From GlamRock: a circa 1977 Gemini Coupe

Sadly, the Holden Gemini, a darling of the Aussie small car set during the 1970s, '80s and '90s, has become a bit of a unicorn. The gorgeous coupe version is even rarer and might just be the automotive equivalent of a zebra-striped unicorn - so rare, they're rumoured to exist only in minuscule numbers.

This one - bought to you by GlamRock - is either a TC or TX, hailing from from circa 1977. It's an absolute treat with great paint and chrome, a bang-on for era front spoiler and a nice set of alloys. It also appears to be running a 2.0 litre donk.

Noting the transplanted heart of today’s example, it’s a pity that Holden never did a GT/E version of their take on GM's T Platform car, as Opel did, as by all accounts they were real screamers with their 1973 cc fuel-injected engines and other performance upgrades (inset). That's not to say that Aussies didn't extract more grunt from the local 1.6 litre versions, though; there were plenty of quick Geminis in the day with twin side draft Webers, lumpy cams and free-flowing exhausts, all in a package that weighed in at a smidge over 900 kg! It's rumoured that a few got larger displacement transplants from Holden’s (Isuzu's) Shuttle van, too.

An Opel Kadett GTE

Photographer: Lothar Spurzem. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany

Either way, it was a pleasure to be able to bring you this example. The owner should be very, very proud of it, especially given its beauty and scarcity in a world increasingly dominated by appliance-like vehicles with little to differentiate one manufacturer's product from another's.

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U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blospot.com.au)

Photos by GlamRock.

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