Holden Monaro

Holden's two-door muscle coupe

The Holden Monaro is the two-door coupe that Holden, General Motors' Australian company, sold from July 1968 until 1976, with the Monaro name also carried on a four-door GTS sedan until late 1977. The fastest versions used Chevrolet V8s, and Monaros won the Bathurst 500 in 1968 and 1969, which is why the name still carries so much weight in Australia.

Holden brought the name back on a modern coupe built from 2001, and a left-hand-drive version was sold in the United States as the 2004 to 2006 Pontiac GTO. That gives an American buyer two very different cars, a right-hand-drive classic imported under the 25-year rule, or a GTO bought at home.

The Monaro generations at a glance

Dates are Australian release dates, and sources differ by a few weeks on some of them.

HK Monaro and the GTS 327

Holden released the HK Monaro in July 1968 as a pillarless two-door hardtop in three models, the Monaro, the Monaro GTS and the Monaro GTS 327. Base cars used a 161 cu in six, with options running up to a Chevrolet 307 V8.

The GTS 327 was built to take on the Falcon GT in the showroom and on the track. Its 327 cu in (5.4 liter) Chevrolet V8 was rated at 250 hp with a four-speed manual only, plus a lower ride height, twin exhausts, wider wheels and a limited-slip differential. Bruce McPhee won the 1968 Bathurst 500 in one, with co-driver Barry Mulholland driving a single lap.

Published HK production figures disagree badly, from about 8,900 to about 15,600 coupes, so treat any single number with care.

HT and HG, the GTS 350 years

The HT arrived on June 12, 1969 with a new grille, larger taillights and a dash-mounted tachometer in place of the HK's console-mounted one. It also brought Holden's own V8s, a 253 cu in rated at 185 hp and a 308 cu in rated at 240 hp, which reached buyers several months into the run.

The 327 gave way in August 1969 to the GTS 350, with Chevrolet's 350 cu in V8. Manual cars were rated at 300 hp, while the automatic came in a 275 hp tune with softer suspension, a sign that the flagship was turning into a grand tourer. That October, Colin Bond and Tony Roberts won Bathurst in a Holden Dealer Team GTS 350, giving the Monaro two wins in a row.

The HG of July 1970 was the last car on the original body, with a new grille. Holden's three-speed Tri-Matic automatic, which arrived late in the HT run, replaced the two-speed Powerglide on most models, but the GTS 350 automatic kept the Powerglide. By then Holden's racing effort had moved to the smaller, lighter Torana GTR XU-1, a story told in our guide to Australian muscle cars.

HQ to HZ, from coupe to GTS sedan

The all-new HQ arrived in July 1971. Its GTS dropped the six entirely and offered three V8s, the 253, the 308 and the Chevrolet 350, with the 350 paired with a heavy-duty Muncie four-speed or a Turbo 400 automatic. A four-door Monaro GTS sedan joined the range in March 1973. An HQ Monaro also has a film credit, as the car the escaped killer Nightrider steals in the 1979 film Mad Max, before Max is offered the black Falcon described in our Mad Max Interceptor guide.

The HJ of October 1974 dropped the Chevrolet 350, leaving Holden's 4.2 and 5.0 liter V8s tuned for new emissions rules. Buyers were choosing the GTS sedan over the coupe, so Holden turned its leftover coupe bodies into the HX LE, released on September 27, 1976 at A$11,500 in an exclusive LE Red with gold pinstripes and no Monaro badges. Holden sold 580, and some counts put production at 606, with 26 destroyed by fire before sale. The HZ of October 1977 dropped the Monaro name altogether, and the Holden GTS sedan ended in late 1978 or early 1979, depending on the source.

The 2001 revival and the Pontiac GTO

The modern Monaro began as a two-door Commodore concept shown at the 1998 Sydney Motor Show, and public demand got it built. Pilot cars came off the line in August 2001. The CV6 used a 3.8 liter supercharged V6 rated at 171 kW (229 hp), and the CV8 used the 5.7 liter LS1 V8, rated at 225 kW (302 hp) at launch and raised in later series. The VZ update of September 2004 took the V8 to 260 kW (349 hp).

Holden also built the car in left-hand drive at its Elizabeth plant in South Australia for Pontiac. The 2004 GTO used the 5.7 liter LS1 rated at 350 hp and 365 lb-ft, and the 2005 and 2006 cars moved to the 6.0 liter LS2 with 400 hp and 400 lb-ft, plus twin hood scoops. Production totaled roughly 40,800, though the published yearly figures do not quite add up. The last one left the line on June 14, 2006, after GM said the car could not meet airbag rules coming for 2007.

What to check before you buy

The most valuable cars are also the most copied, and replica GTS Monaros are common. A genuine car's build plate and stamped body numbers should agree, but a correct plate alone proves little, and sedans are especially easy to clone. Have a Monaro expert or owners' club inspect the car before any money moves.

• Build plate, body numbers and engine number that agree with each other
• A GTS that left the factory as a GTS, not a base car with stripes added
• An original engine, which also matters for US emissions paperwork
• Rust and past repairs, since rust finished off many HQ Monaros early in life
• Brakes, as HQ GTS cars use front discs and rear drums and dive hard in a panic stop
• Front seat belts, where later inertia-reel belts improve on the original mounting points

Values and parts

Prices have climbed hard. As of mid-2025, genuine 5.0 liter HQ GTS coupes, especially factory manual cars, could reach about A$150,000, below pandemic-era asking prices of more than A$200,000. GTS sedans generally sold for about half the price of coupes, with average 4.2 liter automatics under A$60,000. An HQ GTS 350 coupe that had been a museum exhibit sold for A$315,000 in 2024.

Parts are a mixed story for a US owner. The 327 and 350 are Chevrolet V8s, and the V2's LS1 is the engine the 2004 GTO used here, but the Holden 253 and 308 V8s, the body panels and the trim are Australian parts.

Importing a Monaro to the US

Federal law lets you import a vehicle that is at least 25 years old without meeting the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which is what allows a right-hand-drive Monaro in. U.S. Customs and Border Protection explains the HS-7 and EPA 3520-1 paperwork on its importing a motor vehicle (opens in a new tab) page. Passenger cars carry a 2.5 percent base duty, and since July 24, 2026, products of Australia also carry an extra 12.5 percent Section 301 duty that cars 25 or more years old do not appear to be exempt from, so budget for about 15 percent in total and confirm the current figure with a licensed customs broker before you buy.

Every 1968 to 1979 Monaro clears 25 years easily. The V2 is the timely case, because the earliest cars, built from late 2001, reach 25 years only from late 2026, each on its own build date. For the EPA, a car at least 21 years old must be in original configuration, with any replacement engine the same model as the original. Australia can also require an export permit for a significant Australian-made vehicle at least 30 years old that is not represented in at least two public collections there by a car of equivalent quality, under its national cultural heritage control list (opens in a new tab), so a rare GTS 350 can qualify even when ordinary Monaros sit in museums. A car with a notable racing or ownership history can also need a permit. The exporter must check, permits can be refused, and exporting without one can lead to seizure, so ask Australia's Office for the Arts before you pay. A V2 is new enough that the federal gas-guzzler tax may also apply, so ask your broker.

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