It was in April 1958 when Holden’s Lang Lang test facility was officially launched to the public. The secret location, about 90km east of Melbourne, was featured in that month’s edition of Modern Motor magazine, with a dramatic photo of an FE getting some air on the cover.
The famous four-lane high-speed bowl (nearly 5km in circumference and 'designed for speeds up to 110mph') hadn’t been completed at that stage but the ‘torture track’ was already in use, testing the soon-to-be-released FC model. This section featured 7km of black top, 2km of gravel, 2km of ‘unimproved’ and 1.6km of bush track, including a 1-in-4 gradient hill. A water splash, mud hole and man-made sections of corrugations and potholes, some 20cm deep, were incorporated.
The speed bowl was in place for the launch of Holden’s EK/FB series. By 1958 Holden enjoyed a staggering 50.3 percent market share in Australia, and the new test facility, claimed at the time to be the largest outside of the United States, helped the General maintain this advantage for
some time.
Lang Lang would play an important part in the development of new Holden models right up till the end of local car manufacturing in this country.
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