSV Commodore and its derivatives. These would include front and rear bumpers, sills, interiors and of course the mandatory rear wing.

At the time I was obsessed with front spoilers being raised towards the centre. I had seen it done on a couple of race cars so assumed it must have some important aero advantage. Besides, it looked good and inspired my first HSV car, the Holden Commodore VR. Derivatives would include the Senator, GTS and the Maloo ute pick-up.

My brief was always to create differentiation through paint alone which was challenging, but I kept the marketing men happy by designing in shut lines that could be used for paint masking. We did wheels too, something I particularly enjoyed as so many aftermarket wheels were really terrible. One set had a triangle as the centre!

The Managing Director was a local legend called John Crennan who’d left Holden’s marketing department to run this new outfit for Tom. John liked to be in control and didn’t like surprises. My first project went well as John would look at my drawings prior to my arrival and make comments or approve. To begin with I’d send them by post! I’d then fly out and manage the clay modelling at the HSV premises in Notting Hill with my team of modellers, led by a brilliant man called Andrew Miles. It was a makeshift studio and difficult to operate in. We also had a body of the new, still-secret Holden to work on, so security was a nightmare.

The process seems so archaic compared to the digital world we now live in today, where gigabytes of data can fly around the world in seconds, but it was huge fun. When it came to subsequent HSV cars I was getting very busy back home at TWR headquarters in Oxford and time was always short. To John’s huge frustration and annoyance, I’d no longer send my new car designs in advance, but design them on the flight out. After all, I had 24 hours to myself and a couple of G&Ts for inspiration.

The need to visit Australia regularly would continue throughout my time at TWR, often up to three times a year, usually staying for about 10 days at a time. Once I went for a weekend… One of the biggest thrills was always to be picked up in the HSV car I’d worked on previously, seeing it on the road for the first time.

By the time we were working on our second car, the VX, HSV had moved to a new site at Clayton, part of an old Nissan factory which came complete with a proper modelling studio. It was such a luxury by comparison!

The main shape of the donor car had changed considerably from the previous model and been given more form. It was stronger in looks and better to work on. My confidence had grown so my proposal – yes, designed on the plane – was bolder. It had more sheer lines with offset surfaces on the front lower bumper. You might notice a similar detail on one of my Jaguar XFs years later.

I also persuaded the team that we should extract and add parts from the bumper to differentiate the various models rather than just paint. To this end the lower section was replaced on the Senator version to give an egg crate-style grille. The sill was bolder too and influenced by the Aston Martin Vanquish I’d just completed. Or was it the other way round? I really can’t remember.

A car I enjoyed enormously was the ute, especially when we gave it the HSV treatment. The utility (hence ‘ute’) vehicle is an Australian obsession for creating pick-ups from saloon models. Of course, it stems from years and a similar practice in the US (look at the Ford Ranchero and Chevy El Camino) before pick-ups became designed as dedicated products. I absolutely understand the appeal of the ute. It has two seats, like a sports car, and great proportions. The working man’s exotic. The HSV version was the Maloo, an Aboriginal word for storm or thunder and with little weight in the back and a vast V8, it would oversteer everywhere. Great fun!

My last Australian car was the HSV version of the Holden Monaro coupé, skilfully designed by Mike Simcoe. It was handsome, and I was very aware of creating something respectful. The Monaro GTS was created, again with the strong front graphic with an aperture dropping towards the outer edges. The centre vein through the middle was applied in a more solid fashion. It is always important to me that front end graphics are strong but simple. Easy to understand. I created strong sill graphics too, influenced by the previous GTS, but more exaggerated. This being my last HSV creation, I was replaced by one of my team, a young lad called Julian Quincey. He turned out to be an excellent designer. Some of these later cars reached UK shores with Vauxhall badges applied.

After my time at TWR and working for HSV, I found myself back in Australia many times travelling with Jaguar. First there were the Grands Prix, which took place on my old cycle path, now the Grand Prix circuit of Albert Park. I knew every bend intimately as I cycled around it in my mind. I’d also frequently travel to motor shows and launch events in Australia, mostly voluntary trips as I rarely need much of an excuse to travel back Down Under.

I travelled there recently, en route to New Zealand, for the first time in several years. The car geography has changed so much with the demise of homegrown cars designed in and for Australia. As I arrived in Sydney I saw the relentless proliferation of the ubiquitous mid-size crossover as much in evidence here as most places around the world these days. I didn’t even notice who made them. Vehicles of little character. Cars still had old familiar badges but the Holdens were Insignias and the Fords were Mondeos. Simcoe had designed the last Aussie Commodore a few years previously. It was a car of exceedingly good proportions, but even that has gone now.

I got a buzz of excitement on those rare occasions when I caught a fleeting glimpse of a ute, and just once, a Maloo! A personal ‘wow’ moment for me. The homegrown Aussie sporting car is now a critically endangered species whose numbers reduce every year, so I took heart from the fact there are still a few old school HSVs out there…somewhere. At least for now.