Holden Monaro 1972 News

The Monaro HRT 427 is listed on eBay for $1m with one bid of $900,000. The price, if accepted after bids close tomorrow at 8.42pm, would be the highest for a car sold in Australia under the hammer.Owner Paul Rammers of Cam Plastics at Narangba north of Brisbane said he was still in two minds about selling the car. "I don't need to sell it but it's time to move on a bit,'' he said. The car, one of only two roadgoing Monaro HRT 427s built, was once owned by Shawn "Chooka'' Ryan of Cairns.He paid $920,000 for the car before he was forced to sell it through Pickles Auctions in 2010. It is understood the $920,000 sale included another classic Holden which was worth far less than the HRT 427.  Mr Rammers said he did not expect to sell it on eBay but there were four seriously interested parties."One guy has phoned me six times and says he is going to fly up from Victoria tonight,'' he said. "There's another at Toowoomba who is interested. He bought Chooka's W427.''Mr Rammer said he originally bought the car after it didn't sell at auction. He paid $350,000 plus $12,000 in fees after NBA basketballer Andrew Bogut pulled out of the bid. He said he rarely drove it. "I drove it back from Sydney. It was unbelievable.''He also took it to Forbes on the back of a trailer to an HRT specialist who re-programmed it on a computer. "I've done 250km/h. It was a piece of cake plus there was a lot left.''Mr Rammers said he last drove it for a wedding photographic session at Easter last year and afterwards was pulled over by the police. He was fined $2000 for having an unregistered and uninsured vehicle and for illegal use of a trade plate.He said he had sold other cars in his collection, including EH Holdens and a Statesman, but still owned three GT Ford Cobras, a HQ Statesman and a HQ Monaro coupe."I love high performance cars. If I sell it I'll buy a HSV W427, I reckon I can get one for $110,000, an all-wheel drive Coupe 4 Monaro, which are about $55,000-$60,000 and I've got my eye on a 430 Ferrari convertible for about $200,000, which is not a lot of money.''The HRT 427 Monaro has a race-bred 7.0-litre V8 with 427kW of power, although there are no rear seats, a radio or airconditioning. The car for sale was the star of the 2002 Sydney motor show and is the only one sold privately with the other car remaining with Holden.Three race cars were built to similar specifications and won the 2003 Bathurst 24-hour with the late Peter Brock at the wheel. Holden Special Vehicles had planned to sell the production cars in a limited run for as much as $215,000, but the project could not be financially justified.

Jodie Johnson owned a 1972 HQ SS Monaro when she met her future husband Paul Johnson at a friend's birthday party in September 2000.  They were both into muscle cars and hit it off immediately. They were engaged in February 2001 and married that December.But little did Holden-loving accountant Jodie know when she met truck-driving Paul that he was a Ford fan.  "I suppose opposites attract," she says.  Paul agrees: "Ford or Holden; it doesn't matter. I know what the superior make is here."The Johnsons now have a collection of muscle cars in their garage and have started an online muscle car club that has 190 members from as far as Perth.  Jodie still owns the HQ, while Paul has a replica 1970 Falcon XW GT replica, a 1971 six-cylinder Futura and a recently acquired 1971 XY panel van."The panel van is quite a rare one. It's a project for us to do next," says Paul.  "Jodie enjoys working on them. It makes my life a lot easier with her having an interest in cars. We've got a lot in common to talk about."The GT replica is a standard XW, but with factory made genuine GT parts fitted.  "It's got all the GT parts like the interior, motor, gearbox, dashboard and stripes; it just doesn't have the GT code on the compliance plate," he says.  He bought it in Sydney four years ago for $18,000. Back in 1970 a GT would cost about $3500.Genuine GTs now fetch around $100,000-$160,000 while replicas can go for as much as $70,000.  "I don't know what it's worth, but it's got all the right parts," Paul says.  "I bought it as is and I've just changed the tyres, carbies, clutch and diff housing."It has a 351 Cleveland GT engine producing about 400hp with a four-speed top-loader manual gearbox and nine-inch diff.  "I had GTs before and I'd been looking around for a few years for a good replica. I couldn't afford a real one because the prices went silly for a couple of years," he says."I'm not kicking myself that I didn't keep the '74 XB GT. I don't regret it at all.  "This is by far my favourite Ford because of the colour. It's a total selling point.  "I knew it was a replica straight away because of the compliance plate and it was advertised as a replica.  "The next best thing to a real GT is a replica."Paul has displayed his car at hot rod shows while Jodie gave up on the show circuit two years ago to go drag racing.  Her brother bought the car 20 years ago with plans to rebuild it.  "My father got sick of it sitting in the shed doing nothing so I bought it off him for $10,000 and finished it off," she says."When we rebuilt it, it only had a 253 in it and was basically a show car.  I got sick of the show thing and cleaning it all the time, so we decided we'd make it a `go car' and took it to the drags."It now features a 454 big block engine which propels it to "high 12s" on the quarter mile strip.  "The cost all up is about $40,000," she says.  "It only comes out on weekends these days. My daily drive is a 2005 Nissan Pulsar. Pretty sad, huh?"She also owned a VK Commodore which was `pretty awesome" but when their daughters Mercedes, 4, and Palana, 2, came along the Johnsons traded it in for something with airconditioning.  Jodie says that given their love of muscle cars, Palana's name is often mistaken for Torana.

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?