ON THE ROAD- Holden Holds “Dream Cruise”to Mark end of production after 69 Years!

It’s time to clean your Commodore, tidy your Torana and brighten your Brougham as the Holden Dream Cruise takes to the streets of South Australia this Sunday, October 15.

As one of Australia’s most eagerly anticipated car events, the Dream Cruise is open to anyone (with a driver’s licence!), from owners of the very first 1948 48-215 to the latest SSV Redline Commodore.

Austalia’s iconic Holden brand will cease Australian production this week and to mark the event, Holden themselves have organised the crusie, where they expect over 1000 Australian-made Holdens to gather for the start of the cruise at the Elizabeth City Centre shopping centre before passing the Red Lion’s Adelaide factory and finishing up at Central District Football Club. Leading the pack will be the brand’s first ever car, the 48-215 while at the other end of the field will be Holden’s last-generation Commodore, a VFII.

The parade will include a 10km street parade through the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, and will culminate in a family day a short distance from the General Motors-owned carmaker’s factory in Elizabeth.

The final day of manufacturing will be marked with a private event for its 900 remaining employees on Friday, October 20. It follows the Victorian closures of Toyota’s Altona plant last week and Ford’s Geelong factory a year ago. Holden closed its engine factory at Fisherman’s Bend in Victoria late last year.
By the end of last week more than 1200 cars from as far away as Perth, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and regional South Australia had registered for the Holden cruise but organisers predict that by the time Sunday rolls around the number could be as high as 5000.

A similar number of Holden fans are expected to line the route, which begins at Elizabeth City shopping centre at 9am and winds its way past Holden’s vehicle operations plant on Philip Highway before ending at the Elizabeth Oval fun day about 11.45am.

The last three limited edition VFII Commodores (below) will also be auctioned off on the day to help support The Smith Family and the Lighthouse Foundation.

Holden, of course, is well known in the world of Motorsport through their hugely successful exploits in Australian saloon car racing, and latterly in V8 Supercars….