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Here was an Olympic-standard no-brainer. When Holden finally realised it had to build the Holden Monaro in 2001 (to avoid angry mobs of wannabe Monaro-owners storming dealerships) it became equally obvious that HSV would want in on it, too.
After all, if HSV could turn Commodores into such objects of desire, the sky was clearly the limit if it could get its hands on a car that didn’t look like the taxi meter was standard equipment. And so the Coupe GTO, GTS and, sometime later, the Coupe 4 were born.
Interestingly, the HSV versions were both released more or less at the same time as the Holden Monaro version, but they were priced high enough that Monaro sales weren’t really impacted.
As well as the engine and suspension tweaks common to other HSV models, the GTO and GTS got specific body-kits to differentiate them from mere Monaros. Most noticeable was a deep, aggressive front spoiler which incorporated a new grille and gave the thing a pretty tough look. Many a Monaro grew a HSV front clip in the ensuing years. But the most controversial aspect of the body kit was the rear spoiler.
Holden’s then design boss, Mike Simcoe, who had designed the original Monaro concept in his spare time, was very keen on maintaining the purity of line that his big two-door had displayed from the very start. But, of course, Simcoe was not HSV’s styling meister, and HSV was worried that its customers would not relate to a coupe without the batmobile treatment.
Driving the big HSV coupes was always good fun. They had plenty of poke and with the other changes Holden had wrought on the basic Monaro platform – most notably a slower steering rack to make the front end point a bit more precisely – it was all fun and games. The interiors were plush and even with that damned rear wing, they looked the goods.
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The switch to V3 specification for the 2004 model-year mean that the GTO entry-level model got an upgrade to 285kW (in line with HSV’s other models) making the expensive Callaway engine option largely pointless. So, at that point, the GTS was dumped and the GTO went it alone for a little while.
In the end, a compromised header design lopped quite a few horsepower off the top. In fact, at a time in history when the GTO had grown to a full six litres (as the Z Series) the Coupe 4 was still selling alongside it with 5.7 litres and 270kW versus the GTO’s 297. Also, the wider track of the all-wheel-drive front axle (which owed a bit to Hummer, apparently) meant that the Coupe 4 had to wear little wheelarch extensions which didn’t really work for us visually.
Specs: Engine: 5665cc V8, OHV, 16-valve Power: 270kW @ 5700rpm Torque: 475Nm @ 4000rpm 0-100km/h time: 6.1sec (claimed) Weight: 1830kg Price when new: $89,950 Years on sale: 2004-2006
