CarBrandLogos archive · Holden · 1968

HoldenMonaro

A two-door built to win Bathurst, revived thirty years later almost as a dare.

Photo: CarCollector · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Holden history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Holden Monaro, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Holden had no coupé and no obvious reason to build one, until the marketing value of touring car racing became clear. The HK Monaro of 1968 was a two-door version of the existing full-size body, offered from a mild six up to the GTS 327 with a Chevrolet V8. Bruce McPhee won that year's Bathurst 500 in one, driving almost the entire race himself, and the car's reputation was set within months of launch.

1969 Holden HK Monaro · sv1ambo · CC BY 2.0

Design and engineering

The HT and HG followed with larger V8s, and the HQ of 1971 brought a smoother body and, unusually, a four-door Monaro sedan alongside the coupé. By the late 1970s the coupé market had thinned, emissions and fuel costs had blunted the engines, and the name was retired in 1979.

1970 Chevrolet SS Coupe · Sicnag · CC BY 2.0

In production

Its return came from inside the design studio rather than from a business plan. A team under Michael Simcoe built a two-door concept on the VT Commodore floorpan largely on their own initiative, showed it in 1998, and the reaction was strong enough to force it into production for 2001. That car was then exported in volume, sold in the United States as the Pontiac GTO and in Britain as the Vauxhall Monaro, giving Holden an unexpected second career as an exporter of rear-drive V8 coupés before the run ended in 2006.

1972 LS Holden Monaro · GPS 56 from New Zealand · CC BY 2.0

At a glance