Booming Nostalgia: Underbelly Holden HK Monaro Up For Auction

[JoeT]

Go through to the most recent posts to find all the latest news

$55,000 for this...

News Limited
25 November 2005
www.carsguide.com.au

It's a rusting and gutted nearly 40-year-old virtual-wreck with many of its parts lying in boxes.

It hasn't been driven since 1982 and while many of the parts are original only some have been re-conditioned.

Rebuilding it will take a major operation. But earlier this week it was the subject of a massive auction room bidding war that saw one punter pay an incredible, and possibly a record, $55,000 for what is left of this 1969 Holden HK Monaro GTS 327 coupe.

The key to the frenzy is that the car has an original ID tag showing it was the 227th HK 327 GTS built at Holden's Elizabeth plant in Adelaide. Importantly, the car has matching chassis, engine and transmission numbers to verify its authenticity as a rare piece of Australia's motoring history.

A sister car won the 1968 Bathurst 500.

The result stunned auctioneers, Shannons, who had forecast it would go for about $20,000 at the Melbourne auction this week.

And it has surprised the Monaro Car Club of Victoria. On its website it said that based on recent sales, once the car was restored to concourse condition, it "will be worth in excess of $50,000-$60,000." The new owner must now be hoping for an extraordinary rise in values when he finishes this project.

$1.00 Aust = $0.73 US 25/11/05

[Swahili]

$55,000 AUS dollars for that? Not that it's a bad car, but look at it!!!

I know it's a matching numbers car and for that reason the value will rise, and knowing that they can trace it to being the 227 327 GTS will help too. Man, I wish I had the money to take a car like that, in that condition and bring it back to life. The metal from the small pic seems to be in pretty good condition. I think I could make a pretty mean muscle car out of it

[BBDOS CV8]

In Australia, this is the car equivalent of the Holy Grail. The only things similarly valued are GTHO Falcons - another Bathurst homologation special with 351/4-speed, scoops and spoilers. There only a few genuine HK 327 GTS with Saginaw 4-speeds, although there are many counterfeits. A Warwick Yellow one is worth a packet. Bathurst used to be a production car race, with strict limits on tyres, mods and so on. You had to use stock brakes, steering and suspension.

That car once looked like this:



"In GTS guise, the Monaro sported black rally stripes, unique wheel trims, paint finishes and tail light treatment. The standard Monaro was powered by a 3.05 litre (186 cubic inch) six-cylinder engine teamed with a column shift three-speed manual. Other engine choices included a higher-spec 186S six and an imported 5.0 litre 307 V8, matched with four-speed console mounted manual or two-speed Powerglide auto transmission.

Not long after the first Monaros hit the streets, the GTS 327 began to be hurled around Australian racetracks with sensational success. A first-up win by Tony Roberts and Bob Watson in a GTS 327 Monaro at the 1968 Sandown 3-hour enduro set the scene for Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland to pilot their Warwick Yellow Monaro to victory in the '68 Hardie-Ferodo 500 at Bathurst. Named for its 5.3 litre 327 Chevrolet V8, this gutsy performer sported a Chevrolet Saginaw four-speed manual transmission, bigger wheels and tyres, a larger fuel tank and improved engine cooling. The first 'Great Race' proved a clean sweep for the Monaro marque, with the combinations of Jim Palmer/Phil West and Tony Roberts/Bob Watson claiming second and third for a classic all-Holden, all-Monaro podium finish. "


Monaro history

This pile of bits sold for the same as a new CV8Z can be had for......

Here's the auction listing. Shannons is about a mile from where I live.

Shannon's HK GTS listing

[JoeT]

HK Monaro Sells For Record $220,000

Chris Gable
6 November 2006
www.wheels.ninemsn.com.au

One-owner Australian muscle cars and rare number plates have fetched big dollars at the Sydney motor show auctions.

An immaculate, one-owner GTS 327 HK Monaro has set an Australian record $220,000 at auction in Sydney.

The Warwick Yellow “Bathurst” car (pictured) was sold to a Perth-based buyer at the Shannons Sydney motor show auction yesterday. The new owner won a heated bidding battle with a Melbourne-based enthusiast in front of a big crowd, after the car fetched roughly twice the $100,000-$130,000 estimate.

The $220,000 winning bid is believed to be the highest price ever paid for a Monaro.

Mind you, the Melbourne-based bidder who’d been beaten to the punch for the Monaro immediately snapped up the next auction lot – a one-owner, fully-restored 1971 E39 “Bathurst” Chrysler Charger (pictured) for $128,000. That was well above the car’s $75,000-$100,000 estimate.

Click here to continue article

[JoeT]

I wish I had the money to buy it. I've always wanted a HK Monaro GTS.

[mikmak]

I just want the wheel covers....

[DanCBJMS1988]

$220,000?
That's close to that Navajo blanket that was appraised at half-a-million dollars on Antiques Roadshow a while back. That's a lot. If only I had that much dough, . . . .

[MonaroSS]

Mad Money,

I'd rather pay $15K for a straight but tatty Monaro 186. And for another $85,000 I would have a better car than that and $120,000 still in my pocket.

And Mikmak, it would be cheaper to have custom billet mags machined to replicate those caps only enlarged to 16 inch by 8 inch and fit custom lower profile redline tires that would look stock but better.

It's like paying $300 Million for a Painting instead of $100K for a forgery that it takes experts with X-ray machines and electron microscopes to tell it’s not the real thing. I just don't get it.

I like cars as driving machines, not as artefacts.

[hq308]

Originally Posted by mikmak

I just want the wheel covers....

As insane as it sounds, 10-15 years ago there was so many of those hubcaps around that Torana owners used to cut the centres out of them to make Torana centre caps, it was the same stamping used, and all they had to do was file grooves where they went over the studs.

Never actually tried it myself but I did end up with a set of Torana caps a few years back that had been made in this way. I'm sure there a plenty of guy's out there kicking themselves now for doing it.

[DanCBJMS1988]

I can believe something like that would be going on.

[JoeT]

Muscle Car Boom

CarPoint Staff
19 November 2006
www.carpoint.com.au

Aussie muscle cars reach record prices.

A couple of weeks ago CarPoint ran a story about the red-hot sales of homegrown muscle cars. HSV sold a record 490 vehicles in October, while FPV's new 'Force' models are running out the showrooms apparently.

But this is small cheese when compared to the heat in the 'classic' Australian muscle car market at the moment, where cars that sold for a few grand back in the early 1970s are now heading at rapid pace towards the magic half million dollar mark… and perhaps even beyond.

According to a report in the latest issue of Unique Cars magazine, which goes on sale November 22, rare, high-performance Australian-built vehicles from the 1970s including the 'Phase III' GTHO Ford Falcon, Chrysler E49 Charger and Holden A9X hatch, are fetching prices that owners could have only dreamed about a few years ago.

According to vehicle valuation expert Cliff Chambers, the muscle car 'boom' is caused by a number of factors.

"Baby boomer enthusiasts cashing out the family home and buying a Monaro in preference to a mobile home are responsible to a degree, but also in there and punching hard are steely eyed investors," Chambers writes in Unique Cars.

"With the property boom busted and low inflation capping returns from other investments, the prospect of reaping some tax-free profit in the automotive market has proved particularly tempting."

Click here to continue article

Related Article: HK Monaro GTS Sells For Record $220,000

[JoeT]

Booming Nostalgia

Ashlee Pleffer
16 March 2007
www.carsguide.com.au

The best used vehicles to own right now are classic Aussie muscle cars of the 1960s and '70s.

With recent auction prices exceeding $200,000, long-time owners are discovering their purchase many years ago, and for a much lower price, was a worthy investment. And of the models that made their mark in Bathurst in this era, the most valuable today is probably the Ford GTHO Phase III.

Car enthusiast Angelo Sarigiannis is one lucky owner who has seen the value of his car shoot through the roof. He bought his GTHO Phase III 11 years ago for $42,000.

Sarigiannis is now knocking back offers as high as $500,000. And there's one thing stopping him taking up the offers.

"My kids won't let me sell it," he says.

Sarigiannis doesn't take his Ford out very often, but when he does his four sons, all aged under 12, love to go for a spin with dad.

And while it may be worth a lot of money, Sarigiannis says it's not the most comfortable car to drive — far from it.

Click here to continue article

Related Thread: HK Monaro Sells For Record $220,000
Related Thread: $55,000 For Rusting & Gutted HK GTS Monaro

Angelo Sarigiannis with his original 1971 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III

[BBDOS CV8]

Here's someone auctioning a1968 HK Monaro on ebay - just over a day to go and $12,000 for this POS! Needless to say it will need several times that spent on it - and it appears not to have rust around the rear window which is a killer for these cars. No panels are available as spares.



HK Monaro on ebay

Needless to say, I am not letting my '04 go anytime soon. It'll be a long time before it's worth what I paid but I can wait!

[kgratton]

There's a bloke in 'Just World Cars' attempting to sell a mint HK Monaro with a 161CID six for about $55,000! He claims it's rarer than a 327 Monaro.

Collectors and speculators will be the death of us all.

[chinamonty]

Did you see the results of Shannon's Melbourne Motor Show Auction and also Lidsay Fox's sell off. Interesting results. 140,000 for an E38 VH Charger in Mustard.
Also 120,00 for an HK Monaro 327 GTS in gold and an FJ Ute for 61,000 gulp!
I think a 300SL Convertible benz (like a Gullwing went for 450,000) it was my favourite car in his collection. I haven't found a link to results of that auction yet. If I find it I will post it too.


http://www.shannons.com.au/auctions/current/?page=8