GTS Monaro tops auction

A fully restored Sebring Orange 1969 Monaro GTS 350 coupe sold at auction for $200,000 this week.

It was the highest price paid for the 32 cars on offer at the Shannons 2007 Australian International Motor Show Auction.

Second best was a low-mileage 1972 LJ Torana XU-1 finished in Lone Orange that went for $143,000.

The sales follow a similar auction in September when a record $450,000 was paid for a 37-year-old XW Ford Falcon GTHO.

The V8 muscle car was bought for $4933.25 on April 24, 1970, in Mackay.

When the car came up for sale again on at the Shannons Auction it was passed in at $620,000.

The immaculate Monza Green 1971 XY was expected to beat the $683,650 record price, which a Queensland buyer paid for a similar car earlier this year.

Owner Steve Ribarevski, 30, is still confident the muscle car classic will sell on the private market.

He bought the fully-restored GTHO for $200,000 three years ago saying it was a promise he had made to himself years earlier.

“I was told by everyone at the time that I was the biggest goose in town for paying that much money for the car but I had promised myself I would own one before I was 30,” he said.

“I don't look that silly any more.”

It could even turn up at the first Shannons auction, which is to be held at a Brisbane Motor Show next February.

Shannons Queensland business development manager Philip Ross; said the auction was the beginning of what he hoped would be the first of many auctions in Queensland.

“Generally speaking if a car is passed in at auction it turns up at the next one, so the GTHO could be there,” he said.

“We're looking at having about 30 cars at the show."

“I've been out west and had a look in some of the sheds at the stuff that may come out of the woodwork."

“I'm thinking that we know there is a lot of interesting stuff in Queensland that owners weren't prepared to send to Melbourne or Sydney auctions, but may send to Brisbane because it's closer to home."

“I have no idea of what we have so far, but we like to have a good cross-section of vehicles.”

The auction vehicles will be on display at the show from February 1-10 with the auction at 2pm on the Sunday.

The last Shannons Auction held reached a record $3.75 million with $2.64 million achieved for the 62 number plates; and more than $1.1 million paid for the eclectic mix of Australian; US muscle cars as well as American and European classics on offer.

It was the best result achieved by Shannons in a combined single day sale in the company's 26-year history of classic auctions.

It was beaten only by the $4.1 million achieved in last year's RTA plate auction at the 2006 Australian Internation Motor Show. The highest single sale of the auction was $245,000 paid for the right to display the early NSW number plate 78.

Personalised Plates Queensland also holds an annual plate auction on the Wednesday of the Brisbane Motor Show, last year raising more than $531,000 for the Road Safety Fund of Queensland.

Does it make sense to waste your life savings on a 30-year-old car when for the same money you can buy 13 brand new Holden Barinas?