Holden on for next Bash

Drive this car and it feels like an old Holden, albeit in a good state of tune and fairly solid. So why do pedestrians and fellow motorists stare as you cruise by?

Perhaps it has something to do with the three large model penguins, complete with bow ties, atop the higher-than-usual roof.

Most people have heard of the Variety Bash, an annual drive for crazy old cars (and their occupants) through the Outback as part of fundraising for children's charities.

This is entrant Car 222, used in the annual Variety Bash by a team of three hard-working Adelaide ladies, Sue Pearce, Roz Chow and Ann Ewer and they are not shy about publicity - for they need more support to fundraise for the 2008 Variety Bash.

“We borrowed a car to go in the Variety Bash in our first year,” says Ms Pearce. That year, they raised more than $100,000 for the children's causes.

“Someone was so impressed he said he'd buy us our own car. And this is it,” Ms Pearce says.

The Variety organisation calls its Bash “an eight-day drive in the country with your mates.”

It's not a race or a rally (though navigation and tricky off-road bits are part of the challenge) and vehicles must be pre-1970.

Car 222 has a few HG Holden bits from 1971 but is allowed because it is a 'run-on' model from the pre-1970 HT Holden. It's a Premier station wagon and has the plush-look interior of the luxury-version Holden of the day.

It runs a carburettor-fed V8 engine, automatic transmission with column shift, front and rear bench seats covered in black lambswool and has been given a wood-rim sports steering wheel and Sunraysia-type wheels.

The motor fires with a sense of power, the V8 accelerating the wagon with surety. The steering could do with an alignment though - driving straight ahead needs an eighth of turn to the right. Apart from some mystery groans from the rear (no, there was no back passenger), the old Holden wagon feels solid, tight and reliable.

It carries on its high roof sirens and flashing yellow lights for driving in dust.

The Bash is deemed as reward, the finale, for a year's fundraising by the cars' crews and is known for putting “fun” into fundraising.

The 2007 Bash raised $1.7 million for Variety children's charities in South Australia.

And Car 222's three ladies, complete with their Penguin suits, in 2007 raised a record for one car - $176,962. They are aiming for $200,000 this year.

They acknowledge help from a list of supporters, including the House of Chow, Adelaide Expo Hire, Fairmont Homes, Robarra barramundi farm and Adelaide Airport.

They need pledges of support for their 2008 effort, if not hard cash sponsorship then vouchers and products they can raffle or use as prizes.

And they wouldn't mind an airconditioner in the old Holden. It can be hot work out there scrambling over sand-hills and dispensing penguin cheer.

To learn more about these old-Holden driving funsters or telephone 8350 2300.