50-year mystery solved: Who hung an FJ Holden from an Adelaide footbridge?

We’ve all seen teenagers pull off daring pranks in films and TV shows, but it’s not so often you see ones this audacious in real life, let alone with the perpetrators getting away with it for more than 50 years.

In 1971, a group of engineering students at the University of Adelaide pulled the ultimate Prosh prank by suspending an FJ Holden from a footbridge over the River Torrens.

This wasn’t the group’s first attempt – the Morris Minor they first tried with ended up in the water the year before – but the lessons learned from that failure ensured success the following August.

Purchasing the car from a fellow student who advertised it on the University’s noticeboards, it was first taken away for modifications to ensure the FJ remained dry this time.

While those shown in this newspaper photograph were presumed to be the perps, they were actually pedestrians trying to navigate a welded-shut gate from a separate prank (Supplied: University of Adelaide's Lumen magazine)

Students Dean Eckert and Alan Palmer removed the engine and gearbox from the vehicle, selling them to recoup some of the cost, along with drilling holes in the floor and roof to suspend it from.

Hooks were also added at various points for threading lifting cables through and to attach an A-frame at the front so it could be towed to the bridge. Since it was to be towed at night, the brake lights were hooked up to the vehicle in front so as not to raise any suspicion.

Once towed to the site, it was pushed by the students from the road down to the footpath by the bridge. From there, it was hoisted into position over the middle of the river using a workshop floor crane with a spreader beam, with one of the more daring members of the group climbing atop the FJ to attach the chain hanging from the bridge to the top of the car.

The group of perpetrators included a mix of civil and electrical engineering students (Supplied: University of Adelaide's Lumen magazine)

With the car finally dangling precariously over the water, the pranksters scrambled to retreat as they waited for it to be discovered by fellow students on the morning of Prosh Day. Unsurprisingly, it attracted quite a crowd – some of whom were keen to see what would happen if they jumped up and down on the bridge. You can imagine what happened next.

Many years later, Adelaide City Council tried to track down the perpetrators, wanting them to foot the bill for the infamous FJ Holden being removed from the silt, although this proved unsuccessful.

However, the team at the University of Adelaide’s Lumen magazine – who provided Retro Rides with assets for this story – managed to track down and reunite the pranksters 53 years later to reminisce on the experience.

The perpetrators of the prank were reunited at the same bridge 53 years later, although this mint FJ certainly isn't the same one that ended up in the Torrens (Supplied: University of Adelaide's Lumen magazine)

Ironically, the hanging Holden wasn’t the only prank played on that bridge on that August evening in 1971. A group of architecture students welded the bridge gates shut in an unrelated prank, creating two obstacles for those attempting to cross.

The main prank of the suspended FJ, however, wasn’t the first of its kind. The group of Adelaide engineering students had taken inspiration from a group of Cambridge University students successfully suspending a 1928 Austin 7 from the famous Bridge of Sighs even further back in 1963.

The group of students took inspiration from a similar prank played at Cambridge University eight years earlier (Supplied: University of Adelaide's Lumen magazine)