Gemini a little gem for the young at heart

After spending endless hours locked away in a garage preparing your pride and joy for its new life on the road, there's no surprise that a special bond is formed between machine and owner. It's a bond where the master extracts pure enjoyment in driving without participating in 'hooning' or pushing it beyond its limits.

And it's a connection where the car is thankful for that and in return, runs smoothly.

It's one of respect and appreciation, and it's a connection Gemini owner Barry Foulger-Turner knows all too well. “When you become an enthusiast and do all the work yourself, you seem to take more pride in the car,” he says.

“After all that time and effort and late nights out in the garage, you don't want to see anything go wrong, you want to be able to take it to the next show without putting your hand in your pocket.”

Foulger-Turner's 1977 TX Gemini has become an important part of his life, transforming it from an average older model into one that now shines.

It's the 53-year-old's third Gemini and is also the one he has “spent all the money on.” There's no half-way measures for Foulger-Turner, who rebuilt the car from the ground up.

The 1600cc motor has been fully worked and is now fitted with a turbo for extra performance. He's added parts from different Commodore models, including the front brakes and diff. Inside it has a full leather interior trim and the outside has a shiny new coat of paint.

While Foulger-Turner says he's owned a lot of V8s and six-cylinder cars over the years, he's a newcomer to the turbo engine.

He recalls having his eye on Geminis from an early age, having grown up in a country town and seeing a lot of the local coal miners driving them.

“They're just a car of their own, a nice comfortable little car to drive and it doesn't matter where you go or what you do,” he says.

“I have always had a fascination with Geminis.”

He finally decided to take the plunge and buy his own 'Gemi' five years ago. “ I was sick of all the late model cars ... and I liked the idea of a hands-on thing,” he says.

And after joining the NSW Gemini club and hearing other owners' ideas for their Geminis, Foulger-Turner found that it wasn't long before he too had caught the bug.

“Everybody there was so keen in doing things, "This is what we've done, this is what we're going to do,” he says. “And from then, I started left right and centre and still haven't stopped.”

Foulger-Turner also owns a 1981 TE Gemini panel van, which he uses as his daily driver; saving the sedan for shows and weekend cruises.

“With this one, I'd cry if someone hit it,” he says of the sedan he's committed many hours to.

When first released three decades ago, the Gemini was worth about $5000. And while a standard version would fetch about $3000 today, Foulger-Turner believes a model like his could attract $12,000 to $14,000.

The Holden Gemini, originally an Isuzu from Japan, became the first small 'world' car for General Motors and was sold under many names.

It was the cheap and affordable car of the day.

By 1975, Holden began manufacturing the Gemini in Australia and it quickly became a hit.

A total of 42,792 TX Gemini's were built and Foulger-Turner says there are still many of them remaining and on the road in NSW today.

He's even passed the interest on to his children; his two sons helped re-spray the car. One son also once owned a Gemini of his own.

But for him, it's not just Geminis, as he's a fan of all older Holden models because they're easy to work on and “they're always reliable, they've got a good background.”

Foulger-Turner adopted his passion for tinkering under the hood from his stepfather, an engineer who was “always working on boats, cars, trucks and lawn mowers”.

His older brother also shares that passion, although he sits on the Ford side of the fence and is especially into hot rods.

But for Foulger-Turner, it's all about his small, but very quick, Gemini.

“It's very light. It's 890kg, but very quick,” he says. “It's quicker than a WRX."

“They tell me it's probably a 12-and-a-half second car, but it's all legal.”

Snapshot

1977 TX GEMINI

value when new: about $5000

value now: about $12,000 to $14,000 for one in good condition.

verdict: this was GMs first 'world' car, and Holden's most affordable vehicle of the day. It still lives on among many younger fans and those nostalgic for their own younger days.

Does this little gem bring back memories for the Gemi owners?