Random # 85: HQ Holden Belmont Sedan

There's probably not much to note on this tidy example of an HQ Holden Belmont, spotted recently in North Hobart. However, it's been included to round out the set, as it were, because it is one of the few four-door sedan versions of the HQ not already featured on this 'blog.

There are already examples of the Kingswood, which sits above the Belmont in the Holden range, as well as the next-ranked Premier and a sporty GTS Monaro. That only leaves the Belmont-based SS performance model (the Monaro, which is also a performance orientated version, is Kingswood-based). There is also a stretched variant - the Statesman - but the body style of that model is sufficiently different to be treated as a separate product line.

As the base-model of the Holden line-up, the Belmont missed out on basic creature comforts like carpets and an A.M. radio but still shared the three-speed column change and six cylinder motors available on its more upmarket siblings. They weren't available with V8 motors or four-speed floor change 'boxes - except in SS form - and even then, that model is not really considered to be a Belmont (you might elicit a fairly hostile response if you were to imply that an SS owner's pride and joy was the poverty-pack edition of the range!).

There's also some suggestion that Belmonts may not have been fitted with disc brake front ends, as were the higher-spec HQs. However, a quick check of automobile catalog (http://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_details1.php) neither confirmed or disproved that to be so. Please leave a comment if you can say either way.

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au .)

All iPhone images.

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