The one and only Marilyn

By DAVID LINKLATER

Meet the Holden Monaro everybody will want ... and no one can have. This svelte Commodore-based convertible was seen in public for the first time last week at a special function at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse, alongside a dozen other Holden concepts.

But the drop-top Monaro is not new and it's definitely not bound for production, says Holden. The car was commissioned by the Holden Board of Directors two years ago and engineered by now-defunct Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) Engineering in Europe. The four-seater was built mainly to gauge interest in such a model for export markets, hence the left-hand-drive cabin configuration.

TWR's financial problems and subsequent demise last year had nothing to do with the decision to scrap the convertible project, says Holden. After the car was built, the company decided that the cost of development and production would have been too high, given the limited life remaining for the Commodore platform on which it is based. The one-off drop-top was returned to Australia five months ago.

For two years, the secret project was referred to only as "Marilyn" inside Holden. The name stemmed from the almost-anagrammatical relationship between "Monaro" and "Monroe", claims the company. But surely it was significant that the car was topless?

The TWR brief for Marilyn was to produce a convertible with minimal changes to the coupe.

Among the components modified were the A-pillar assemblies, rear quarter body panels, bootlid outer and doors. Reinforcements were made on the underbody, along with mountings for a bolt-on cruciform structure.

Marilyn was the star of the Flemington event, but only just. Also on hand were a dozen other Holden concepts from the past three decades - and most were available to be driven around a short test track. Total value of the vehicles was estimated to be nearly $30 million.

A once in a lifetime opportunity? Almost certainly. "This is a real indulgence for us," said Michael Simcoe, Holden executive director GM Asia Pacific Design. "I personally haven't seen these cars together, ever. They have been doing show circuits ever since they were created."

The Monaro convertible was the most roadworthy of the Flemington vehicles, illustrating how serious Holden was about creating a drop-top production model.

"Call this a concept if you like," said Simcoe, "but engineering and quality this is a production prototype."

Get over the sweaty-palm factor of driving a one-of-a-kind, million-dollar-plus motor car and Marilyn drives very well indeed, despite some scuttle shake and some interesting noises from the front suspension.

The oldest Holden concept on hand was the 1970 Torana-based GTR-X, an angular coupe that pointed towards a possible low-volume model constructed from existing mechanicals.

But beyond GTR-X there's a 28-year gap to the watershed Coupe Concept of 1998, which went into production virtually unchanged as the Monaro. The success of that car has spurred Holden on to produce at least one show car every year since.

"There's no doubt that the Coupe Concept provided the catalyst for all that came after, because it allowed us to believe in ourselves," said Simcoe. "It gave us permission to push forward and continue to create."

Contemporary with the Coupe was YGM1, a funky five-door designed in collaboration with Suzuki that later went into production as the Japanese brand's Ignis and Holden's own Cruze compact all-wheel-drive.

Subsequent Holden concepts that have made it on to the assembly line include the (Crewman) Cross8 of 2002, and the HSV Coupe4 all-wheel-drive from last year's Sydney Motor Show.

Other one-off vehicles include the Mambo-branded Sandman (2000), the UTEster utility (2001), the SSX Commodore AWD hatchback (2002), the super-grunty HRT 427 and two 2004 roadsters, designed in conjunction with Australian sports car company Elfin: the MS8 Clubman and MS8 Streamliner.

But back to Marilyn. While she may have passed away, the idea of a large four-seat convertible is very much alive at Holden. "If we were designing another Monaro, I think it would be silly not to include a convertible version from the outset," said Simcoe.

An all-new Commodore is due in 2007.