BADGE OF HONOUR?
BACK in the day, putting a Chev badge on your Holden meant you had a tough rat or mouse motor under the bonnet, and was treated with respect. But as Simon Major relates in his Blowin’ Gaskets piece on streetmachine.com.au, the rash of Chev badges on late-model Commodores in more recent years has given younger folks who might not be up on their street machining history the wrong idea. For proof, here’s just a sample of the back-and-forth that took place on our Facebook page.
Mark Seibold – Chev motors were not as prolific then as they are now. If you owned a Holden, 90 per cent of the time it had a Holden motor. If you were running a mouse or a rat, that small badge was just a nice touch.
John Brandt – It used to mean something. It was respected, it created interest. “Oh look, a Chev badge on that Monaro/kingswood/ute, it must have a mouse in it, or maybe a rat!” Now it’s just a wank.
Tony Hales – It means something now too: The owner is a dickhead!
Sesh Threepeo – I’ve seen Cruzes and Captivas with Chev badges – definitely a wanker alert system.
Tristan Kleinig – What’s the term mouse or rat stand for? Sorry, this is before my time.
Roly Jackson – Mouse is a small-block Chev
(as in Mighty Mouse, or the little engine that could, etc) and the rat is a big-block Chev.
HQ For U Rodney Menso – Geez people don’t like the Chev badge on the Monaro; hope they don’t find out it’s got a Ford diff, German seats and English wheels – imagine the uproar! Now if you’ll excuse me, I might go and take my Street Machine cover car for a cruise!
Gav Horne – People ran Chev badges on their Chevy-powered old Holden back in the day and nobody had a problem. These days, people run Chev badges on their Chevypowered Commodores and every moron loses their minds! Go figure.
Jamie Parry – Ls-series engines aren’t Chevs. They are a GM family motor, put in just about everything made by GM.
David Pickering – All the young idiots commenting don’t know shit. It was an option from the factory – Chev or Holden. To tell them apart we would put a Bowtie on. It’s not that hard to figure out. And yes the clowns that do it today are dumb-as; an LS engine is GM not Chev.
Andrew Clatworthy – Look at the facts. All the anti-chev badge debate was started by internet trolls. Before the internet a Chev badge on anything – even non-gm – was not a problem. The real wankers are the critics of Chev-badged cars. That’s a fact.