Hot-six Sandman

The Sandman series was an attempt by Holden to cash in on the 1970s youth panel van craze. But if Holden had seriously wanted to make a van that reflected what was really going on out there in the youth van scene in the ‘70s, it would have come up with something like Phil Platcher’s hot-six HX Sandman. After all, what’s not to like about an 'XU-1' Sandman?

Story: Steve Normoyle

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In summary

Phil Platcher's beautifully restored 1976 HX Holden Sandman is a matching-numbers van restored to original specification - but fitted with a Torana XU-1-spec triple-carby 202 cubic-inch six-cylinder engine.

Car makers notice what people do with their cars – even years after they’ve left the new car showroom. The designers and the marketing people will pick up on things they see on the street, performance modifications or external changes people make, personal touches aimed at improving their car’s appearance – maybe a stripe or two, a blacked-out grille.

Car designers and marketers will especially notice these kinds of owner-mods if they see the same thing done on more than car. They’ll think about this when they’re back in the office and, sometimes, some of what they’ve seen finds its way into the future models.

A classic case here is the brightly painted disc brake caliper. Coloured brake calipers are standard fare on the performance models of pretty much all car manufacturers, as well as in the aftermarket brake upgrade industry. But this wasn’t always so.