Final hurrah for Aussie icon: The last Monaro
It was certainly a favourite of ours and while not perfect, was a genuine rear wheel drive Aussie muscle car. The very last of the current generation Monaro was revealed and farewelled at the recent Melbourne Motor Show. In a unique twist, the last Monaro was offered for global auction on eBay, with all proceeds donated to the Leukaemia Foundation, a long-term partner of Holden. The sale of the car marked the end of Monaro domestic production in Elizabeth, South Australia after more than four years and 47,000 sales in Australia and overseas representing four General Motors brands. The new Monaro was first unveiled by Holden as a concept vehicle in 1998 and then launched in late 2001. It was Australia 's best selling sports car for each of the past four years. 1600 of the farewell CV8 Monaros were produced with an RRP of $60,490 each.
The very last Monaro off the assembly line was recently sold on eBay for $187,600 to a buyer/collector in Emerald, Queensland. While the famous name plate will be shelved in Australia, the Monaro will of course live on for a while yet as the HSV Coupe, Vauxhall Monaro in Britain, the Pontiac GTO, and in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina Coupe. The last Monaro was built on December 13 last year and custom painted and modified by Holden's Design and Engineering departments to reflect its iconic place in Australian automotive history. The "Torque" custom paint is an orange-yellow with fine metallic highlight, developed as an interpretation of the classic colours for which the original late 1960s Monaro coupes were famous. A 'Very Last Monaro' project team made various changes to reflect the car's unique status including special embossed wheels, leather seats and colour accents.
The architect of the new generation Monaro, former Holden Design Director Mike Simcoe, was recognised through the use of Data Dot technology, which applied microscopic copies of Simcoe's signature and the ISOVIN number to the vehicle's underbody, panels and major components. GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney said, "the car was a fitting end to the latest chapter of the Monaro story." Mr Mooney said Monaro symbolised Holden's heritage in Australia, providing a nameplate which inspired passion and respect across the car community. The 2005 CV8 represented great value and is sure to become a valuable collector's item.
Final Monaro specifications:
Monaro CV8Z features:
_ 260KW, 5.7 litre High Output Gen III V8 engine.
_ 6-speed manual transmission.
_ Control-Link Independent Rear Suspension (IRS)
_ Sports suspension
_ Performance brakes
_ Anti-lock Braking System (ABS).
_ Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD).
_ Brake Assist (BA).
_ Traction Control (TC).
_ High performance split dual exhaust.
Unique features
_ Exterior colour in 'Torque' orange/yellow duco painted in house by the Holden Design Fabrication team.
_ Unique Monaro machine embossed 18" wheels
_ Gunmetal chrome badging.
_ Exclusive black leather trim seats have unique Torque coloured perforation inserts and feature stitching
_ Torque colour accents on the dials, new Monaro embroidery on the floor mats and feature stitching on the leather trimmed door, rear quarter and centre armrests, steering wheel, shifter and handbrake.
_ Dashboard badge engraved with Mike Simcoe signature
_ Unique tag number on vehicle.
_ Data dot technology applied with Mike Simcoe's signature and the ISOVIN in every dot.