1971 Holden HG Premier

Holden Premier Peter Ransom (54)  TBW Newsgroup

MOUNT Gambier resident Peter Ransom took delivery of his recently-purchased 1971 Holden HG Premier just in time before country-wide COVID-19 border restrictions were enforced. 

Mr Ransom purchased the classic Holden from Tasmania around a month ago, hoping he would be able to bring it to the Blue Lake city with little fuss. 

Mr Ransom said a family member and good friend spotted the car online and knew immediately it matched his style.

“I was pretty interested so I rang him up, spoke to him and the process went well,” Mr Ransom said. 

“We drove to Melbourne and brought it back home in the same day…the day before border restrictions were enforced. 

“I do not think we realised how lucky we really were, because if we left it any later we would not have been able to get it back over.” 

Mr Ransom said he first saw the car in person when it was loaded off the boat onto mainland Australia. 

“The colour – Cameo Gold – really blew me away when I saw it for the first time,” he said. 

“I am overall pretty happy with it and am just making a few minor adjustments to it now. 

“It is not a modern car by any means and I just love how they built the old cars back then.”

Mr Ransom said he once owned a HG Monaro, which he liked the shape of, but preferred the four doors of the Premier. 

“With two doors, when you took somebody for a drive, it did not matter what sort of weather you had to get out of the front to let back seat passengers out,” he said. 

“Some people would not do it, they would drive around and around and you would be stuck in the back. 

“If you were desperate to go to the toilet or something, people would just drive around and make you wait.”

As a member of the Lake City Rodders and past member of South East Street Machines, Mr Ransom said he planned to keep the car for a while and get a bit of fun out of it. 

“It might be the starting point of a collection and I do not plan to sell it in the near future,” he said.