Classic TV : Holden Torana RTS with Peter Brock

Rich Fowler•22 April, 2024

"Radial Tuned Suspension" was the message in the classic 1977 TV Commercial featuring Peter Brock driving the Holden Torana LX.

What better advocate could you have for explaining what Holden engineers did to transition vehicle dynamics from bias-ply tyres to steel-belted radials than Peter Brock?

"Watch me straighten this corner!"- Peter Brock

Neither the Holden Torana LX nor nine-time Bathurst winner, Peter Brock need an introduction, so we won't. Instead let's take a quick peek into the Radial Tuned Suspension story.

If you've watched our video, you'll agree it sounds amazing, and it was for the time. But what Holden was really saying was: "we tuned the suspension to work with the tyres".

That's a given in this day and age, and some car brands even go so far as to get tyre manufacturers to make special tyre treads and compounds to suit their latest car. But in the 1970s it was big news, coming at the same time that Holden moved away from bias-ply tyres to steel-belted radial tyres.

Holden's decision to publicise this move under the Radial Tuned Suspension banner was a marketing masterstroke.

And here's a little Easter egg lurking in the Radial Tuned Suspension story. One of the engineers behind RTS was a young German by the name of Peter Hanenberger.

Hanenberger explained RTS at the time thusly: it is designed to “reduce vehicle roll when cornering, improve straight-ahead stability and improve vehicle handling and load carrying ability on all types of road surfaces.”

Hanenberger returned to GM's Opel division in Germany soon after, but would come back to Australia early in the 2000s as its Managing Director - a position in which he could unleash Holden's true engineering genius and give us modern icons like the reborn Holden Monaro, the Crewman 4-door ute and the Cross8 Commodore offroader.

Not all of Hananberger's visionary achievements reaped commercial gold, but his work on RTS was one of his biggest gifts to Australia.

Lastly, can you name the stretch of road used in the video? It looks a lot like the Arthur's Seat climb on Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula.

Rich Fowler

Writer

"If it moves and makes a noise, count me in. That pretty much sums up my lifelong passion for motoring and motorsport history. Rich has worked in various roles in the digital and motoring media world, starting his career at Autosport and also working at Auto Action, Motor, and as the founder and publisher of Motorsport Retro.

Most recently, Rich successfully launched Collecting Cars in the Australian market, growing the brand from 0 to $150 million in sales in just 3 years."

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

The perpetrators of an infamous University of Adelaide Prosh Day prank which saw an FJ Holden suspended from a footbridge have finally been revealed.

Hot Lap: Ride On Board In A Lotus 26R

With a name like Horatio Fitz-Simon you'd expect him to be quick! Ride on board with this young up and coming historic racer in a Lotus 26R at the recent Velocity Festival in Sonoma.