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Just over a year ago, one of Holden's design team let slip that a production-ready Monaro replacement had been finalised as part of the new VE range but was scrapped at the last minute when Holden's GM parent was slashing costs. An example was stored in the basement in Holden's Design Centre and would make an appearance at the appropriate time.
So why now?
It was in 1998 that the original Holden Coupe concept based on the VT Commodore made its first and unexpected appearance. The occasion? Ford's first public reveal of its critical AU Falcon range at the 1998 Sydney International Motor Show.
Sound familiar? Exactly a decade later, Ford is this week previewing its new and even more critical FG Falcon range in its first public showing and the VE-based Coupe 60 thunders out and steals the show...again. This time it is also marking 60 years of Holden, 40 years of the Monaro and 30 years of the Commodore.
If this sounds a little too neat and tidy, it is.
The real agenda according to Holden's design team is that the new Camaro developed for Chevrolet on the VE platform is now finished. Faced with a choice between developing a VE Monaro or the new Chevrolet Camaro, Holden had to concede that the new Camaro was more important from a local and global perspective in terms of sheer numbers.
The Camaro would also bring in vital outside revenue to amortise VE development costs without the risks that another Monaro would bring. The VE Monaro was promptly shelved and it was all hands on deck to get the Camaro ready.
Late last year during a flying local visit, Bob Lutz saw Holden's VE Monaro example as the dust was being blown off it ready for freshening-up with several new ideas. He liked what he saw and couldn't contain his enthusiasm. Holden insiders were quietly grateful that it didn't spill out to the point where he gave the game away but it did build up hopes that maybe it could be a goer again. Apparently, Lutz is as enthusiastic about this one as he was over the last generation.
After the appointment of new Holden chief and petrol head in residence Mark Reuss, the momentum grew to get it out there so that it would become a global talking point and prompt the necessary "what ifs?" to get it into production.
The previous Monaro found a steady band of fans in the UK and now Pontiac could also introduce it as part of the G8 range. This would make more sense to US buyers than the previous Monaro which seemed to appear from nowhere and didn't quite fit the legend of the GTO badge it was wearing.
In fact, Holden was quite reluctant to see the last Monaro go to the US when it was at the end of its model life and was never intended to be the hard-edged muscle car that the Pontiac GTO was. Lessons have been learnt all round and with a proper G8 context for a Pontiac version of the Coupe 60, the outlook for another Monaro is brighter than it has been for some time.
The irony of course is that Holden has already built several two door VE Commodores that have been running around on Australian roads for several years.
They were built to Camaro proportions and the outline of the rear doors was defined in black tape on each example so that they wouldn't look any different to the casual onlooker from a normal VE Commodore sedan.
The point is that many of the development lessons from the Camaro can be readily transferred to a VE Coupe so it could reach production sooner rather than later -- if the Coupe 60 fires up the right people in GM's global divisions.
With Lutz already adding his stamp of approval, the Coupe 60 is at least guaranteed a considered audience wherever it is shown within the corporation. It is in this area alone that this new Coupe concept has a far greater agenda than the 1998 concept ever had.
For further information concerning the Coupe 60 concept, click here.
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