(first posted 2/21/2012) The irrepressible Bryce found this Monaro GTS 350 slaking its thirst the other day. Given the cost of fuel down under, that’s going to hurt a bit. Bryce didn’t leave any commentary, or even the model, so I had to dig through wiki to figure out that it’s an HT model, or a 1970 model. Beyond that, I’m not going to be able to add a whole lot, except that like so many Holdens, it looks like a cross between an Opel and a Chevy.
Which is probably not too far off the mark, but I’ll probably stimulate some commentary from Bryce on that.
The GTS 350 does use the genuine bow-tie small-block, as the Holden V8 only came in 253 and 308 inch versions. The 307 and 327 inch Chevy were used in the first HK series. We’ll have to wait a while until it’s morning down there and Bryce wakes up, so in the meantime…
Mornin all, yes its a 69/70 HT Monaro GTS 350 quite a rare and valueable car these days the engine range began with a povertypack 161 cube 6 186&186s 253 V8 308V8 with the 350 being top o the range also available was a long range Bathurst fuel tank. This car is an face lift of the HK model and it was facelifted once more for the HG model which gained a 3 speed trans. The body began life as an Opel Commodore coupe sawed in half lengthways and widened by GMH also sold in South Africa under the Chevrolet brand.MONARO Paul not Monara
One of my schoolteachers proudly drove his new Monaro into the schoolyard for us all to get a good look – wow, Holden does a hardtop! I remember thinking those front indicators looked a direct swipe from a Pontiac, and the wheel arch treatment said Oldsmobile to me. I was disappointed that he only got the 186S in his new GTS though.
not sure its the same body as the opel commodore, widened or otherwise
I would guess that it was unique for Australia, there are too many differences in all areas despite a typical GM styling similarity.
And don’t forget the built in toughness of these cars, The Opel body wouldn’t have stood up to our harsh road conditions back then.
Yes, it was unique to oz. It was originally based on HD/HR dimensions, but lengthened and IIRC widened to match the XR Falcon. Below is an early HK proposal.
the styling matches the Opel but they used the bigger body HK Holdens used the same V8 powertrain as the Opel Paul picked the DNA.
Chevy and Opel influences … Yes I Can See My Dad’s 68 silver Kadett, My Bros 69 Malibu in Blue/black roof… Had similar flags on fender beside the headlights. I can see both of them in This Holden.
That beltline/greenhouse screams 1968 Plymouth Barracuda 2DR hardtop from the USA. The front and rear ends, I see 1965 or ’66 Chevy II.
Just my impression. BTW, thx for clearing up the Monaro confusion! – What does that name signify, anyway? It’d have been highly unlikely for GM to assign a name to any of their cars, anywhere in the world, if it had no meaning locally…although, 50 years after the fact, I still have no idea what a Camaro is. It looked nice, and made sure a Mustang didn’t come in last in a drag race…but??
At the time Holden said Monaro was an Aboriginal word signifying ‘high plain’, but didn’t say which tribe’s language that was – we whites weren’t so aware of tribal distinctions in those days. Figures, seeing there’s an area of New South Wales going by that name, and it’s a relatively elevated fairly flat district.
It was a nice gesture to use an Aboriginal word, but quite what ‘high plain’ has to do with a lower, slinkier Holden I don’t know.
I grew up in the Monaro region of NSW, and as far as I know, there is no dispute that that’s where the name came from.
Interestingly, the pronunciation differs – the car is like “Mon-ARE-oh”, whilst the region is more like “mon-AIR-oh” 🙂
I don’t know about anyone else, but I want to visit Supercheap Auto!
They’re a parts/accessories store only, but sadly they don’t stock anything for Lincolns…! They’re an Australian company, but have been in NZ for several years now. Repco, another Aussie brand, is regarded as a better store for autoholics such as myself. I find Supercheap to be Superaverage Auto myself. Though I bought a cruise control kit for my car from them 2 years ago which was both supercheap and super good (although the NZ$50 kit still cost NZ$500 to have installed).
Supercheap’s good place for employing kids fresh out of school, though you might need to go elsewhere for knowledgeable advice (like Repco for sure, or Autobarn), in my experience.
I go there for basic stuff, theyve never had my trans oil but the diesel engine oil I use comes up on special a friend in the spares trade who gets my parts is better, knock off air filters for my car arent listed anywhere but she produces them from somewhere, Super cheap ask me make and model its funny watching them search them, one is on their records but not the filters for it. The other one aged of records long ago.
That is a handsome car. It looks like it could have been sold in the US, but for the narrower track. Must be quick!
Oh yeah theyre fast built to race at MT Panorama against the 351 GTHO Falcons except the smaller 6 cylinder Torana proved better for racing and eventually more successfull
The car is 185″ long (well the sedan is) on a 111″ wheelbase and 72″ wide overall with 59″ track. Weight is 3300lb
First model with voided bushes in the front end my dad traded a HK wagon on a HT he reckoned it rode better but apparently the handling was worse, a speedway racer said he used a Monaro to tow his race car and fitting the towbar stiffened the car up nicely, dunno I had a HK wagon it was rusty junk by the time I got it.
Nice car and from the rear it does make me think “Chevelle”.
The rear shot threw me. At first glance, the fastback roof and taillights looked just like an early 70’s AMC Hornet.
My thoughts exactly.
I’m thinking Nova SS
Rear 3/4 view sure looks like a hardtop version of the restyled 1973 Hornet, but without the hatchback, to me. I might even go so far as to suggest AMC stylists cribbed the roof (and the taillights, as well).
thanks to the magic of internet snooping, here’s everything you could want to know about this cutie!
Make: HOLDEN
Model: HT MONARO GTS
Year: 1969
Main colour: Orange
No of seats: 5
CC rating: 5,740cc
Plate: DI3670
Engine no: V1213XCD-3970010
Chassis: 81837TJ189253
Latest odometer reading: 82,414 (on 2012, January 13th, source: WOF Inspection)
Estimated current odometer reading: 82,414
Carjam?
You’re a scary man, Alistair.
Please tell me where to get car information from a NZ (?) plate number.
http://www.carjam.co.nz
It used to allow free and unlimited searches, but users have to register now to get three free look-ups per month. The look-up is a report which provides the info Alistair has noted above – as well as graphs indicating the WOF history (WOF=Warrant Of Fitness, a 6 monthly vehicle inspection, without a WOF cars aren’t allowed to be driven).
Once any user has done a vehicle lookup, that particular report is then saved on the carjam site for future users to see – this means that if someone else has already looked up the same vehicle, you don’t have to waste one of your 3 freebies, as the report is there already. The reports are only current to the date of the original look-up, but may be updated later on (this counts as one of the 3 free look-ups though).
I’m registered, as it allows useful background info/history when looking at cars for sale on our trademe website. For example, users can track the mileage reading at each WOF to ascertain the amount of use a vehicle has had over the preceeding years. It also allows users to use the chassis number to identify if a car is cloned (ie a replica) or not. I used carjam for the Falcon GT post here recently, as the owner told Bryce it was a real GT, but the chassis number revealed it wasn’t – it was actually a base model, cloned to look like the real thing. Great site carjam!
Ta
No WOF since 2012? Hope the NZ police don’t visit this site!
Sit in a truck in Napier traffic and look at the windscreens WOF and rego are optional, the cops dont bother unless they do a checkpoint and even an old grey beard in a 59 Hillman just got waved thru not drunk expired WOF not worth the paperwork.
If it is a genuine 350 GTS it’s an expensive car today. The GTS never came with the 161 or basic 186. Interestingly, the HK, HT, HG Holdens were bigger than originally planned and the smallish engine sizes reflect the late change. Ford’s 1966 XR forced a rethink. The upsized HK could then take the larger Chev “small” blocks and South African models could take the Chev 6 along with the smaller Holden 6 and the lighter, very compact Holden V8 in the HT when it was finally developed.
As a kid, I well remember a friend’s big brother’s 186S GTS burnt orange one and also another’s astonishingly fast 308 HQ LS Trimatic. Guess you’re never late in a 308!
I’ve got a friend that has one of these (well, an HG model, but close enough). All original, unrestored and tidy (but not mint). I’m driving it for him for his wedding. not sure if I’m excited or nervous about that!
Looks a bit like a Marlin from behind, the square taillights and the round back of the side window…
Maybe (?) my memory is foggy but I see my 68 Nova in the first shot. Then it just looks like that cousin at the family reunion who has a family resemblance to everyone and you just can’t pin dow exactly who.
Nods back off to sleep.
A Nova that got together with an AMC, and had an offspring! Always fascinated by the cars of OZ and NZ. Put that steering wheel on the…ahem “proper” side..:-) and they’d be a big seller in the Americas. South America has some very cool models that never made it to North America, sadly
I’ve posted the pics before, but here’s an updated one showing the both the Chevrolet and Holden version of the car. The Chev version, named simply ‘SS’, was sold in South Africa, and was a rebadged Monaro, except it received unique front panels. A few have been reimported from SA to Australia/NZ and always create interest. Likewise the Australian Ford Falcon was also sold in SA, still as a Ford, but with unique model specs.
The Chevrolet SS is the red car in the photo:
And in South Africa it was called the Fairmont GT, not Falcon
Fair enough, since it used an upgraded Fairmont interior. Did SA get the lower-trim Aussie Falcons, or only the Fairmonts? That would explain the renaming.
From what I understand, it was marketed over there as a prestige sedan so I don’t think they got it as a Falcon. Was a time about 10 years ago when these SA spec GTs were being privately imported back here – about the same time prices of our own non-HO GTs started going through the roof. IIRC all (or most) SA Fairmonts have a vinyl roof.
NZ didnt have the poverty pack cars plastic floor mats drum brakes no heater are you kidding even a lowly Belmont had carpet, hose out was ute grade but they had to compete in the showroom with better equipped cars from the same stable in NZ, In Aussie GMH and Ford simply stopped assembly of the in house competition Chrysler gave us a bodgy VIP Valiant to replace big Humbers,
Holdens were all rebadged Chevrolet in South Africa from 66 onwards and used Chevrolet engines not Holden The used a recessed firewall to fit the Chevy6 in but of course from the HK in 67/68 the engine bay was designed for V8s so plenty of room
Bet they went well with a bigger, torqiuer six.
Chevy and Opel influences… How cool is that? I wish they would do that now…
The 307 Chev was used in the HK model before the introduction of the local Holden 308, there is a saying amongst some “never late in a 308”. You could get a Monaro in all sorts of specs from absolute plain-Jane base models with 161ci 6cyl single carb & drinking straw exhaust to the GTS which itself was still available with the 6cyl 186ci engine as well as the V8’s. The long range tank for Bathurst was 25 gallons (imperial) or nearly 30 US gallons, important to reduce the number of pit stops at the 500 mile Bathurst race – the local equivalent of the Daytona/Indy 500 combined in terms of importance.
The front spoiler on this car is a later add-on, perhaps someone will be able to nominate what it might have come from originally?
Thats just over $250 to fill in Kiwi pesos, spoiler could be mid 70s Torana LX/LH or just aftermarket track special.
$250? Wow. 112L would be roughly $150 at the moment here with $1.3x per litre.
I did think of the SLR Torana spoiler but they are more upright & taller, and cover the front valance/stone tray of the car up to the bumper. I think they’d be a bit narrow for a Kingswood too.
In Norway 112 L would be around 200 USD to fill.
This might amuse people prices today $2.35 for 91, diesel I also buy $1.62 per litre,100 octane is $2.78, I can fit almost $120 of fuel in my old Hillman, the tank is tiny
Accessory stores sold aftermarket spoilers for these and many other Aussie cars, so it might be a period add-on. I remember seeing them in this style, though I’d have to check through my old magazine stacks to see who made them; off the top of my head, I’d guess Aunger.
Good point Old Pete, I dare say a browse of Street Machine from 30 years ago would show it in the ads!
How much was gasoline Down Under, in 1969-70?
1973 when I began driving 48 cents per 4.5 litre gallon its now $2.10 per litre in NZ
How much of that current NZ price is tax? And how much of that tax has been tacked on in response to recent global-warming concerns?
This isn’t really about gas prices, though. It is about the interesting ways GM affiliates worldwide borrowed design elements from each other. No one would mistake that Monaro for anything but a GM product, but one would have to dig a little deeper to figure out its origins.
I was thinking contemporary Opel Rekord C Coupe, also transplanted to South America as the Chevrolet Opala complete with Chevy 4 or 6 power. No doubt there was some influence, but it’s not quite the same car.
Lucky bastard…
Still cheaper than in the US. 🙁
Not quite, litres are roughly 1/4 of a US gallon, so that would be roughly US$5.90 per gallon!
The average car in NZ was a six plenty of 4 bangers and V8 engined cars around in those times, new was restricted with import tariffs etc, NZ assembly was key to selling cars, Aussie cars were bottom of the 6 cylinder market stronger Kiwi $ back then and the kits didnt come far or with trade deals in 71 cost anything, NZ exported carpet kits looms tyres exhaust back to Aussie, the cars were ok and at the low prices killed any market for Big English cars especially at the Ford store.
so is this built on the “A body” frame? looks like a nova to me.
I’m sure most here know, the Monaro was sold in the US as the Pontiac GTO for all too short a time 2004-2006.Great car, I worked at a Pontiac dealer in the service department when these where being sold. Too Bad Holdens and Fords are no longer made In Australia, I understand the reason being that the government no longer supports Auto manufacturing. Last chance to by a V8 with manual trans available sedan with a Chevrolet nameplate, the SS is a Holden Commodore. Ordering stopped a few months ago, but there maybe some left in the pipeline.
The government started winding down their support for car manufacturing back in the eighties with the Button Plan. Supposedly it was to speed up development of local cars and make them more competitive with imports. Which it did, kind of. Certainly imports got cheaper, and people started to look seriously at European cars. Then the whole global economy/level playing-field ideology came into play, but economic rationalists (Homo Economicus) didn’t stop to think that Australia’s a long way from anywhere else except NZ, and that means high transport costs. Meanwhile taxes on imports kept coming down to the point where local manufacture wasn’t economically viable, and thousands of people got thrown out of work.
But at least we can get cheap imported cars – if you’ve got a job to pay for them.
Interesting to note then an Australian police drama named “Matlock Police” (not related to the American tv series with Andy Griffith) used a Holden Monaro as police car instead of the Kingswood for season 1. They switched to Australian Chrysler Valiants in the following season. The first season was filmed in black and white. Colour tv beginned to air Down Under in 1974-75.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_1007102-Holden-Monaro-HG-1970.html
I remember that series. I never saw a Monaro police car though, they were usually base Belmont sedans. Great product placement, but you didn’t see them on the road.
It was a base car at the start of the show. Filmed from the air by a helicopter. The effect was that the copter was “struggling” to keep up. I believe the car was driven at normal speed in reality.
The Matlock Monaro was a base model HG, but optioned up with the larger 186 cubic inch inline six engine, rather then the base model’s standard 161. Three-speed manual gearbox, column shift.
An earlier HT Monaro GTS was used in a chase scene in the first episode, while a base-model HK was used in several episodes while the HG was being repaired following a fatal accident in which a member of the camera crew was killed.
Victoria Police used two V8 HT Monaro GTS’s as Traffic Patrol vehicles, but chose to stick with V8 Ford Falcons instead.
Ford built some specials for Victoria police based on the GT, sleeper cars. one apparently still exists.
Every time I pop up the hood of a Opala I think: “This car begs for a SBC”… I am glad to know the Australians got it.
The Monaro had one or 2 model years where it got its own Australian V8.
Own Australian V8??? Awesome!!!! (and I loved the ad as well)
Our new V8 even came with its own concept car pre-launch (note the previous model HK which had the 327/307 in the background)
Wow! My first thought on the very first pic was hey! What a nice Rebel!
I’m likely to be in the minority here with this opinion, but the roofline of these Monaros make me think baby Cutlass circa 1968. Split the grill, modify the rear lamps a bit, and voila! A better take of the F-85? Even the redesigned exterior that followed these has a scaled down (Collonade) Cutlass look to my eyes.
We thought they were really cool the styling is generic GM mix n match it worked they sold.
For a GM product, it looks more like a Ford Maverick Grabber, right down to the orange and black color scheme.
Linus, would be proud, of that Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
I’d definitely sit up all night in a pumpkin patch waiting for this particular Great Pumpkin.
As a 7 or 8 year old I adored these cars when they came out, but I do remember a moment of disappointment when bending down to examine the elaborate wheels the GTS came with and discovering they were just a pressed steel hubcap.
These were great cars however, would love to have one today, so all is forgiven.
I’ve been thinking about it and although the US and Australian auto markets share similarities there were some marked differences. The V8 Holden Monaro GTS and Ford Falcon GT were the top local performers through 67 and 68, however, Chryslers 6 cylinder Valiant Pacers and later Chargers in E38 and E43 variants and GM Holdens Torana GTR and later XU-1 models were possibly more aligned with youth culture, in price being considerably cheaper than Monaro or Falcon GT models and in their advertising. And I haven’t even mentioned European sports cars which appealed to reasonably sized demographic in Australia. So I reckon in Australia in the late 60’s you’d have a small younger group shopping Torana GTR’s, for most young Australians a new car would have been very very expensive, in an American context I’d say the Torana GTR was Australia’s Pontiac GTO/SS396. With an older clientele, possibly looking to recapture their youth, and at the polar opposite pro and semi pro race car drivers, the Monaro and Falcon GT are in an American context hard to pin down. I’d hazard to say they straddle a number of market segments from personal luxury car in the Buick Rivera/Ford Thunderbird vein to the Chev Corvette and other factory homologation racers. Through the early 70’s Australian manufacturers did produce a couple of semi genuine personal luxury cars in the Ford Landau and the Chrysler by Chrysler, however, the Australian market is very very small (we have the same population nationally as the US state of Texas) as a result there just is not enough potential sales, even exporting, to have made them viable. One last thought, the second generation GM Holdens HQ series Monaro is more closely related to the Pontiac Tempest/GTO visually, and I believe is one of GM’s greatest designs, well balanced line and shadow, a slightly shrunken Pontiac Tempest/GTO. Actually the LC Torana GTR from 1969 shares a lot of visual similarities with the 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle, the grille treatment is very similar and in side profile it’s almost as if a 68 Chevelle has been kinda squished up and pushed around.