New Holden Monaro just a big tease

By releasing titbits about the new Holden Monaro, expectations were huge when the car was unveiled at the Sydney motor show, writes motoring editor ALAISTAIR SLOANE Alastair Sloane.

The new Holden Monaro is being called the big tease. Not because of its potent presence, but the way Holden drip-fed details about the coupe long before it broke cover at the Sydney motor show.

It started by revealing sections of the Monaro on the internet. Then it drove a lightly disguised Monaro up and down a busy Sydney street, long enough for the cameras to come out. But the stunt that fooled almost everyone was the camouflaged car at the Bathurst 1000 race.

Put the success of the ruse down to the Monaro being pretty much a two-door version of a lower and shorter Commodore.

Who in Holden chose to deliberately tease a public eager to clap eyes on the Monaro? The wags suggest a woman was involved.

There might be something in this. The head of Project Monaro's 20-odd engineers is 34-year-old Laura Thomas.

Thomas, an engineer with a business degree, is the first woman to be in charge of a new vehicle programme. What did the blokes at Holden have to say about that?

"It surprised a lot of people but I don't think anyone took it in a negative way," she said. "At the end of the day we are all engineers.

"When I joined Holden I was the only female in engineering. Now about 10 per cent are women."

Thomas and her team brought the Monaro to life in just 22 months, thanks largely to computer power.

It was the first Holden to be designed and engineered in the company's $7.5 million virtual reality studio.

The technology enabled Holden to complete the project for about $75 million, or half what it would have cost without it. Of the $75 million, $50 million went on plant tooling and $25 million on design and engineering.

The first near-production Monaro came out of Holden's South Australian plant on February 26 this year. About 70 were built - most destroyed during crash-testing - before finalising the production car, which has a bodyshell 23 per cent stiffer than the four-door Commodore.

"Traditionally, we build physical prototypes to test-crash before committing millions of dollars to production tooling," said executive Andrew Hynson.

"But on the Monaro we did all of the vehicle crash and durability development on the computer.

"When we knew we had the design right, we went straight to production tooling. The final validation was completed using pre-production vehicles at our proving ground and on Australian roads."

The latest Monaro comes 33 years after the first Kingswood derivative and 22 years after the model range was discontinued. The two-door Holdens proved so popular they stirred the soul, on and off race tracks.

"What the Chevrolet Corvette is to Americans, and what the Porsche 911 is to Germans, the Holden Monaro is to Australians," said the hype. The most collectible Monaro is the 1968 original.

Said Holden chairman and managing director Peter Hanenberger: "Few nameplates have the emotive impact of the Monaro.

"The design icon of its era and a motorsport giant with a street credibility that is locked in time, it has unmatched heritage.

"It took a group of young designers with a strength of purpose and vision that was not to be overshadowed by past achievements to deliver another design benchmark - one of such power and grace that we had no option but to bring it to reality. This coupe also had to be given its time in history."

There is nothing retrospective about the new Monaro, apart from the name. "Don't expect stripes, hanging dice, vinyl roofs or eight-track stereos," warned Holden before it unveiled the car.

The Monaro comes in two models, the CV6 and CV8, and shares many components with the Commodore. On the outside the bonnet, front mudguards, door handles and side mirrors are the same. So is much of the interior and underbody. The V6 and V8 engines are the same, too.

But there are significant differences. Holden says the Monaro has 84 unique body parts. Its windscreen is raked back a further two degrees, the seatbelt pillar is relocated 150mm rearward, the doors are 150mm longer, the roof is 40mm lower and the rear overhang of the car is 100mm shorter.

The CV6 uses Holden's supercharged 3.8-litre V6 engine mated to a four-speed transmission. The CV8 is powered by the 5.7-litre V8 with a choice of four-speed automatic or six-speed manual gearboxes. Seven exterior colours will be available when the Monaro goes on sale in New Zealand early next year.

In Australia, the CV6 costs $A47,990 ($NZ56,870) and the CV8s $A56,990. Add at least another $10,000 to $12,000 for New Zealand, say insiders.

The extra cost of the CV8 is not just taken up with the V8 engine. It comes with many more goodies, including a 260-watt stereo system.

Safety equipment includes dual front and side airbags, anti-lock ABS brakes and traction control, seatbelt pretensioners and child restraint anchor points.

Holden Special Vehicles has already built its own Monaro and is itching to show it off. But Holden wanted the spotlight for itself at the Sydney show and told HSV to hold off. HSV will sell two renamed models, the 250kW GTO and 300kW GTS.

The performance specialist is saying its Monaro derivatives will be the best-handling HSV cars ever.