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THE Holden Monza could be a reality by 2018 as the local arm of General Motors shores up its next sports car. The name was last on the bootlid of a Holden when Peter Brock’s Holden Dealer Team produced two V8 coupes in 1984, based on the Opel Monza coupe.
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That means that this name is not for an Opel-badged model in Australia, but more likely a performance model wearing the Holden lion up front.
GM’s Stefan Jacoby, vice-president of Consolidated International Holdings in Singapore that oversees the Australian operations, confirmed to Wheels in March that the Australian carmaker would offer a desirable model in the wake of its locally made performance Commodore disappearing from showrooms in the wake of the closure of its Australian manufacturing arm. “We will bring a Holden sports car in the near future,” he told Wheels. “It will be something which truly fulfils the requirements of a genuine Holden sports car.”
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The Monza name hasn't been seen on a two-door Holden since Peter Brock produced several Holden Dealer Team Monza coupes in 1984. Based on the two-door Opel Monza, which used the same platform as the VK Commodore that was in showrooms at the time, the racing legend fitted them with Holden 5.0-litre V8 engines in what became his vision of a Commodore coupe.
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The HDT Monza graced the cover of Wheels in May 1984, but only two were built and the model didn't become a full-time member of Brock's operations, which at the time was Australia's "sixth-largest car manufacturer".
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