Holden VB Commodore

The Holden VB Commodore is a mid-size car that was produced by the Australian subsidiary of General Motors, Holden. The car was officially launched on 26 October 1978 with show rooms receiving the first examples on 13 November 1978. Production of the VB only lasted seventeen months, the shortest reign of any Commodore. The VB Commodore was effectively the successor of the Holden HZ, although most models in that series continued to be produced until the introduction of the facelifted Holden VC Commodore on 30 March 1980.

95,906 units of the VB Commodore were manufactured during the car's lifespan, and during 1979 the VB became Australia's number one selling car. Also in 1979, the VB won the first of Holden Commodore's five Wheels magazine Car of the Year awards, with the car being praised in the media for its value for money and engineering sophistication.

The VB Commodore was loosely based on the 1977 Opel Rekord E bodyshell but with the front grafted on from the Opel Senator to accommodate the larger Holden six-cylinder and V8 engines, giving it a similar appearance to the Opel Commodore. Overall, the body was strengthened substantially to withstand the harsh conditions of the Australian outback. Total cost of development is reported to be over A$110 million.

The Commodore represented a major shift in thinking for Holden since it was significantly smaller than the previous full-size family car, the Holden Kingswood, but visually similar in size to the mid-size Torana / Sunbird sedans. It essentially came about in response to the 1973 oil crisis and the need to produce more fuel-efficient cars. Holden, hedging their bets, initially built the Commodore alongside the other two established bodystyles, until the Torana was dropped in mid-1979, with only the Sunbird surviving into mid-1980 following release of the updated VC Commodore. The VB was available in three specification levels: Commodore, Commodore SL, and Commodore SL/E. A station wagon variant - not available in SL/E form - was released on 24 July 1979, hitting show rooms on 6 August 1979. It featured a large cargo area and an easy access one-piece lift-up tailgate. As the wagon-specific sheet metal had to be imported from Germany (from the Rekord), the wagon, introduced in July 1979, suffered from inevitable component differences from the sedan, confirmed by the separate keys for the ignition system and tailgate.

The OHV engines were largely carried over from the Kingswood: a 2.85 litre 64 kilowatt (86 hp) straight-six, 3.3 litre 71 kilowatt (96 hp) straight-six, 4.2 litre 87 kilowatt (117 hp) V8, which was also available with dual exhausts to produce 96 kilowatts (129 hp) of power, and a 5.0 litre 114 kilowatt (153 hp) V8, which in dual exhaust form was rated at 125 kilowatts (168 hp). The engine blocks on these motors were painted red and are therefore commonly referred to as the Red motors. The VB was also available with either a four-speed manual transmission or a three-speed Trimatic automatic transmission, or the Turbo-Hydramatic 350/400 automatic transmission with the 5.0 litre V8.