1969 rhd Impala in UK:



-- Edited by Oracle on Tuesday 21st of July 2009 03:46:47 PM

Great article, thanks!  Love the pic of the pillarless 4 door Impala hardtop, I always loved that body style.

Great articles. Did you have them published in a book or magazine article?

I am not sure now whether the rhd piece was used in RESTORED CARS in Australia or not. I wrote a series of pieces for them some years ago on Australian cars in the UK...Ford, Chrysler and Holden.

I would be fascinated to know what the assembly manual etc say about rhd cars.

thanks for posting   very good article   

This is an extract of an item sent to me:

Brief Outline of GM South Africa

The role of Chevrolet and Pontiac was far more upscale in South Africa than in the US - more at the level of Buick and Oldsmobile. Hardly any Oldsmobiles were sold, with Buick having far better recognition likely because of the Commonwealth connection to the Canadian McLaughlan Buick. The straight eight senior Buicks of the late 40s had right hand drive, indicating that they were assembled in SA.

All Pontiacs and Chevs (they were not abbreviated to Chevys in SA) were either four door sport sedans or sedans with the only wagons in the Chevy 11 and the 1958 Biscayne/Brookwood form. The regular full-sized sedans in 6 or 8 cylinder standard transmission form lasted until 1969 with the following exceptions - early in 1962 there were problems getting Impalas so the V8 Biscayne came with power-glide, power steering and brakes for a short period The final year for the full-sized cars was 1969 and the Impala and Parisienne were fully optioned sedans. Otherwise from 1960 the top-line Impala/Caprice and Parisienne were all hard top sedans with automatic V8s, power steering brakes and windows. It should be noted that the these cars were sourced from Canada and the Pontiacs shared the Chevy chassis rather than the wide track chassis featured in the US.

The mid-sized Chevelle came only in 6 cylinder form with the Malibus being hard tops and sharing the same options as the full-sized hardtop counterparts. The Pontiac equivalent was the Acadian Beaumont. Both these mid sized cars lasted until 1969.

The Chevy II ran from 1962 to 68 and I only remember the Corvair in 1960 in left hand drive. The full Opel and Vauxhall range were assembled through to 1964 when the Kapitan stopped followed by the Velox in 1966, Victor in 1968, Cresta/Viscount in 1969, Rekord and Viva in 1971 and finally the Kadett in 1974. The full size Holden ran from 1960 to 1971.

Up until the mid sixties South Africa assembled a wider range of GM products than any other plant in the world. Effectively all models of Opel, Vauxhall and Holden were included plus all four door sedan versions of Chevrolet and Canadian Pontiacs excluding the Corvair.

Just found this that I wrote as well


RIGHT-HAND DRIVE

The argument about which side of the road to drive on has been going on for something like 2,000 years now, since the Romans decreed that carts should occupy the left of the road when heading for Rome. A few hundred years ago when horse-drawn transport became more sophisticated, it was standard practice for the British and their colonies to drive on the left and have the driver of the carriage or cart located on the right, all the better to control the horses with most people being right-handed. Rather like why does a man walk on the outside of the lady? To keep his right sword-arm free, or to collect all the road muck thrown up by horses?

This was to change with Napoleans desire to do everything different in Continental Europe, and also with George Washington in the infant United States wishing to do the opposite of British colonial practice! However, as you know the US had centre-steered horseless carriages at first, then with the advent of steering wheels, the wheel was placed on the right even though the vehicle may have been driven on the right! British colonies and the Dominions of Canada and Australia and South Africa stuck with British practice, and drove on the left and had right-hand drive steering. Other countries had odd ideas such as Argentina and Italy, where you drove on the right side in town and left side in the country! Eventually, with Henry Fords decision to concentrate in 1915 on left-hand drive Model Ts for everywhere, countries began to concentrate on left-hand steering, and by 1925 there was dominance for that practice. By then, Canadian Provinces had gradually switched over to lhd, and that left Newfoundland as the sole market for rhd vehicles in North America, which continued until 1948 when Newfoundland joined the Confederation.

In Europe, in modern times the only Continental country which drove on the left was Sweden , and I remember distinctly that at 2 am on the morning of 6 September 1967, the whole country stopped for 2 hours, and they switched the whole system to driving on the right instead. That left:

ENGLAND
WALES
SCOTLAND
NORTHERN IRELAND
EIRE
ISLE OF MAN
JERSEY
GUERNSEY
ALDERNEY
GIBRALTAR
MALTA
CYPRUS

that drove rhd vehicles. However, something like 25% of countries drive on the left still, including odd islands of the West Indies, where they drive on different sides according to custom! [SINCE THEN NAMIBIA HAS SWICTHED TO THE LEFT, BURMA TO THE RIGHT, AND MY SON SAYS SAMOA TO THE LEFT]

In addition, Jeeps have always had a market for rhd vehicles for postal services, and that postal market included a few years back a massive order from the Canadian Post Office for Chevrolet walk-thru vans from GM of Canada.

In this country, apart from the constant demand for rhd ambulances, and this specialist demand by the way continues in Australia, there have been airport trucks based on Chevrolet chassis. There is also a demand surprisingly for lhd and dual-control trucks for road-sweeping duties.

Another little-known demand has been for rhd trucks for US Services here: at the moment the USAF and Army use British-built trucks and minibuses, sourced from, say, LDV in Birmingham.

For the future, there is most definitely a market here for US-style 4 x 4s, and the biggest users are the Yachties around here. There is even a 1976 Model AMC Cherokee still in use as a boat-puller!

NORTH AMERICAN RHD CARS

Rhd vehicles from the US and Canada have fascinated me and other sad individuals for many years now: we tend to swap information and so we have built up a terrific database of rhd conversions.

GM:
BUICK: the last rhd factory Buicks from Flint, Michigan, Plant were probably in 1953. There is no evidence on paper to show but observations seem to confirm. The last Canadian Buicks in rhd form may have been in 1942!

CADILLAC: this is a difficult one because there is no straight answer. Detroit built rhd cars up to around 1948 at least, but then went over to factory conversions for those with the necessary Dollars, and I have evidence of a rhd Cadiallac sold in England in the late Fifties, being a 1953 Model.

CHEVROLET: this one is easy! The last rhd factory Chevrolet cars was the 1963 Model Impala 4-door Hardtop, built in the Tarrytown, New York Plant. [UPDATE: THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT 1964 WAS THE LAST YEAR FOR US RHD CARS]. These used the 1961 Model PONTIAC dash adapted to rhd. The last Canadian cars were sourced from St Therese, Quebec, Plant as 1969 Models using the 1969 lhd dash adapted. The 1961 to 1964 Models used the 61 Pontiac dash and the 65 to 68 cars the 65 Chevrolet dash. All the latter were Impalas, save for 1967/8 Caprices for South Africa.
In addition, rhd Chevelles were produced in Oshawa Plant from 1963 to 1969. Chevy 11s were also produced in rhd form from 1962 to 1968 as well, except that from June 1967, all Canadian Novas were built in St Louis, Missouri, Plant, and that must have included rhd cars for export and CKD for South Africa, so strictly speaking the last rhd US Chevrolets were 1968 Models.
From 1973 to 1975, Chevrolet had a batch of Monte Carlos converted to rhd for Australia by GM Bus and Coach in Arlington, Texas to compete with the Canadian-sourced Ford LTDs.
Then in 1996, GM started building 1997 Model U-body MPVs at Doraville, Georgia, as CHEVROLET VENTURE/PONTIAC TRANSSPORT/ OLDSMOBILE SILHOUETTE/OPEL SINTRA/VAUXHALL SINTRA and for Europe the Pontiac rebadged as CHEVROLET TRANSSPORT. The Opel Sintra is also built as rhd for Eire, and as a Vauxhall for the UK.

OLDSMOBILE: this one is easy as well: the last rhd factory Olds from Lansing, Michigan Plant were in 1950. That was it, period.

PONTIAC: this one is easy as well: the last factory rhd Pontiacs from Pontiac, Michigan, Plant were 1957 Model Super Chiefs, 4-door Hardtops.
The last CANADIAN Pontiacs were as follows: 1961-1964, all used the Chevrolet bodyshell with the 61 Pontiac Dash, as per Chev, then 1965 to 1968, the rhd Chevrolet 65 Dash in Parisiennes except for 1967-8 Grandes Parisiennes, for South Africa, then 1969 Model Parisienne 4-door Hardtops, with the 69 rhd Chevrolet Dash.
In addition, rhd Acadians were produced until 1968 [from June 1967 sourced from St Louis, Missouri] and Beaumonts from 1963 to 1969.

FORD:
The last rhd US Ford was possibly the Model T in 1927 until the Mazda-built Probe in 1990? Built in Flat Rock, Michigan. The next rhd Ford was the Taurus for Australia, 2 years ago.
The last rhd Mercurys were possibly 1953 Models, from Oakville, Ontario.
After 1927, the responsibility for rhd Fords fell on GM of Canada. Thus export factory cars continued until 1968 from Oakville Plant, and then from 1969 to 1973, Ford of Canada exported lhd LTDs to Australia where they converted them to rhd.
In addition, until 1991 Ford imported F-series trucks from Canada, converted to rhd in Australia. There is a move affot to reimport them again I gather.
AMC: Kenosha Plant built rhd Ramblers for export right through to 1976, badged as Ramblers in the UK and Australia [assembled by AMI], and the last models were Ambassador sedans.

CHRYSLER: the Canadian Plant stopped assembling rhd cars in 1966, when the emphasis changed to Australian cars exported instead, though South Africa continued on with locally-assembled cars until 1969.
The last rhd US cars were the 1965 to 1969 Plymouth Barracudas, with the slant-six or 283 V-8. The prototype rhd car, #25 was sold in the UK and I have seen it! The next rhd cars were the Neons from about 4 years ago.

CONVERSIONS:
A few companies have handled conversions to rhd in the UK. A former racing driver and garage owner, Ken Rudd, started converting North American cars in 1965, and this included Mustangs, with the rhd Dagenham Ford Zephyr column or an Australian Falcon column, and Buick Rivieras, using a chain-driven system. The really big players though were a company called C.T. WOOLER in Andover, Hampshire. Woolers were a very old company, and were manufacturers of gears, and then conversions for gearboxes including floor changes, 4-speed units, etc., and then they got into rhd conversions for Mustangs, etc. using a sawn-off steering column and a chain drive to the lhd steering box. They then picked up a fulltime contract to convert AMC vehicles as well: with the non-factory Jeeps, AMC Pacers and Gremlins, and then until AMC died, the later Jeeps. Woolers also converted quite a few 197n Mustang 11s for Ford in the UK.






-- Edited by Oracle on Thursday 23rd of July 2009 06:51:15 AM

I have somewhere, goodness knows where, copies of CARS adverts from about mid-1956 to 1959. The '58 Buick and Olds adverts were simply stunning in their own way. These were top-SA Rand cars, affordable only by the mega-monied, and of course White with big houses. I cannot imagine how much these cost without looking up, because of the import taxes. I understand that a few years down the line these large cars after being sold down ended up as taxis especially in Townships?

I suppose as always, money talks, and dealers were enterprising (as in Australia) so that in practice in 1959 El Caminos came in from the States, and special-order cars came in at very high prices.

The figures of course also show that rhd Acadians, Acadian Beaumonts and Beaumonts were imported, uniquely in rhd form and then in 1967-8 the Grandes Parisiennes HTs. CARS did a Road Test of a '67 GP as well as a rhd Caprice; both were assembled from CKD kits from Oshawa.

Oracle wrote:

---

Just found this that I wrote as well


RIGHT-HAND DRIVE

The argument about which side of the road to drive on has been going on for something like 2,000 years now, since the Romans decreed that carts should occupy the left of the road when heading for Rome. A few hundred years ago when horse-drawn transport became more sophisticated, it was standard practice for the British and their colonies to drive on the left and have the driver of the carriage or cart located on the right, all the better to control the horses with most people being right-handed. Rather like why does a man walk on the outside of the lady? To keep his right sword-arm free, or to collect all the road muck thrown up by horses?

This was to change with Napoleans desire to do everything different in Continental Europe, and also with George Washington in the infant United States wishing to do the opposite of British colonial practice! However, as you know the US had centre-steered horseless carriages at first, then with the advent of steering wheels, the wheel was placed on the right even though the vehicle may have been driven on the right! British colonies and the Dominions of Canada and Australia and South Africa stuck with British practice, and drove on the left and had right-hand drive steering. Other countries had odd ideas such as Argentina and Italy, where you drove on the right side in town and left side in the country! Eventually, with Henry Fords decision to concentrate in 1915 on left-hand drive Model Ts for everywhere, countries began to concentrate on left-hand steering, and by 1925 there was dominance for that practice. By then, Canadian Provinces had gradually switched over to lhd, and that left Newfoundland as the sole market for rhd vehicles in North America, which continued until 1948 when Newfoundland joined the Confederation.

In Europe, in modern times the only Continental country which drove on the left was Sweden , and I remember distinctly that at 2 am on the morning of 4th? September 1967, the whole country stopped for 2 hours, and they switched the whole system to driving on the right instead. That left:

ENGLAND
WALES
SCOTLAND
NORTHERN IRELAND
EIRE
ISLE OF MAN
JERSEY
GUERNSEY
ALDERNEY
MALTA
CYPRUS

that drove rhd vehicles. However, something like 25% of countries drive on the left still, including odd islands of the West Indies, where they drive on different sides according to custom! [SINCE THEN NAMIBIA HAS SWICTHED TO THE LEFT, BURMA TO THE RIGHT, AND MY SON SAYS SAMOA TO THE LEFT]

In addition, Jeeps have always had a market for rhd vehicles for postal services, and that postal market included a few years back a massive order from the Canadian Post Office for Chevrolet walk-thru vans from GM of Canada.

In this country, apart from the constant demand for rhd ambulances, and this specialist demand by the way continues in Australia, there have been airport trucks based on Chevrolet chassis. There is also a demand surprisingly for lhd and dual-control trucks for road-sweeping duties.

Another little-known demand has been for rhd trucks for US Services here: at the moment the USAF and Army use British-built trucks and minibuses, sourced from, say, LDV in Birmingham.

For the future, there is most definitely a market here for US-style 4 x 4s, and the biggest users are the Yachties around here. There is even a 1976 Model AMC Cherokee still in use as a boat-puller!

NORTH AMERICAN RHD CARS

Rhd vehicles from the US and Canada have fascinated me and other sad individuals for many years now: we tend to swap information and so we have built up a terrific database of rhd conversions.

GM:
BUICK: the last rhd factory Buicks from Flint, Michigan, Plant were probably in 1953. There is no evidence on paper to show but observations seem to confirm. The last Canadian Buicks in rhd form may have been in 1942!

CADILLAC: this is a difficult one because there is no straight answer. Detroit built rhd cars up to around 1948 at least, but then went over to factory conversions for those with the necessary Dollars, and I have evidence of a rhd Cadiallac sold in England in the late Fifties, being a 1953 Model.

CHEVROLET: this one is easy! The last rhd factory Chevrolet cars was the 1963 Model Impala 4-door Hardtop, built in the Tarrytown, New York Plant. [UPDATE: THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT 1964 WAS THE LAST YEAR FOR US RHD CARS]. These used the 1961 Model PONTIAC dash adapted to rhd. The last Canadian cars were sourced from St Therese, Quebec, Plant as 1969 Models using the 1969 lhd dash adapted. The 1961 to 1964 Models used the 61 Pontiac dash and the 65 to 68 cars the 65 Chevrolet dash. All the latter were Impalas, save for 1967/8 Caprices for South Africa.
In addition, rhd Chevelles were produced in Oshawa Plant from 1963 to 1969. Chevy 11s were also produced in rhd form from 1962 to 1968 as well, except that from June 1967, all Canadian Novas were built in St Louis, Missouri, Plant, and that must have included rhd cars for export and CKD for South Africa, so strictly speaking the last rhd US Chevrolets were 1968 Models.
From 1973 to 1975, Chevrolet had a batch of Monte Carlos converted to rhd for Australia by GM Bus and Coach in Arlington, Texas to compete with the Canadian-sourced Ford LTDs.
Then in 1996, GM started building 1997 Model U-body MPVs at Doraville, Georgia, as CHEVROLET VENTURE/PONTIAC TRANSSPORT/ OLDSMOBILE SILHOUETTE/OPEL SINTRA/VAUXHALL SINTRA and for Europe the Pontiac rebadged as CHEVROLET TRANSSPORT. The Opel Sintra is also built as rhd for Eire, and as a Vauxhall for the UK.

OLDSMOBILE: this one is easy as well: the last rhd factory Olds from Lansing, Michigan Plant were in 1950. That was it, period.

PONTIAC: this one is easy as well: the last factory rhd Pontiacs from Pontiac, Michigan, Plant were 1957 Model Super Chiefs, 4-door Hardtops.
The last CANADIAN Pontiacs were as follows: 1961-1964, all used the Chevrolet bodyshell with the 61 Pontiac Dash, as per Chev, then 1965 to 1968, the rhd Chevrolet 65 Dash in Parisiennes except for 1967-8 Grandes Parisiennes, for South Africa, then 1969 Model Parisienne 4-door Hardtops, with the 69 rhd Chevrolet Dash.
In addition, rhd Acadians were produced until 1968 [from June 1967 sourced from St Louis, Missouri] and Beaumonts from 1963 to 1969.

FORD:
The last rhd US Ford was possibly the Model T in 1927 until the Mazda-built Probe in 1990? Built in Flat Rock, Michigan. The next rhd Ford was the Taurus for Australia, 2 years ago.
The last rhd Mercurys were possibly 1953 Models, from Oakville, Ontario.
After 1927, the responsibility for rhd Fords fell on GM of Canada. Thus export factory cars continued until 1968 from Oakville Plant, and then from 1969 to 1973, Ford of Canada exported lhd LTDs to Australia where they converted them to rhd.
In addition, until 1991 Ford imported F-series trucks from Canada, converted to rhd in Australia. There is a move affot to reimport them again I gather.
AMC: Kenosha Plant built rhd Ramblers for export right through to 1976, badged as Ramblers in the UK and Australia [assembled by AMI], and the last models were Ambassador sedans.

CHRYSLER: the Canadian Plant stopped assembling rhd cars in 1966, when the emphasis changed to Australian cars exported instead, though South Africa continued on with locally-assembled cars until 1969.
The last rhd US cars were the 1965 to 1969 Plymouth Barracudas, with the slant-six or 283 V-8. The prototype rhd car, #25 was sold in the UK and I have seen it! The next rhd cars were the Neons from about 4 years ago.

CONVERSIONS:
A few companies have handled conversions to rhd in the UK. A former racing driver and garage owner, Ken Rudd, started converting North American cars in 1965, and this included Mustangs, with the rhd Dagenham Ford Zephyr column or an Australian Falcon column, and Buick Rivieras, using a chain-driven system. The really big players though were a company called C.T. WOOLER in Andover, Hampshire. Woolers were a very old company, and were manufacturers of gears, and then conversions for gearboxes including floor changes, 4-speed units, etc., and then they got into rhd conversions for Mustangs, etc. using a sawn-off steering column and a chain drive to the lhd steering box. They then picked up a fulltime contract to convert AMC vehicles as well: with the non-factory Jeeps, AMC Pacers and Gremlins, and then until AMC died, the later Jeeps. Woolers also converted quite a few 197n Mustang 11s for Ford in the UK.






-- Edited by Oracle on Thursday 23rd of July 2009 06:51:15 AM

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Here's a supre-rare car that I had not heard of before! A rhd '68 convertible in the UK.

http://gmhistory.chevytalk.org/parisienne.jpg

-- Edited by Oracle on Sunday 27th of September 2009 04:37:43 AM

69Laurentian wrote:

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Studebaker also made right drive Larks up to 1963.

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That is quite right as The majority of the Larks were used as police vehicles then. There is a 63 Lark up for sale but the purchase price is too high to warrant restoration.