Is a million-dollar Monaro an Australian national treasure?

Monday, 29 June 2020

HDT's first racer sold at auction in the weekend, but the new owner better be an Aussie, because the car might not be able to be taken out of Australia.

The 1969 Monaro GTS350 built and raced by Harry Firth went under the hammer over the weekend at Lloyds Auctions, which originally predicted the car could sell for as much as AU$1 million (NZ$1.6m).

However, it only sold for AU$715,000, possibly due to the fact that a last-minute call from Australia's Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications which said the Monaro could be an 'Australian Protected Object' and not be allowed to leave the country as a result.

“This car is a significant piece of Australian motorsport history, not only shaping the success of Holden as a company but also setting the stage for the domination by Holden and Peter Brock for the following two decades,” said Lee Hames, Chief Operating Officer of Lloyd's Auctions.

**READ MORE:

* Historic Holden Monaro up for sale

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**

The historic Monaro debuted at the 1969 Sandown 500, but unfortunately crashed just 45 minutes into the event due to brake failure.

It went on win at Bathurst later in 1969, the first-placed car driven by Colin Bond and Tony Roberts while another Monaro came third, driven by Des West and Peter Brock, on his Bathurst debut.

The Monaro was powered by a 350ci (5.7-litre) Chevrolet V8 paired with a Saginaw four-speed manual. It has a hair over 40,000km on the clock, most of which would have been at full noise.

The $715k sale price is one of the higher amounts paid for a Holden and the highest paid for a road-registerable car, but the highest remains Peter Brock's 1982 Holden VH Commodore HDT racer, which sold for AU$2.1 million (NZ$2.245m) in 2018.

The 1969 Monaro that Brock drove to third place in that year's Bathurst race also sold last year, fetching AU$455k (NZ$486k).