# Monaro muscles in on British



## 05GTO (Oct 6, 2004)

*Monaro muscles in on British*
Mark Hinchliffe
04dec04
AUSTRALIA'S legendary Monaro has wowed the Poms.



The Holden Monaro has won the "Best Muscle Car" category of the BBC Top Gear awards, impressing leading British motoring critic Jeremy Clarkson. 

He said he had fallen in love with the Monaro VXR and was "bowled over" by the big imported Australian V8's character and its 273km/h top speed and 284kW of power. 

Badged as a Vauxhall Monaro, 368 of the Australian-made 5.7-litre coupes have been exported to the UK since early this year. 

Clarkson was enraptured with the sound of the Aussie car: "Full throttle brings movie-style noise, a kind of unreal 'braaap' that sounds like all the best cars from when you were seven. And it brings the kind of speed that most cars this size have oily dreams about." 

Monaros are also exported to the Middle East as the Lumina SS Coupe and to the US as a Pontiac GTO which has not sold as well as expected. Holden last month recorded 50 years of exports, starting in 1954 with 321 FJ sedans sent to New Zealand. 

The updated VZ Monaro is shortlisted in the sports car section of The Courier-Mail Queensland Car of the Year Awards to be announced next Tuesday and revealed in next Wednesday's CARSguide. 

It is up against the Alfa Romeo GT and last year's winner and overall Queensland Car of the Year, the Mazda RX-8.


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## Xman (Oct 31, 2004)

Glad he does not share the bias of Car & Driver!! 

(note C&D Mustang-GTO comparison elsewhere on the forum_


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## Xman (Oct 31, 2004)

I've been in the UK this week. One of the Brits I was working with asked me what car I drove. Told him I just got a GTO. He immediately perked up and asked if that was the US version of the Monaro. He told me that was the hotest car in England. He said that GM Vauxhall sold out their first year allocation in 3 months -- for a list price around $70,000. Boy do we have good deals on autos in the US - especially our GTOs!!!


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## sential (Jan 18, 2005)

geez the Vauxhall and the Holden have better front bumpers than the Pontiac. Why must all Pontiacs have the same front grill?


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## BigJim (Oct 30, 2004)




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## Douge (Mar 18, 2005)

05GTO said:


> *Monaro muscles in on British*
> Mark Hinchliffe
> 04dec04
> AUSTRALIA'S legendary Monaro has wowed the Poms.
> ...


He obviously didn't catch the part that it is sold as a Pontiac with a Corvette motor, that should have disqualified it bloody straight away right Mr. Clarkson?


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## Groucho (Sep 11, 2004)

sential said:


> geez the Vauxhall and the Holden have better front bumpers than the Pontiac. Why must all Pontiacs have the same front grill?


'Zactly. They get the cool HSV fascia, we get the lame P-Pontiac one.


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