RHD 61 Chevy - How?

[GTBob]

I have an old postcard from Peterborough that seems to show a RHD 61 Chevrolet. I understand some cars were were built as RHD in Australia, assembled from kits supplied from Canada. Were other RHD cars assembled somewhere else for the UK market?
Thanks
Bob

[williamp]

Always wondered this too. If Australia can have rhd American cars, why cant we??

[motorizer]

I don't know about chevys but my brothers RHD galaxie was sold here new in 1966, built in Canada I think
South Africa had RHD American cars as well as Australia and some others.

[roscobbc]

'American' cars have always been a bit of a mix - 60's RHD Chevy's have been assembled in Canada, sometimes badged as Pontiacs. Similar for Ford - often totally different dashboards to equivalent American market cars - Rambler/AMC and Studebaker did much the same thing. Going back pre WW2 American 'knock down' kits were assembled from Chrysler and other in the UK (relatively simple job with 'chassied' cars) Later Ford's (Mustang 11's) and others were converted by specialists in the UK commissioned by the respective manufacturers. Odd individual batches of vehicles have also been converted by independent specialists (including strange things like 69/70 Ferguson 4WD Mustang Cobra Jets). South Africa I believe assembled RHD vehicles from 'knock down' kits - can't answer for Aussie vehicles.

[some bloke]

There were a fair number of RHD GM products sold new in NZ too - I had a 63 Belair that was Canadian built, (assembled in NZ I think?) I think they were doing that up until 67 or so. Used to be lots of GM, Chryslers and the like, but in the 60's we started getting more Aussie styled cars.

[Jader1973]

My barber has a RHD Impala which was assembled in Melbourne (note I am in Aus).

I did a bit of googling and it seems the “Holden” factories were actually “GM” factories up to the late 60s and actually built various other GM brands alongside Holdens, and the dealers were actually GM dealers. The Holdens were fully localised but a fair bit of the other brands came CKD from Canada. Things like interior trim were localised.

As far as I can tell Holden actually sat underneath Chevrolet in the brand hierarchy.

ETA - I found the page I got the above info from

https://1967chevroletimpalaaustralia.wordpress.com...

Edited by Jader1973 on Thursday 18th March 08:46

[21st Century Man]

My first car aged 17 was a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda, it was RHD built in Belgium.

PMD 4E, it appears to still be around having done a gov vehicle check. Would love to see it again.

[NMNeil]

Maybe a conversion from LHD.