“More Men have walked on the Moon than held the role of Holden Design Director.”
Richard Ferlazzo is one of those few men.
As a schoolboy, Richard could never choose between drawing Italian sports cars or Aussie muscle cars, so he filled the pages of his school books with drawings of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari classics and his versions of Monaro, Falcon and Charger coupes.
As Director of Design at Holden, Richard Ferlazzo lost none of his early schoolboy passion for designing cars. He joined the Holden design studio working on the VN Commodore and then for over 30 years, helped shape designs for Commodores, Statesmans and many smaller Holden cars. Who will ever forget Richard’s tribute to the FJ Holden - his Efijy concept car, awarded globally on the world design stage.
In this episode, Richard explains how, following the export success of Holden’s VT platform, Detroit bosses finally granted Holden a blank canvas to build the first ever all-Australian designed and built Commodore - Holden’s Billion Dollar Baby, the VE Commodore. In fact, it was Holden’s first all new model since the HQ.
Richard was the last man ever to lead Holden design and was literally the last guy to switch off the lights on GM’s Australian Design Studio, ending nearly 100 years of local design history.
Richard’s Sportwagon (designed with fellow designer Tony Stolfo) transformed how Australian families could re-imagine the modern station wagon in a world dominated by SUVs and he re-draws his designs for our cameras.
Ferlazzo firmly says the Design team kept the best to last - the VF Commodore! In a fitting twist of fate, Richard resketches the VF SS-V and the last ever Holden logo which he also designed, now a permanent reminder of what we once had and one of Richard’s proudest designs.
“Shannons are proud to commission this landmark series to celebrate the rich design heritage of the cars we all know and love. While Shannons plays a key role as Australia’s leading insurer for motoring enthusiasts, we also believe it is very important to preserve our automotive history for future generations” said Mark Behr, Executive Manager, Marketing for Shannons.