Why Did GM Kill the Holden Holden 179 Red Motor – Even Though It Was Too Perfect?
While America roared with big, thunderous V8 muscle cars down in the southern hemisphere, Holden, GM’s Australian division, quietly built a weapon.
No hype, no flash, just a compact inline 6 engine.
Tough, precise, and unstoppable.
At Baurst 1963, it didn’t just survive.
It embarrassed the giants.
But just as it reached the top, GM slammed the brakes.
Why?
Because it wasn’t just good, it was too good.
Good enough to overshadow GM’s own strategic products.
This wasn’t just an engine.
It was a revolution born in Australia and silenced by the very company that created it.
Today, we uncover the shocking secrets behind the Holden 179, the engine that rewrote Holden’s legacy.
And nearly changed the global racing game.
In 1963, Holden was still the rookie in Australia’s motorsport arena.
While Ford ruled the tracks with loud, thunderous V8s, Holden clung to its trusty sixcylinder engines, reliable, but second tier in the eyes of many.
Yet, inside the workshops of Port Melbourne, a plan was quietly taking shape.
Holden’s engineers knew if they were to survive, let alone compete, they needed something different.
An engine that could challenge the Giants.
Starting with a civilian-grade 2.9 L gray motor, the team overhauled it from the inside out.
They enlarged the pistons, reinforced the crankshaft with seven bearings, and optimized the combustion chambers.
The result was the Holden 179, a 179 cubic inch engine that produced 115 brake horsepower.
An ambitious number for a family sedan.
They labeled it HP for high performance.
With the newly finished 179 engine, ready to roar, Holden knew it needed a debut no one could ignore.
That chance came at the 1963 Armstrong 500, Australia’s premier endurance race held at Mount Panorama Baurst.
Holden entered the humble EJ sedan, a familiar family car now hiding a revolution beneath the hood.
Meanwhile, Ford rolled out its full V8 arsenal, Galaxy 390s, Falcon Sprints, raw power with nearly twice the horsepower.
On paper, the odds seemed clear.
But endurance racing isn’t just about top speed.
It’s about lasting the distance.
Something the 179 excelled at with its rocksolid reliability and smooth power delivery.
As the V8s overheated, suffered brake failure and lost drivetrains, the EJ Holden pressed on.
Drivers Harry FTH and Bob Jane crossed the line first in class, third overall, stunning fans and rivals alike.
That victory didn’t just shake up the racing world.
It signaled the beginning of a bold new era for Holden and the 179, an era of dominance and growing controversy.
After the 1963 Bath’s Triumph, Holden knew they had a winning formula, and they wasted no time in putting it to use.
The following year, they unveiled the EH Holden S4, the company’s first factory performance car built around the 179 engine.
The S4 wasn’t an aftermarket job.
It was purpose-built with twin Stroberg carburetors, a higher compression ratio, reinforced internal components for better endurance.
The S4 quickly became a favorite among both pro drivers and privateeers.
Legends like Norm Beichy and Ian Giagan turned it into a dominant force on racetracks across Australia.
By 1965, Holden had taken over the sub3.0 0 L categories at Baurst.
While V8s continued to falter mechanically, the 179 powered cars flew across the finish line.
But when an underdog wins too often, suspicion follows.
Ford began to cry foul, accusing Holden of bending the rules, claiming that some 179 blocks were overboard beyond the legal limits to gain an unfair advantage.
Although Ford’s accusations were never proven, public pressure pushed Holden to shift focus toward larger engines like the 186 and 202.
For many, this might have marked the end of the 179.
But the story was far from over.
Across Australia’s racetracks, the 179 engine refused to fade, especially among privateeers.
Free from corporate agendas, the 1790 remained the top pick.
Why?
Simple.
It was absurdly durable, easy to tune, and incredibly trustworthy.
Take the 1967 Sandown 6H hour, where modified Holden 179s outlasted and outran more powerful competitors with impressive results.
No rebranding, no marketing tricks, just solid design and incredible load tolerance.
But that’s only scratching the surface.
The real secrets behind the 1790s engineering would leave even seasoned mechanics speechless.
The biggest secret of the 179 wasn’t in its horsepower, but in what lay beneath.
Though it produced only 115 horsepower in stock form, a well-tuned racing version could hit 160 horsepower.
Impressive for an inline 6 of its era.
The real strength of the 1790 came from its thoughtful and robust design.
A seven bearing crankshaft gave it rockolid stability at high RPM.
Optimized compression and combustion chambers delivered strong low-end torque.
Superior cooling performance compared to many contemporaries, crucial in endurance racing.
Still, it wasn’t perfect.
One major flaw was oil starvation during hard cornering, which risked engine seizure.
But Australian tuners quickly solved this with baffle plates, keeping oil in the right place, even under heavy gforces.
This blend of simplicity and tunability made the 1790 an engine that anyone could master if they had enough passion.
The surprising simplicity of the Holden 179, something anyone could unlock with enough passion, raises a key question.
Who built it?
Who crafted an engine that was both accessible and powerful enough to challenge the giants?
At the center was John Bagshaw, Holden’s chief engineer in the early 60s.
He didn’t just greenlight plans.
He championed a philosophy.
Think big, build real, and empowered his team to do so.
Bill Buckle, a design expert, laid the foundation for the red motor, transforming it from a commuter engine into the heart of race machines.
And then came Philip Irving, an engineering legend in Australia, who fine-tuned air flow, combustion chambers, and ignition dynamics to extract the most from the 179.
Finally came the men who turned blueprints into results.
Harry FTH, Norm Beichy, Bob Jane.
They didn’t just drive the cars.
They lived the engine.
And together, they helped shape one of Australia’s greatest automotive icons.
They did what no one expected.
Turned a humble block of metal into a legend.
Ironically, the Holden 179 was never built to dominate racetracks.
Originally, it was just an economy engine designed for family sedans, for daily drives, built to be light, smooth, and easygoing.
But in the hands of those who refused to accept limits, the 179th defied its own destiny.
It rolled out of the driveway onto the racetrack and took down stronger, more expensive machines.
No exotic tech, no radical architecture, just a perfect balance of power, durability, and mod potential.
And that alone made it an engine nobody wanted to give up.
From that moment, the 1799 wasn’t just a reliable motor.
It became a symbol, a living lesson that even the most ordinary thing can rewrite history when guided by extraordinary hands.
But the Holden 179 didn’t stop in the past.
It kept going, resilient and strong, even as the world around it evolved.
After the glory of Baurst and the swirl of controversy, many assumed the 179 would fade away.
But the opposite happened.
Even as Holden moved on to bigger engines like the 186 and 202, the 179 remained a trusted heartbeat in tuning garages and privateeer race teams.
Throughout the 1970s, 179 powered Holdens racked up wins in improved production races.
Even against rivals with newer tech.
Today at vintage circuits like Sandown and Philip Island, the 179 still roars with pride.
Restored Holdens often keep their original engines not just for authenticity, but out of respect.
When something works this well, you don’t replace it.
For many, the Holden 179 isn’t just an engine.
It’s a piece of memory tied to youth, racetracks, and mechanical dreams that never faded.
It didn’t need to be the fastest or most advanced.
It only needed to be remembered as a symbol of resilience, still alive in Australia’s car culture through every rev, every restoration, every story passed from father to son.
Maybe that’s the 179th’s greatest victory, becoming a legend not through trophies, but through the hearts it touched.
