1969 Holden Monaro GTS Becomes First Australian Car To Win At Concours d’Elegance
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It was a win for the home team at the Australian Concours d’Elegance. Hemmings reports this 1969 Holden Monaro GTS became the first Australian car to ever win at such a prestigious event, even at local Australian outings.
“For a Holden of any type to win an International Concours event is certainly unexpected,” said Paul Mathers, director of Motorclassica, the Melbourne event that includes the Australian Concours d’Elegance. He went on to call the restoration of this 1969 Monaro GTS as “literally faultless.”
The Holden Monaro first appeared as a challenger to the Ford Falcon in 1968 but arrived with a 327 Chevrolet V8 under the hood. In 1969, Holden swapped in its own 350 V8 and led the way to many podiums, including the famed Bathurst.
This particular 1969 Monaro GTS only emerged from its restoration two days before the Australian Concours d’Elegance. It keeps its original 350 Holden V8 engine mated to a manual transmission.
With Holden ending local production in just a year, we can only assume more classic Holdens will be held to a new standard.
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Have noticed a couple of mistakes. For a start, the 350 used in the HT, HG, HQ and HJ (they were also available in Broughams and Statesmans), were like the 327 before it, Chevrolet engines. What did change, though was the 307 Chevrolet small block (as used in the HK and early HT) to the 253 and 308 Holden units (253 was available from shortly after the HT’s introduction, the 308 took a bit longer), and in the HG, the availability of Holden’s own Trimatic automatic transmission (was good behind the sixes, but showed weakness behind an eight). This automatic was produced for sixes up until the demise of the VK Commodore, and for the eights until the end of the VL model run).
Also, the HK Monaro in 327 form did win Bathurst in 1968. The 350 won in 1969, then for 1970 Holden switched to running the LJ Torana GTR XU-1, complete with 186S engine with triple Webers.
Have noticed a couple of mistakes, Broughams only available with the 307, HQ Statesman did have a low comp 350 8.75:1 same as in the HQ GTS Monaro, manual or Auto version.
HT & HG GTS 4 spd only with 10.25:1 version of the 350, or with low comp 350 8.75:1 P/Glide Auto version.
No HJ ever had a 350.