The two BOP Monaros

Tim checks out two BOP Monaros that are related in more ways than you would imagine

Just as the Great Race was becoming great, the Monaro was winning it. A two-door coupe based on the HK Holden Kingswood sedan from 1968 to 1971, the Monaro’s huge engine made the rest of the field cannon fodder on the long and aptly named Con-Rod straight at Mount Panorama.

The original Monaro came from a brand-new Holden design studio — taking styling features from Oldsmobile’s Toronado coupe — and was released in 1966. GM gave the Monaro 19 engine and transmission combinations, including 5031cc and 5359cc (307 and 327ci) Chevrolet V8 power. A 1968 debut win at Sandown for the Monaro GTS 327 was followed by first, second and third outright at Bathurst, setting the Monaro legend in motion. The original HK Monaro GTS 327, HT and HG Monaro GTS 350 coupes, which were homologation models, built for the Bathurst endurance race from 1968 to 1971 and powered by Chevrolet’s 327 and 350ci (5735cc) motors, are real collectors’ pieces.

Experience is the key on Dunlop Targa, and Maurice had plenty of experiences before his next attempt with the HQ coupe in 1999

The HQ sedan brought with it a new range of Monaro coupes in 1972, although GM chose to water down the mix by producing the HQ sedan as a Monaro too. To confuse matters further, the final coupe did not carry the Monaro nameplate — in August 1976, almost two months after the HX series release, 580 LE coupes were produced at Pagewood in Sydney. The LE came with a 5047cc (308ci) engine, Turbo-Hydramatic and a Salisbury limited slip differential only, plus four headlights, colour-keyed front and rear spoilers and a quadraphonic eight-track player.

The final cut

As things turned out, this wouldn’t be the last big coupe from Holden. Some 20 years after the first Monaro, a Commodore coupe show car appeared at the 1998 Sydney motor show and gained the Monaro name tag from the public before Holden had a chance to decide what to call it. The reception was so good, GM gave Holden the go-ahead to get it into production, which took it 22 months and A$60 million. Built on the same wheelbase platform as the Commodore, the coupe was a new car from the front A-pillar rearwards. Only the bonnet, guards and door handles were carry-over items from the sedan.

This Monaro was first available in CV6 and CV8 models with a supercharged 3.8-litre V6 and a 5.7-litre Gen III V8, and a choice of a six-speed manual or four-speed automatic. HSV also got in on the act, producing GTO and GTS versions with higher output 5.7-litre engines. Later the GTS version was dropped, but a four-wheel-drive variant called Coupe4 appeared. An SII model debuted in early 2003 with revisions from the VY series Commodore, and the CV6 model was dropped (10 times as many CV8s had been sold) when the Series 3 model appeared in 2004.

To make it cost effective, Holden exported the Monaro to the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina Coupe, the United States as the Pontiac GTO, and to the UK as the Vauxhall Monaro. Three quarters of the car’s sales have come from overseas; although the Pontiac GTO’s relative failure is now being touted as the reason GM Australia has given up on the Monaro.

Because it is not a sedan, and as such does not comply with the Aussie Supercar regulations, the third generation Monaro did not have a great racing heritage, but a Monaro racer powered by a 7.0-litre racing version of Holden’s Gen III V8 engine was constructed for Holden Motorsport by the Bathurst-winning Garry Rogers Motorsport team, where it won the Bathurst 24-hour enduro in Peter Brock’s hands against opposition from Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini. After its Bathurst 24-hour debut it successfully competed in the GT sports car category of the 2003 Nations Cup series against similar opposition.

Shap

Things happen to Maurice Shapley, and his adventures have become part of Dunlop Targa folklore. Maurice is the distributor and installer of SolarPeak solar water heating systems in the Whakatane, Kawerau and Opotiki districts.

Maurice’s grandfather, Sidney Samuel Shapley, started plumbing in 1911 from a tent on Commerce Street, opposite the car park known as Shapley Place. After the Great War, the Kopeopeo plumbing works was installed in his wife’s washhouse. His two sons joined, and John took over the business when Sidney retired in 1955. John and Sidney Jnr carried on the business to be joined by their sons, Ron in 1972 and Maurice in 1975. Maurice started Shapley Plumbing Ltd in 1994, whilst Ron continued on with the retail side of SS Shapley & Co.
Maurice was also a successful motocross competitor before he tried his luck in the burgeoning Holden HQ series category. He did pretty well at that, too, and went on to try his hand at circuit racing with a VS Commodore.

This 1972 GTS HQ Monaro is one of only 300 made with a Chevrolet motor and a four-speed ’box

He found this HQ coupe in a shed in Te Tako, and swapped it for an HQ ute. He built it up for the 1998 Dunlop Targa, the beginning of a roller-coaster ride for both car and crew. On the Maneatutu special stage he had a big off; rolling the car into a ball that would have stopped a less determined team. But they had paid their entry, and they were going to get it going the next day!

They found a diff in Welcome Bay, some doors in Gate Pa, a boot lid from the Kaimais and a rear screen was uncovered in Mount Maunganui at 3am the next morning, so the car was¦ er¦ ready to go next day. Experience is the key on Dunlop Targa, and Maurice had plenty of experiences before his next attempt with the HQ coupe in 1999. Despite losing third gear the team achieved third in category. The next year was better than that, the red Monaro coming home first classic and tenth overall. With more gearbox problems they got second in class in 2001. Maurice broke two Muncies and two T5 gearboxes before going to a Super T10. The HQ coupe, however, has proved its worth, having now run in seven full Dunlop Targas, two Targa Bambinas and two Targa Dashes.

Inspired by Brock

In 2002, Peter Brock competed on the Dunlop Targa with his new Monaro. It fired Maurice up to build a replica of Brockie’s late model Monaro coupe. The two were parked together, and Brock’s crew became surrogate mothers to the Whakatane team, helping them throughout the event, so Maurice started to pick their brains for a new project that was coming to mind. He was going to build a GT0 Monaro.

He picked up a damaged 2002 Monaro from Turners for $13,800. The left-hand-side had been ripped apart, but the car was substantially sound. The damaged roof came off, which made it a good deal easier for Brett Molesworth to fit the chrome-moly safety cage. The LS1 Gen III 5.7-litre V8 has been fitted with a C&V Computer upgrade, which brought the power up to 300kW, and a Cappa Performance 10-litre sump to prevent oil surge. A T56 Tremec six-speed feeds the Kazz diff centre and Harrop diff hat (incidentally, Harrop Australia saw its stickers on Maurice’s car in a report on Dunlop Targa and offered to give him full support this year for free — proof positive that the Dunlop Targa message is international).

The Monaro raced on Dunlop Targa 2003 to 23rd overall, but fellow competitor Steve Millen noticed its brakes were on fire after one stage, and offered to send a set of Pontiac GTO after-market brakes to the Whakatane team from his base in the USA. The units sent over by Stillen Engineering were six-pot AP front callipers and four-pot rears. Millen’s help ensured that Shapley and his partner Sherryl Hanley gained fourth overall and second in class in the 2004 Dunlop Targa Tauranga.

Tauranga saw another new Monaro join the Dunlop Targa fray — driven by Daniel Jones and Keryn Dudley — and when their alternator failed, Maurice’s Whakatane team helped them sort it out.

Tony’s Monaro

With the new Monaro up and running, Maurice passed his old car to Tony Rees, who had already completed two Dunlop Targas and one Targa Dash. The HQ seemed quite attached to Maurice, and when he crashed the BMW he was driving on the 2003 Dunlop Targa through a fence in Fielding, his old HQ came bundling through the fence after him with Tony at the wheel.
Thirty-seven-year-old Tony is Whakatane born and bred, but has seen the world, been there and done that — mostly on two wheels. Tony owns the local Yamaha dealership. Drawn to two-wheeled competition by a home-made mini-bike, Tony entered the Taupo Street Race in 1986, which gave him a taste for bike racing. He won the Hamilton Winter Road Race Series that same year, and then went on to some spectacular successes in the World Endurance series at places like Le Mans and Suzuka, finishing fourth at Spa Francorchamps in 1999 and second at Bathurst in Easter 2000.

He also came seventh in the Australian GP, and back at home he has had several wins at the Paeroa Street Races and scored nine National titles. Being no stranger to street racing, and using the skills of judging road conditions as all bike riders do, Tony went to four wheels using Maurice Shapley’s 1972 Monaro. In the 2003 Dunlop Targa he scored fifth in the Classic class, nineteenth overall, and followed it up with a third in class the following year in both the Dunlop Dash and main Targa events with his co-driver, Steve Dodson.

The 1972 GTS HQ Monaro is one of only 300 made with a Chevrolet motor and a four-speed ’box. Since its preparation for Dunlop Targa the GTS has been developed along the way, not least in the gearbox department, to put up with a 6276cc (383ci) V8 fed by a 750 Holley double pumper. The rest of the driveline has been beefed up too. The rear axle is made up from a VN centre and Statesman rear tubes and discs while 320mm Wilwood discs are on the front squeezed by four-pot callipers.

Bilstein adjustables damp out the suspension, which is lowered by 50mm, and the car is fitted with an electric power steering pump.

Flying the flag

The two Whakatane-based Monaros (along with Hamish Paterson’s car) will be waving the General’s flag during Dunlop Targa this year. The competition between them and against the throng of Fords and Porsches will be an interesting one.

Words: Tim Nevinson Photos: Quinn Hamill