From 1969 to 2000, General Motors Holden offered its own V8 engine for the Australian home market. And no, it wasn’t a copy of any previous GM V8.

In January of 1965, as the Holden division of General Motors mapped out its plan to produce V8-powered vehicles for the Australian home market, there were two possible paths under the nation’s tight trade and tariff policies. Holden could import an existing corporate V8 design and manufacture it locally, as its competitor Ford of Australia had done, or develop a new V8 in-house that was optimized for local cars and conditions.

The Holden project team, led by engineers Fred James and Ed Silins, took the DIY approach with their V8, but wisely chose to borrow freely from the best features of GM’s current OHV V8s: Chevy, Olds, Pontiac, Buick, and Cadillac. And while Holden was free to pursue its own V8, the design was then carefully scrutinized by the home office in Detroit before it was approved for production, reportedly. The fascinating result is a V8 that is instantly recognizable as a GM product, but isn’t a copy of any previous GM V8.

Often assumed (by Americans) to be a derivative of the Chevy small-block V8, the Holden is in fact remarkably different. The bore spacing is 4.40 inches, same as the SBC, but the similarity ends there. The timing-chain housing is die-cast aluminum, like a Buick 215 V8 (see our feature on the Buick aluminum V8 here) and mounted on it is an external oil pump, which permitted the use of both front-sump and rear-sump oil pans. To meet local needs, the Holden V8 was engineered to be especially light and compact, matching the smaller dimensions of Australian sedans, and to use simplified cores and tooling due to the lower production volume. At only 460 lbs with a cast-iron block and heads, the Holden struck at least one of its design targets in the bullseye.

Note that while the oil pump is driven from the front of the camshaft, the ignition distributor is driven from the rear, an arrangement unlike any American production V8. Firing order is 12784563, with the cylinders numbered 2468 on the left and 1357 right. The pushrod valvetrain is similar to second-gen Olds V8, with stamped steel rocker arms on cast-aluminum pedestals, and with extra-travel hydraulic lifters, no provision for lash adjustment was required.

For its 1969 introduction, the Holden V8 was offered in two sizes: 253 cubic inches with a 3.625-in bore and 3.062-in stroke, and 308 cubic inches with 4.00-in x 3.062-in dimensions. Sporting a Stromberg WW2 two-barrel, the 253 was originally rated at 185 hp, while the 308, breathing through a Rochester Quadrajet, was good for 240 hp. Over the years several more displacements were introduced: 304 CID in 1985, 344 CID in 1986, and 350 CID in 1994.

Like any popular American V8, the Holden has been hot-rodded in every conceivable way, for applications from drag racing to water skiing. And naturally, an entire industry sprang up to support these efforts, just as it did for the flathead Ford V8 and the Small-Block Chevy in the USA. Shown above is a Holden V8 prepared, using all the familiar tricks of the trade, to run in the Australian Formula 5000 series by Repco, the same company that furnished the engines for Jack Brabham’s 1966 Formula 1 title. Holden V8s won countless races and championships in their day, most famously in the Australian Touring Car Championship and its successors.

Continually updated over the years, the Holden V8 received digital fuel injection, improved cylinder heads, and other refinements in its final stages of factory development (below). But as the time came to develop an all-new, second-generation version of the home-market V8, the cost couldn’t be justified. After more than half a million units were manufactured, the last Holden V8 came off the transfer line at the Fishermans Bend plant near Melbourne on June 28, 1999. For the final 17 years of production, Holden V8 models were powered by GM global LS-family V8s.