Holden Monaro News

An old-fashioned Aussie car guy, Mike Simcoe loves V8s, drives a Commodore because he genuinely likes the car and what it does, and has a couple of old-timer cars and motorcycles in the garage.

From sketching Holden Commodores to designing every car in the General Motors world: one man’s epic promotion

A clearer picture of the future Holden versus Ford battle has emerged after two significant cars were unveiled in Detroit this week.

There might not be a Commodore V8 in Holden's future, but this sleek coupe unveiled in Detroit is shaping up as a Monaro successor.

Every concept car from the Hurricane to the Coupe 60 will stay Down Under, Holden confirms.

Have you ever dreamed of owning the world's fastest car? Meet the replica Bugatti Veyron made from a Holden Monaro. A US man has made a replica of the world's fastest car, the Bugatti Veyron, out of a 2004 Holden Monaro -- and he wants someone to pay $115,000 so he can finish building it. A car restorer in Florida has advertised the home-made re-creation on online auction website eBay. The plastic-bodied backyard build is based on a 2004 Pontiac GTO, which is the US version of the Holden Monaro. VIDEO: Bugatti Veyron claims new speed record In 2004 and 2005 Holden shipped 31,500 Monaros to the US as a Pontiac GTO -- more than twice the number of Monaros sold locally over four years. At least one of them is trying to come back to life as a knock-off version of the Bugatti Veyron. The real Bugatti Veyron is powered by a massive 1001 horsepower, 8.0-litre W16 engine with four turbochargers, has a top speed of 431km/h, and costs more than 1 million Euros plus taxes. Only about 400 have been built. The 'Bugatti Veyron' for sale on eBay is a Pontiac GTO (nee Holden Monaro) that has travelled 136,000km (85,000 miles) and is powered by a comparatively wimpy 5.7-litre V8 with about one quarter of the power. The seller says it is a "high quality replica" and largely "intact and functioning". However the photos show the car is not complete and a long way from being ready for the road, and the airbags appear to have been disabled. Any Australian enthusiasts ought to be aware that, just as with the real Bugatti Veyron, this replica cannot be registered in Australia as it is left-hand-drive.

Aussie car fans and nostalgia buffs will tell you that local motoring reached its peak in the 1970s.

Steve Gant is the owner of a bright yellow 1970 HG 350 'Bathurst' Monaro GTS. He's had it since October 3rd, 1970 when he bought it new, as a 19 year old. We reckon it is the only one owner HG 350 Monaro in the country, and that makes it a national treasure."I was in my HR sedan driving past a Holden dealer near where I lived and I saw it on a ramp on the lot. I just knew I had to have it" says Steve. "So I stopped and looked it over. The sales representative came up to me and told me it was the Bathurst version. He said 'that car's got too much power for you, son'.At the time the dealer was concerned about a young "kid" hooning around in a powerful V8. The dealer's reticence to sell the car only heighted Steve's desire to own it. "I asked my parents to speak to the dealer and they convinced him that it would be ok, so I worked three jobs to pay it off" Steve now remembers.Steve's car was the 3447th Monaro out of the Brisbane Acacia Ridge factory and is a numbers-matching vehicle. There are 86,000 miles on the clock and is stock standard in every way. "I've done nothing to it at all" says Steve, "And why should I?"The four speed manual transmission that came with the car is still behind the engine. There's no power steering and the original AM radio sits in the dashboard. It is a car that those restoring a Monaro could use as a reference point.Steve is constantly asked why he's kept the Monaro for 43 years. "I've never had a reason to sell it", is his simple reason. "As I got older I stopped using the Monaro as a daily driver and now I use it about three or four times a year. "These days the big issue is ensuring the security and safety of this valuable car. "I store it at a very secure site" Steve says. And he needs to. Thefts of Australian muscle cars from the sixties and seventies happen a little too often for comfort. Some owners have resorted to engaging security personnel when they show their cars. Will Steve ever sell the Monaro? "No" is quick the reply.David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au

A modern version of the Holden Monaro has gone viral after a secret design study was accidentally leaked via social media. The images were meant to appear briefly on a big screen during the 35th anniversary celebrations of the Monaro Car Club SA last Saturday night -- and never be seen again.But the photos have since appeared in the mainstream media after they were posted on a Holden designer’s Facebook page. Holden fans calling for the revival of the homegrown coupe -- almost eight years after the last Monaro rolled down the Holden production line at Elizabeth -- have been told it will only ever exist on a computer screen.The photos look like a real car because they were created using the same technology Holden uses to design production vehicles. The image of the modern Monaro was originally used in a Holden design training exercise.Melbourne-based Holden designer David Kaylor blended existing “parts” from the new VF Commodore with the Coupe 60 concept car that was unveiled in 2008 to celebrate Holden’s 60th anniversary.Senior Holden designers Mike Simcoe and Peter Hughes -- who were instrumental in the 1998 Commodore Coupe concept car that led to the rebirth of the Monaro in 2001 -- were so impressed they took the images with them to surprise the SA Monaro Car Club at its anniversary bash in Camden Park.The 104 guests at the gala event were briefly shown the images of the cyber Monaro and were told it’s what the two-door coupe version of the VF Commodore would have looked like had it been approved.“We couldn’t believe our eyes and of course we said Holden should build it,” said Fiona Schulz, the president of the Monaro Car Club SA, who owns three Monaros with her husband Don. “But they were very quick to point out it was never going to happen. It’s a tragedy but General Motors says a new Monaro won’t sell in big enough numbers.”Kaylor got permission to post the images on his Facebook page after the SA event -- but Holden wasn't expecting them to attract such attention. "We don't want people to hold out for a car we're not going to build. We want them to buy a Commodore," said a Holden insider, who insisted the leak was not a publicity stunt.The last Holden Monaro ever made was sold at auction six years ago for $188,000 to raise money for charity. But the last brand-new Monaro in dealer stock was sold only last year. The burnt orange HSV GTO Coupe with just 15km on the clock was kept by Holden dealer Alan Mance as a collector’s piece. But the dealership in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray was urged by Holden to get the car “off the books” because it was old stock.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

If Pontiac brand had survived, we would have seen the Holden Commodore underpinning a rip-roaring GTO.  The plan was let slip in a column by Bob Lutz, a former senior exec at GM who was head of global product development at the time."We actually had a full-size clay model of what would have been the next GTO. It was essentially a two-door, four-passenger coupe that used the same architecture as the Pontiac G8 sedan," Lutz says in the Road & Track column.That architecture, of course, was the VE Commodore, which Holden developed into the G8 for Pontiac -- just before the brand died in the GFC slump.Following that, the G8 resurfaced here in Australia in the form of the  VE Commodore SS V-Series Special Edition sedan, wagon and ute -- unveiled at the 2009 Deni Ute Muster -- and featuring the Pontiac front fascia and other cosmetic touches.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott