It goes by the name Holden Monaro; it's made in Australia by the local arm of GM, and Bob Lutz wants it. Or wants to be able to sell it to you. Having raved about the sleek-looking V-8 coupe on a brief test drive in the land Down Under recently, GM's North American product honcho announced at the New York auto show in April his plans to import the car rebadged as a Pontiac GTO. What Lutz wants, Lutz gets. The GTO will be unveiled at the 2003 Detroit auto show next January.
In a trip recently to my old 'hood in Australia, yours truly cornered one of the extremely popular V-8 models (there's also a supercharged V-6 version) and took it to a local track in the western city of Perth to check out just what Lutz was on to. That we took it to a road course instead of a drag strip indicates the major difference between this and older GTOs: This one handles.
The Monaro is extremely good-looking, seats four adults in comfort, and performs as well as, if not better than, any large coupe in GM's fleet today. The first thing that strikes the onlooker is its well-proportioned silhouette. It may be a bit more like a Pininfarina-designed car than a classic GTO, but it is pretty nonetheless. It's not overdone, and with Lutz's directive that future Pontiacs be decladded, the GTO's flanks will likely remain clean.
Inside, our blue test car had matching body-hugging blue leather seats and blue gauges with polished aluminum trim, and loads of room in the back.
Holden strove to make the Monaro a comfortable tourer while injecting it with some serious performance. It succeeds on both fronts.
Like the Pontiac LeMans-based original that was called "the Goat," the new GTO/Monaro is based on a mass-market car, Australia's most popular sedan, the Holden Commodore. The Commodore is a refinement of the Opel Omega platform that Americans know best as the deceased Cadillac Catera. The Monaro's rear-drive powertrain consists of the Gen III 5.7-liter pushrod V-8 and a four-speed automatic. A slightly clunky six-speed manual is also available, although it's unclear whether that tranny will make it to the States. Pumping out 302 horsepower at 5200 rpm and 339 pound-feet of torque at 4400 rpm, the V-8 pulls all the way through the rev range. The 5.7-liter is especially strong in the midrange. Plant your right foot from a standing start, and the deep roar from the engine bay fills the cabin just as you near the redline in second. You pass 62 mph in just 6.6 seconds. The quarter-mile flies by in 14.7 seconds. Chevy's big coupe, the Monte Carlo SS, gets to 60 mph in 7.9 seconds and through the quarter in 16.1 seconds. The Monaro is a couple 10ths of a second quicker to 60 mph than a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, and more than a second slower than a Trans Am.
Of course, impressive acceleration is expected of a car wearing the GTO badge. As a consequence of its foreign development and a change in muscle-car thinking over the years, the GTO will handle as well. Holden shod the Monaro with some seriously grippy rubber in the Potenza RE040s. If you're aggressive with the throttle, you can coax the Monaro into a power slide, however brief. But you'll need to work hard, as those 17-inch Bridgestones will bite like a pit bull as they claw to get you back in line. In fact, a touch of understeer is evident every now and then, but overall, the car is superbly balanced. The steering is accurate and progressive.
A rigid chassis does wonders to keep the car stable in corners, but it's the suspension system that really shines. Fitted with struts up front and semi-trailing arms out back, anti-roll bars all-around, and toe-control links in the rear, the 3600-pound Monaro traces corners more neutrally than any other Holden—or any GTO—before it. The result is a comfortable, composed coupe that does all you ask of it on any surface.
There's plenty of grip and a level of enjoyment not found in a Holden four-door—or in any current Pontiac except perhaps a Trans Am. However, all is not completely peachy. The brakes, although doing their job efficiently in city traffic, are spongy and lack the durability that prolonged hard use demands. And the four-speed auto slushbox tends to search endlessly for the next gear.
GM plans to import about 20,000 of the cars for Pontiac with a price close to that in Australia, $30,977.
Down Under, the name Monaro has been a legend that first surfaced about 30 years ago. It is viewed here as Australia's Mustang. Beginning in the fall of '03, it can be viewed in Pontiac dealerships as America's GTO. —Peter Lyon
Manufacturer: GM-Holden Automotive, Ltd., Melbourne, Australia
Vehicle type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 2-door sedan
Price (Australia): $30,977
Engine type: pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, GM engine-control system with port fuel injection
Displacement 346 cu in, 5665cc
Power (SAE net) 302 bhp @ 5200 rpm
Transmission 4-speed automatic
Wheelbase 109.8 in
Length 188.5 in
Curb weight 3600 lb
