Holden could not have wished for a better start to the career of its new "baby," the Monaro, when it won the 1968 Hardie Ferodo 500 race. Overnight the name Monaro had entered Australia's motoring lexicon.
The motoring public reacted positively and bought the Monaro is numbers that would undoubtedly have pleased the accountants at GM-H. Excitement was in the air and in Holden showrooms around the country. The halo effect of the Monaro rubbed off onto the rest of the range with the possible exception of the awkwardly styled Brougham. Sales momentum continued from the HK-HT-HG family into the sweetly styled HQ range although by now Holden was looking at widening the Monaro range to include four-door sedans. These, too, were successful more so than the Monaro coupe which had lost most of its masculinity and was no longer the company's front-line competitions choice, that role having been usurped by the smaller and lighter Torana.
After a lengthy hiatus following the demise of the Monaro in the late 70s, Australian motoring enthusiasts were stunned by the showing of a Concept Coupe in 1998 that led inexorably to the third generation Monaro even if the car's designer wanted a different name. For four years in the early part of the 21 century Australian buyers could once again buy a car carrying the Monaro name. For many it was an equal to some of the more fancied European coupes but, like the original, the V2 series had a svelte masculinity about it as well as storming performance from the V8 versions.
