Auction watch: VL Calais Turbo, HK Monaro GTS, S13 Silvia

Hot Holdens, an XY Falcon racer and mint S13 Silvia headline another bumper classic car auction at Grays

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It’s one of the highlights of our week when we sit down on a Friday and cherry pick our favourites crossing the block in the Grays weekly classic car auction.

With more than seven pages of classics to peruse there’s truly something for everyone, so here’s our top picks we wish we could put in our garage.

All the listings are live now and wrap up from Tuesday, June 28, so make sure you follow the link here to check them out.

Up first is a truly mouthwatering 1968 HK Monaro GTS, rocking a worked 308, shortened nine-inch diff and a 150 shot of gas.

The paint and panel is claimed to be all-original, and the good news for the purists is that for your money you also get a literal shipping container worth of original gear – including the engine, gearbox, diff, brakes and loads more.

So you can choose, either keep rocking the mean street machine it is right now (which is what we’d do), or turn it back to the way Holden intended.

Unsurprisingly, bidding has already topped AU$110,000 early in the auction, so expect a hefty price when the hammer falls.

Another Holden hottie is this genuine 1987 VL Calais turbo, presenting in really solid condition inside and out.

Other than the Simmons alloy wheels (which aren’t oversized for once) and the ’90s-spec intercooler kit, it looks like a fairly untouched example. Prices for these things almost rival a full cob lettuce these days, so we’d expect the current bid of AU$23,000 to easily double to break the reserve.

If the HK is out of your budget, but you still want a two door chrome bumper Munro, then this HJ GTS should fit the bill nicely.

What was originally a 253 auto GTS is now the bones of a proper street beast – with a Chev 350, Turbo 400 ‘box, nine-inch diff and a complete respray to blue with a brand new interior.

It needs some final touches to finish it off (like a new rear tyre), but the current bid of AU$55,000 looks close to breaking the reserve. If you can score it close to that, you could grab a steal for a two door Monaro in this market.

Wishing you’d kept grandad’s old HK ute he sent to Car Heaven a long time ago? Then this 1969 HK Belmont ute survivor should give you all the nostalgia feels and would make an awesome club plate weekender.

It’s still got the matching numbers 186 and, although it’s a Belmont, it was optioned with disc brakes and a different dash. We’d strongly recommend an inspection in person to assess those sweaty rust spots, as bidding has already hit nearly $10k with a reserve still to be toppled.

Don’t worry Ford fans, there’s plenty for you as well! At the top of our list for Blue Oval offerings this week is the 1971 XY Falcon sedan, which is far more than just a GT clone.

A peep through the windows show a full race-ready chromoly roll cage, and that’s because this Falcon was built by K&A Motorsport. The story says the car was built 15 years ago for motorsport use, but was never actually used – so what you’re looking at is a ready-to-rip XY race car.

Driveline is a beefed up 2V 351, with a braced and boxed 31-spline nine-inch diff, Mustang disc brakes (front) and plenty of trick suspension work underneath.

Given its racing intention, it makes it a bit harder to pinpoint a final sales figure, but what we can say is the Grays’ bidding machine suggests the current AU$25,000 top bid is still way off breaking the reserve.

A younger, but just as heavily modified, Falcon is this 1983 XE ESP, boasting what appears to be 6.7-litres of V8 stonk under the bonnet.

The details are a bit scant on this one, but it’s pretty clear there’s something serious going on under those swollen rocker covers. There’s also a set of 19-inch snowflake alloys, so someone has poured some love into this build.

Bidding has already fetched AU$50,000 after less than 24 hours, so clearly people are seeing value in this machine and we’ll be watching with interest to see where it ends up early next week.

We have a soft spot for Japanese hero cars here at Street Machine, and this week there’s a true survivor 1992 S13 Silvia that somehow avoided going gutter to gutter when these things could be had for a Maccas voucher and a pack of Winnie Blues.

Not only is it all still one colour, but it ticks all the boxes: SR20DET turbo, manual, what looks like an uncracked dash and bugger-all mods. Even the woeful side-mount intercooler is still intact.

We’ve been seeing these things selling for upwards of AU$20,000 on marketplace in this condition, and with bidding already up to AU$15,600 on this one we’d happily place another $10k on that to make a new home for it.

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