BOASTING a completely original design, self-confessed “Holden nut” Raymond Leigh was delighted to finally get his hands on this 1967 HR Holden Ute.
The vehicle is packed with style, complete with a 161-red motor with original running gear, interior, chrome work and 13-inch tires.
Mr Leigh said the car had sat in his shed for 18 years.
“I just get it out now and then and I love it,” he said.
“It has had a touch up paint job before we bought it 20 years ago.
“I have not done anything to it except I have redone the breaks.”
Mr Leigh’s wife Tanya Bierwirth-Leigh even tracked down an original tool box to go in the tray of the ute.
“My brother-in-law had his father’s toolbox and that was it, we went on a search to find one,” she said.
“We saw one in a Tasmanian museum and I think we were in love.
“We found one and it sits in the back of the ute.”
With strong South East links, the car has only ever been in one family other than Mr Leigh’s.
“We bought it off Spencer Buck from DJ interiors,” Mr Leigh said.
“When my wife Tanya started working there the ute was parked out the back and I just fell in love with it.
“Every time I saw him I would ask if I could buy it and he would just say ‘no never’.”
It took Mr Leigh two years of asking every time he saw Mr Buck to sell the car to him.
“One day he just said ‘ok, you can have it’,” Mr Leigh said.
“I have always been a Holden nut for my whole life.
“Every car I have owned has been a Holden and I have never wanted anything else.”
Mr Leigh has had an array of various Holdens over the years.
“This is a local car that has always stayed within the Mount Gambier area,” he said.
“We still have all the books to go with it.”
Mr Leigh believes the vehicle’s light blue colour was never available to the general public.
“I was told that this car was an old police car when I went on the 2018 Leukemia Foundation Muscle Car Run,” he said.
“It would be used for deliveries and all sorts of things.”
Mr Leigh said the vehicle did get stolen once from behind DJ interiors.
“It got taken for a joyride and the police found it undestroyed,” he said.
“The only thing they took was the identification plates and I could not work out why at the time.
“But I now think they knew it was a police car.”
Ms Bierwirth-Leigh said the car was a great family-fun car.
“We have gone for a few trips over in Penola with some friends over the years for a bit of fun,” she said.
“I used to drive it over summer and take my daughter Faith to childcare in it when she was little.
“I would do everything in it.”
