In the sedan and wagon variants at least, and discounting the WB model which was only available in van, utility and Statesman, the HZ was the last of the "full sized" family cars before the release of the smaller Commodore in 1980.

I recently met up with Andrew Townsend in Parkes to find out a little about his HZ.

Andrew bought his HZ GTS sedan four years ago.

"Like many, I'd owned an HZ Premier as a teenager and decided I wanted to rekindle that feeling," said Andrew.

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"I'd always wanted a GTS so I went on the search and found this car for sale in South Australia."

The GTS was the sports sedan in the HZ range and while many call it a Monaro, it was never badged or officially identified by Holden as a Monaro.

Andrew's GTS is a 1977 model with the optioned 308 cubic inch (5.0 litre) V8 and has factory T-bar automatic transmission, power steering, power windows and air conditioning.

On the outside, it features GTS rims and colour coded bumpers with front and rear spoilers.

The colour is Jasmine yellow with a Buckskin interior.

Making its debut in the entire HZ range was Holden's RTS (Radial Tuned Suspension) which, along with four wheel disc brakes, made the GTS a very desirable car in the 1970's.

Given only 1438 were produced, the HZ GTS has become a very collectable sports sedan in today's environment.

Like many car enthusiasts, there's just never enough time to drive them and now that Andrew has sorted a few mechanicals he's hoping to start enjoying his GTS on the road a bit more.

Having said that, he's also deliberating with thoughts of selling it to spend more time on other projects.

Andrew is a member of the Central West Car Club which now has over 360 members.

The club meets regularly on the first Wednesday of each month at Parkes Leagues Club and hosts a casual street meet on the second Friday of each month at the outdoor Coles carpark in Parkes.

For more information you can catch us at https://www.facebook.com/centralwest.carclub or at http://www.centralwestcarclub.com/.

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