Holden Monaro 1974 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.

Don't take our word for it; just ask psychologist Lindsay Trims, 46, who's put his money where his mouth is and bought his own teen fantasy, a '74 four-door HJ Monaro GTS four-door sedan. "It makes me feel I'm alive," he says. "As a psychologist I have seen a number of people go through a midlife crisis and didn't think I would go through one myself," he says. "My wife told me I needed a hobby and having this car is allowing me to re-live that critical part of our lives which I believe is around that 18- to 22-year-old period. It's the sound of a classic V8 with the lumpy cam that takes you back. "I was looking for a suitable (Ford Falcon) XA or XB GT, or (Holden) HQ or HJ because when I was 17 they were the cars we admired. I wanted something pre-emission controls because they started mellowing them down and reducing horsepower." Trim's HQ hasn't mellowed. Quit the opposite. A previous owner fitted it with a 308 (5-litre) blueprinted V8, but Trim also has the matching-number 253 (4.2-litre) V8 stored away. Except for a new audio system, the rest of the car is in original mint condition and has been garaged for the past four or five years, lovingly looked after by a mechanic. It even came with the original papers. "It had just 74,000 kays on the clock, but then the odo doesn't go to six figures, so it could have already been around once,' he says. "But it's never let me down yet and starts every time." Trim bought it for $5098 six months ago and reckons it's worth $25,000 or more with the original motor, but he has no plans of selling. In fact, he's thinking of getting that Falcon down the track. Meanwhile, the HQ is his daily driver, using it to commute and do the school run with his daughters, Maya, 11, and Millicent, 6. "Milli's embarrassed to be seen in it because it's an old car and hasn't got AC as good as modern cars," he says. "She hasn't worked out it's a `cool' car yet, but in five years' time she will probably ask me to take her to the formal in it." Most Monaro aficionados frown on the four-door HQ and HJ models as "not real Monaros", but Trims doesn't care. "I like the look and the style and it's more practical with a family," he says. "It's also rarer. "When you drive it you really know you are driving it; at 60 kays it feels like you are doing 110. The only time you know you are in a '74 car is in the wet when it doesn't pull up too well." Trim's advice to you, the reader, is to "find the balance" in your life, "be a bit selfish" and buy your teen-dream car. "I counsel people with issues of depression, anxiety and grief and I ask them what they want out of life and what's stopping them," he says. "If it's money, then get something a bit cheaper. I probably have taken this passion too far; the car even has a Facebook page, 'Merv Monaro' that keeps friends up to date. "But I'm living the dream and that can't be a bad thing." HJ Monaro GTS Year:1974 Price: $5098 Price Now: $25,000 Engine: 5-litre V8 Body: four-door sedan Transmission: 4-speed manual Did you know: Holden built 4754 HQ Monaros and about 1000 were coupes. Got a special car you'd like featured in Carsguide? Modern or classic we're interested in hearing your story. Please send a pic and brief info to mark.hinchliffe@carsguide.com.au

"It's a beautiful race car, and Peter loved driving it," says museum owner and long-time Brock friend Peter Champion.  The nine-time Bathurst champion died in September 2006 when his Daytona slammed into a tree at a rally event near Perth. Champion said most of the 40 people attending the unveiling on Saturday night shed a tear.  "It is an emotional thing but something had to be done to preserve his memory," he said. "I've been living with it for four years but I still shed a tear. It's sad but it's a part of history."  Champion had the wreckage restored to its racing glory by the original builder, Richard Bendall, and his company Daytona Sports Cars, in Dromana, Victoria. Champion would not disclose the cost of restoration for the 1960s-style muscle car.  "Put it this way, you could have bought a new one for the price we paid to restore it," he said. A new Daytona coupe can cost between $150,000 and $200,000.  James Bendall, who did most of the restoration work, said it took about 800 hours over two years to complete. "That's about how long it takes to build a new car," he said.  "It still has the original engine, gearbox, differential and suspension.  It was very gratifying to see it back in one piece again and a bit sad when it left the factory. "We've copped a lot of criticism from people over the crash in the past few years which is fairly annoying, but we were very proud of how it came up in the end." Champion said it was difficult to decide on how to display the car.  "We thought about putting it in a room on its own, but it would have become a shrine and personally I don't think there is any place for a shrine among over 40 of his cars," he said. "It's like the last chapter of a book. It has to be part of the same story.  A good friend of mine was against restoring and displaying it but he changed his mind after visiting the Henry Ford museum in the US and seeing the car JFK was shot in. He said it was a tragedy but part of history." Champion said he had thought about moving the museum to a more popular tourist location such as the Gold Coast.  "There has been a big push to get it moved to Melbourne, Sydney, the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast," "If you wanted more people through it you'd have to be on the Gold Coast somewhere. Who knows, it may end up there some day."  Champions Brock Experience is the largest collection of Brock road and race cars in the country and features Brock's first 1956 Austin A30, Bathurst winners, rally cars and his Bathurst 24-Hour Monaro. There is also a collection of highly modified road-going HDT Special Vehicles built in the 1980s by Brock until he parted with Holden in 1987.  The only Fords in the collection are a 1989 EB Fairmont Ghia Brock built after the Holden split and his Sierra Cosworth touring car. Champion's collection of vehicles and memorabilia was sitting in a Blackwater shed until Brock suggested it be turned into a public museum.

A hotrod Camaro is now being developed to go head-to-head with the Ford Mustang GT500, promising a return of the classic Z28 badge in 2012. Chevrolet is finalising testing of the born-again Z28, right down to running it against the GT500, and the car is caught by Carparazzi during the trails. There is predictable camouflage, but not enough to disguise the much- larger air intake in the nose and a pronounced lip spoiler. There are also giant 20-inch alloy wheels and brakes that could have come from the Cadillac CTS-V. The rear end reveals a set of dual pipes on either side of the car and Carparazzi photographers report a thunderous Nascar-style exhaust note. There are also potential mounting points for a rear spoiler. The car will be powered by a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 and the test car is running an automatic gearbox. The final result for the Z28 is likely to be similar to the Transformers Camaro displayed on the American motor show circuit last year, although GM's engineers are having some of their own fun with a Nascar-style number 2 on the side. The Z28 is likely to be revealed at the Detroit Motor Show in January for American sales, headlining a mildly facelifted 2011 Camaro range, in the first half of next year.

Racing legend Peter Brock drove many race cars in his long and successful career. And with his passing late last year, the value of his classics increased dramatically. So it's not surprising that what could be the most important car of his life, where he first began his racing passion, has been valued at a massive $400,000. Or is it surprising?It's not a vehicle from the muscle car family and there's no V8 power under the bonnet. The only race track it's been on was a self-made dirt course on the Brock family farm.It has no brakes and has been sitting in pieces for more than 50 years.But now, the 1929 Austin 7, the car where the racing legend learned to drive at the age of 12, is driveable once again.After six months of hard work, restorer Peter Denman has returned the car from Brock's childhood to its original form.As a friend of Brock's and with his wife as the director of the Peter Brock Foundation, Denman put his hand up for the job.He used four photographs that were taken at the time by Brock's older brother Neil, to help in the restoration process.The photographs of the engine, chassis and rear end allowed him to recreate the car as closely as possible.“The car was remarkably complete except for a few items,” he says.“The original engine was on it and the chassis was the original. It needed quite a bit of cutting rust out and so forth.”Denman says that despite its small size, there was considerable work involved, including a rebuild on the front and rear ends, the gearbox and repairing the engine.The engine was in a poor state and was split in half, so Denman had to call on the Austin 7 club to help weld it together so the original engine could remain in the car.Another obstacle Denman faced was the flooring. As the original had rotted away, he used wood Peter had collected to make his own furniture in recent years.Brock's younger brother, Lewis Brock, last weekend re-enacted the image of Brock racing around the family farm in his first car.He says the image of Peter and his dad working on the car is etched in his memory.“I won't forget it, all the boys were involved in varying degrees, but it was Peter's car. He did the work on it,” he says.Lewis fondly recalls Peter getting into trouble from their mother for cutting the body of the car with an axe. He says she was more concerned about the damage to the axe.Lewis believes he and Peter were the only two to have driven the car as youngsters and the one time he got behind the wheel, he ended up in a palm tree.“I was struggling to get my legs down to the pedals,” he says.Lewis says his brother had to fine-tune his skills of going down through the gears and putting it into a slide in order to stop.Brock drove the car until he was 16. Although many decades have passed, Lewis says the noise of the engine is still identical from their childhood.“It's fabulous,” he says. “When we started the engine, my uncle Sandy was there ... we looked at each other when the car fired up and said that's the same noise.”Both Lewis and Denman describe it as interesting to drive, Denman claiming it feels like a “rocket ship”. “It only weighs probably 200kg.“It's very, very low to the ground, it's something that you couldn't describe,” he says.Lewis is concerned over the lack of brakes and says he won't be driving it again until brakes are installed.The previous owner bought the car from Sandy Brock 45 years ago and had it sitting in the roof of his factory for most of that time. About 10 years ago he discovered it was Brock's first car.Lewis says Brock knew about the car, but didn't have any plans to reclaim it. But after Brock's death last year, the owner decided to sell it and it was purchased and donated to the Peter Brock Foundation by a supporter.“Peter would be rapt,” Lewis says. “He would think it was a hoot and he was probably sitting on the back axle watching me drive it. That's what it felt like.”If Brock's history was taken out of the picture, Denman says the car would be worth a lot less.“The car itself is probably worth $2000 if you wanted to buy one, for the chassis, the engine, that's what you'd pay,” he says. “It's the history of the car, the car is complete.”The Peter Brock Foundation will now display the car at different shows and racetracks around the country and it's likely to end up in a museum.“When Peter signed signatures he'd put on posters `follow your dreams',” Lewis says.“That's where it started for him, he turned it into something to hone his skills in.”And Lewis says Peter would want everyone to see it. While this might have been his first, there are many more cars where Brock mastered his driving skills. According to the fans and collectors, Brock would have raced more than 100 cars during his time on the track. The most valued and important of those would have been his victories at Bathurst.Queenslander Peter Champion has a collection of 32 Brock cars, both ones he raced and road registered models.He's collected the cars over the past 15 years and believes they would be worth between $6 million and $7 million.The collection includes a replica of the Austin A30 Brock raced in 1967, a project Brock's step-son James Brock completed for Champion. The first Bathurst car Brock raced, the 1969 Monaro is also in the collection, as well as the 1974 L34 Torana and the 1982, 1983 and 1984 Bathurst-winning Commodores.He also has the Ford Sierra and the 2002 Motorola-sponsored Commodore that he raced at Bathurst. And Champion this week said he and his team are currently rebuilding the car that claimed Brock's life.“I'm guessing they're worth from half a million to a million each, that's what people say. I don't get involved, they're not for sale.”As Brock's friend, navigator and competitor, Champion wants to share his collection from Brock's career with the public.“I'm building a museum which I have been doing for a number of years. Peter was involved in with me for quite a few years. A lot of the personal stuff, he gave to it,” Champion says.“The reason he was an icon was because he always had time for people, he always stood there and signed autographs, he stayed well after dark.”Champion says the museum should be opened in Queensland by the end of the year.Fellow Queenslander, David Bowden, has his own slice of Brock history. He owns the Bathurst-winning A9X Torana's from 1978 and 1979, as well as Brock's 1987 VL Commodore. He says that although the value of the cars has increased with Brock's passing, Bowden's not comfortable talking about what they're worth.“It's so hard, he was such a good mate to everyone, that I hate talking about things like that,” he says.The value is not important, Bowden says, as he wouldn't consider selling them at this stage. He says he's spent too much money building up his collection to sell them.“I don't expect to jump on for a quick profit,” says Bowden, who often sends his cars to Bathurst so the public can see them.“Brocky” did his last hot lap at Bathurst in the 1979 A9X Torana. Where are they now? Brock's classic cars 1967 Austin A30 original lost, replica owned by Peter Champion1969 Monaro (Bathurst third place) owned by Peter Champion1972 XU-1 Torana (Bathurst winner) owned by Glen Amos1973-74 XU-1 Torana sold last year for $500,000 to an anonymous Melbourne buyer1974 L34 Torana owned by Peter Champion1975 Torana (Bathurst winner) lost1978 A9X Torana (Bathurst winner) owned by David Bowden1979 A9X Torana (Bathurst winner) owned by David Bowden1979 Commodore (Round Australia trial winner) owned by Holden1980 Commodore (Bathurst winner) claimed to be owned by Rowan Harmon1982-83 VH Commodore (Bathurst winner) owned by Peter Champion1983 VH Commodore (Bathurst car) owned by Peter Champion1984 VK Commodores (Bathurst winner and third) owned by Peter Champion and the Bathurst Museum1986 Commodore Spa 24-Hour Race owned by Peter Champion1987 VL Commodore (Bathurst winner) owned by David Bowden1988 BMW (Bathurst car) unknown1989-1990 Ford Sierra owned by Peter Champion2003 Monaro 24-hour race winner owned by Rob Sherrard2006 Daytona Coupe owned by Peter Champion