Holden Monaro CV8Z
cfit
2018-04-05T11:56:55+10:00
Not even their wives knew what they were working on, so it was not really surprisingly, in that bad year for President Bill Clinton, that the Holden guys dubbed their project Monica.
When the covers came off the blue coupe at that year’s Sydney International Motor Show, the assembled media immediately reckoned this car should go into production as the new Monaro.
Our example is a pristine silver.
The front seats were positioned similarly to those of the sedan but lower. There was sufficient range of steering wheel adjustment so that no changes were required for the controls. The twin rear seats were mounted 50 mm lower and 50 mm forward.
But the months slipped past and Holden made no commitment to the Commodore coupe. Then, in April 1999 Peter Hanenberger the guy who developed Holden’s Radial Tuned Suspension was named as the company’s next CEO. Hanenberger wanted to diversify the Commodore range and increase exports. He wanted an all-wheel drive wagon (Adventra), a crew cab (Crewman). It was a no-brainer for this hard-driving (in both senses) engineer to give the coupe his approval.