(first posted 6/7/2013) When we think of Monza, it’s likely either the Corvair or the Vega-offshoot. But there’s a third (are there more?) GM coupe that bore that name, and our man in the UK, Roger Carr, found this example at a car show somewhere there. Except for the name and the fastback roof, there’s nothing in common to the other two.
The Monza was the coupe version of the Opel Senator, also badged the Vauxhall Royalé (and Coupe), in the first few years. These appeared first in 1978, and lasted through 1986, as a facelifted version. The Opel Senator eventually supplanted the Royalé in the UK, so one might expect to find both versions.
Roger didn’t get a shot of its tail, so I’ll borrow this from Wikipedia. Looks rather familiar, eh? Like a cross between the H-Body Monza and the J-Body coupes.
Monzas came with the usual wide range of engines, from the 115 hp 2.0 L four to the hot 180 hp 3.0 L inline six (in the hi-po GSE version). Just in case it’s not obvious, these are RWD cars, with independent rear suspension. A better Monza, one might say.
yes, there are more Monzas! The Ascona-based brazilian Chevy Monza, built from 1982-1995. It was the first FWD Chevrolet available in South America, so far I can recall. http://bestcars.uol.com.br/classicos/monza-1.htm (in portuguese).
I knew there was one more, I was thinking it was from GM’s operations down in South America somewhere. Someone at GM really liked this name, since it kept coming back again and again.
Kinda like, but not the same as all the mutations of Astro, Astre and Astra.
That name was bound not to go away that quickly. Thanks.
Here one more picture of these Brazilian Monza, this one is a 2-door (sedan?coupe?) with front vent windows. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chevrolet_Monza_2.0_SLE_2-dr.jpg
Thanks. I love old Opels and I find the Opel Monza really really beautiful.
As for the Brazilian Chevrolet Monza, it was offered first only as a three door hatchback. Later as 2 and 4 door sedan. The door vents came only in the “long” doors: the hatchback and the 2 door sedan.
Looks like a “stretched” version of what the U.S. got between 1987-90 as the (Daewoo poorly-built) Pontiac LeMans. Is this South American version Isuzu flavored at all?
Hi,
this looks like a version of the 1981 Opel/Vauxhall Ascona/Cavalier J-car, which was also the Chevy Cavalier to Cadillac Cimarron.
This version was replaced in Europe in 1988 but, especially in the UK, was an absolute hit; probably the most successful GM car since 1945.
And, yes, it come round again as a Daewoo, the Espero, from 1990 to 97, though with a Bertone styled body which looked distinctly like a Citroen XM saloon might have
We got the 3 door version in Venezuela as Monza Hatch. The J-body version.
Brazil also got a unique hatchback that combined the US model’s 2-door configuration with the Euro model’s extra rear headroom.
Opel Monza 2.5 E was my second car. Not very good against rust, quite bad actually. I changed the engine to a 3.0 E. Everything that could went wrong, went wrong, but I loved the car anyway.
This car used a lot of fuel, even with a manual transmission. I had a 89 Caprice Brougham (305 TBi) that used less fuel on city-driving.
In South Africa there was a derivative of the Opel Kadett which was named Monza in it’s 4 door sedan and 2 door cabriolet versions.
South Africa was a curious proposition when it came to these cars. Due to the need to be politically correct during the lead up to transition from government change during the 80s and 90s, GM divested on-site manufacturing control within SA to a group called Delta. The cars were still designed, spec’d and supplied from home office, but the actual assembly was controlled locally. That allowed production to continue and allowing GM to escape political scrutiny. Eventually, GM bought back into the local operation and it became fully part of GM again. Ford did the same thing with Samcor.
All of the old Kadetts/Monza became Astras in the early 1990s, but the SA operations still labeled some models as Kadetts until GM full assumed control of the operations again. Although models pretty much conformed to home office specifications, there were instances of variation which make for some unique models. If I am not mistaken, that label on the B pillar behind the front door should say “BY BERTONE” .
Also, Chevrolet got a model in South Africa, derived from the Vauxhall Cavalier/Opel Asconda named “Chevair”. It didn’t got a J-body successor however.
The original Kadett convertible really was built by Bertone in Italy. But these?
Cadillac had thoughts on importing the four door Senator version as a rebadged Cadillac as far back as 1983. It was even mentioned in the press release for the newly introduced 1986 E/K Cadillacs in the fall of 1985. This generation car was replaced by the Omega in 1986 (although the coupe was dropped) and ultimately became the Cadillac Catera for MY1997. The RWD V platform was widely regarded as an excellent platform spawning a number of vehicles, which would probably make for a nice CC article unto itself (although it might go over the head of many US readers). The Catera was always one of those letdowns, after I joined Cadillac in 1993, we travelled to Germany to do preproduction work on the Catera and drove many Omega examples, which were quite popular at the time, around and about. The marketing campaign was bad, but the real crux of the problem was that, at the time, when a car said “Cadillac” people still expected old fashioned luxury and having what amounted to a transplanted European car for sale was a culture shock to Cadillac showroom browsers. IMO, Oldsmobile might have done better with the Omega to complement the Aurora.
It does look like the J cars (Chevy Cavalier) which was originally based around the Opel Ascona B. Oddly, while this Monza looks similar to the hatchback J sold in the US, the Ascona which it was based on never sold a 3 door hatch in most markets. It was always a curiosity of mine that, until recently, mainland Europe never took to 3 door hatches like English speaking countries did. 3 door hatches were all the rage in the US and with many Japanese models from the early 1970s but I do not recall seeing one in mainland Europe more than 10 years ago. In those days, everything was benchmarked against the sales leader Ford Cortina.
http://www.totalvauxhall.co.uk is a website devoted to the sporting development of these cars. Reminds me of the days of my Cavalier Z24 convertible.
Pictured below is the Silver Aero a concept developed by then UK styling chief none other than Wayne Cherry who brought a lot of European influence to US car design and ultimately replaced Chuck Jordan as GM overall styling chief in 1992.
What was the reliability record of Omegas on their home turf? Because they certainly weren’t in NA.
About the same as the US or not significantly different from what I have been able to find. The difference was the European version was far more popular especially the Vauxhall version in the UK which was popular with the police. Sort of became their Dodge Diplomat.
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/vauxhall/omega-1994/
Those Vauxhalls were as quick as the 5L V8 Holden versions of the 4 door, anglo celtic V Aboriginal tech i guess but you could scandy flick my 83 Commodore on any surface and speed great car and with a log rear axle yeah Holdens built a facsimilie of these but the had to fabricate the chassis Opel and Vauxhall dont do V8s, That particular foto looks like the VB/C Commodore which though a revalation here handling wise it could get really ugly at high speed on gravel 120mph or so speed I mean yeah on dirt some of OZ best roads arent paved and arent limited, so the rear suspension pickup points were changed and the VH K cornered better NZ has some South African Chevrolets this model but not having been under one I couldnt tell where the 4 brands coincide.
It was always a curiosity of mine that, until recently, mainland Europe never took to 3 door hatches like English speaking countries did. 3 door hatches were all the rage in the US and with many Japanese models from the early 1970s but I do not recall seeing one in mainland Europe more than 10 years ago. In those days, everything was benchmarked against the sales leader Ford Cortina.
Craig, you really have me confused with this comment. Are you saying you didn’t see any examples of the VW Golf, which of course wasn’t the first mainland European hatchback. And the Opel Astre, and Ford Escort? And Fiat 128, and…………………
Now admittedly, the five door version of all the cars that comprise the most popular “Golf Class” are more common than the three door, but there certainly were a fair number of the latter sold too.
You say everything was benchmarked against the Ford Cortina Cortina. That was a UK car. If anything, trunked sedans were much more popular in the UK than on the mainland. The hatchback style utterly dominated the C and B class cars on the mainland since the early-mid seventies, and the Golf led the charge.
In fact, the trunked version of the Golf (and Escort and Astra) like the Jetta and others have always been very poor sellers on the mainland, except in Eastern Europe in more recent years. The Jetta was largely developed for the US, where hatchbacks had a fairly brief fling of popularity.
Mainland Europeans have always looked at small-compact trunked sedans as dowdy, old-folks cars, and have been shunned for decades.
No square hatches like you describe but the fast back designs like what was presented. Americans seemed to have a thing for fastbacks while square back hatches seem to be the purview of European and Japanese makes. I am sorry that wasn’t more clearly stated.
As for the Cortina, yes I was thinking more in terms of the UK and English speaking countries. Again I should have been more explicit.
Since the article, and I presume picture, were based around the UK cars that was my mindset at the time. I guess I was referring more to the raked back look. Yea I wasn’t blind to miss all the hatchback coupes and sedans running around in Europe. 😉
I can only imagine, that while Opel and Vauxhall being European brands, but having a US based parents had a lot of cross pollenization of design themes since a lot of Big 3 execs spent at least part of their careers with overseas operations.
I remember that while we had the Chevette stateside which was ostensibly a “world car” it was a subcompact and catered to a specific market. After going through the two energy crises and with GM corporate moving heavily toward FWD, when the J designs emerged that was pretty much what we were told that cars were going to start looking more like the Europeans.
Assuming you’re talking specifically about sporty coupes (whether two-door or three), Uwe Bahnsen, Ford of Europe design chief in the early ’80s, told Jeremy Walton that Ford periodically talked about doing another coupe along the lines of the Capri (which had become pretty much a U.K. niche item by the early ’80s) and decided that market didn’t make it worth the tooling costs.
I think that’s a major reason hot hatches based on more mundane three- and five-door family hatchbacks became all the rage in Europe. The problem with both sports cars of the traditional MG/TR variety and Capri-style coupes is that they require a lot of unique tooling, which makes them expensive to produce. The advantage of the hot hatch is that from the manufacturer’s perspective, adding a more highly tuned engine or beefed-up suspension to an existing B- or C-segment family car is a lot cheaper. Except for racing homologation specials, visual changes can generally be limited to graphics, fabrics, paint, and bolt-on addenda like spoilers and ground effects kits, which are substantially less expensive to manufacture than new body panels or a new shell.
Citroen put a go fast kit in my Citroen Xsara and made Sebastian Loeb a star the original doesnt have the tyre shredding power but just like Loebs one my diesel runs away from Subarus on twisty roads.
Haha, man you’re hilarious I love your comments it’s always funny reading something by someone who has no idea what they’re talking about, in all seriousness keep it up, I think I get what your doing now and if I’m right you sir are a genius
You see I figure no one can be so wrong about so many automotive related issues so consistently so I reckon you’re putting it on man.
Oh and dude you didn’t lay the boot in to Australian automotive industry like you normally do surely you can find some new derogatory remarks and general put downs for what was, just saying is all.
Thanks again buddy you’re a crack up dead set!
I see; you were talking about fastback-type hatchback sporty coupes. The problem with them is that they require a long tail, otherwise the already-compromised rear seat headroom becomes totally useless.
Most Europeans favored practicality along with their sportiness, hence the rise of cars like the VW GTI, back in 1978 or so. And they like cars not to bee longer than necessary, due to ease of parking. This type of long fastback style coupe never caught on very much, especially on the mainland.
Update: And I just see auwm has added more relevant info to that issue.
For performance cars where cornering ability is desired body rigidity plays a major part in your weapon of choice as does weight and a flagship WRC hatchback sold me a diesel and its a great car for what it is and what I want and the parts are cheaper than Toyota and made the joint venture nearby in China rear b/shoes $325.00 ex France, $60.00 ex P.R.C. landed in my town, I’m only a truckdriver it makes economic sense to me.
Ford Cortina was the best seller in NZ it took a tax advantage in 74 and won the sales race against the 6 cylinder Australian competition another gas crisis idea tax anything larger than 2L 20%, the RMTA went thru the roof and our prime minister Rob Muldoon suddenly sported a brand new Ford Sierra when the model was announced my father was in the retail motor traders lobby group and knew the inside story on why we had so many govt Cortinas but dad Victors wer crap unless you shopped to top of the tree then it rusted out, the Cortinas didnt rust as fast and could be bought in fleet 1300cc Victors from Vauxhall and Hillmans were too hard to decontent by then and no competent fleet buyer would touch BMC front drive by 1970, Ford was left was prepared to build a car that was hopelessly underpowered and unwanted by the public at a very good price and won the sales race about this time ex NZ government Hillman Minxs were appearing they had no exterior trim just grille bumpers badges having just reassembled one Todd motors would have made money on labour alone.
Craig, I often wonder about why the Catera failed. My theory is that it didn’t go far enough away from being a traditional American luxury car. On its own merits, the Catera was a pretty nice vehicle (though quite fragile, from what I understand). But it looked too much like a Camry. When owners spend that kind of money, they want to show off! (Unless they’re buying a Buick… maybe it would’ve made a nice Buick?)
Anyway, I think that the success of the CTS helps make my point: It sure didn’t look like any Cadillac that came before, and you’d never mistake it for a Camry!
Well aside from the questionable marketing campaign (ducks?) the Catera failure has been discussed in Cadillac circles. The car, despite having roughly the same reliability in Europe as in the US, was far more successful especially given that it was on the large side there while being on the small side here.
I tend to think that, back in the 1990s when the car came out, Cadillac was still largely regarded as a very traditional brand. Yes the 1992 Seville was striking in its appearance, but it was a large car and still had a lot of traditional styling cues (like a hood ornament). The Catera was sort of an oddball car in the showroom like the Cimarron.
The CTS was a completely fresh design in-house, that was part of a broader overall effort for the brand. It introduced the Arts & Science theme that eventually spilled over to all of the other models into what we have today. We are 10 years into that process but I think the transformation is bearing fruit. Cadillac sales are on a tear right now, for May divisional sales rose 40% over last year.
The same Catera came to Australia however GMHolden chose a Buick 3.8 engine as they had nothing on the shelf than ran unleaded emissions unleaded had arrived in 87 GMH didnt quite have their Cayera finalised so the swapped in the RB30 from Nissan into the existing body shell Nissan were so happy they included the Turbo version the deal lasted 1 model GMH spotted a fatal flaw in the RB30 and went with Buick, The Buick was great and lasted until that alloywonder landed.. The extra time taken paid off and GMH had a new car before Ford had their Falcon baked correctly.
I liked the Holden it wasnt a great car but it drove ok, The Falcon drove badly it dint have an AOD trans and it showed up badly and it fell apart mechanicly constant oil leaks which are a roadworthiness fail in OZ the diff howl a ride in a year old taxi told the story even these job specific heavy duty versions rattled and whined after only 300,000kms the Ford engine will run for ever on LPG.
Bryce, I thought the Holden equivalents of the Catera/Omega were somewhat different… I think I read somewhere that they were wide in OZr? And something you wrote about the suspension (on the earlier models?) also rings a bell… the OZ versions were notorious for eating rear tires or something.
Funny you mention the diff whine on the Falcons… our Crown Vics do the exact same thing!
The Holden version was longer & wider, with a very basic semi-trailing IRS for the first few years which had very, err, interesting lack of toe control. It is worse with a bit of power or heavy load – had a ride in a V8 Commodore SS with 400hp+ power that would give a real kick in the back end under gearchange, just movement in the rear suspension arms, not actual wheel slip. They later added an extra link to stabilise things.
Gold, classic work
Hi,
the second generation Opel Omega (1994-2003) was a successor to the Opel Rekord, Commodore and Senator range, and made it to the US as the Cadillac Catera.
CraigInNC – Brazilian J-car 3 door hatch:
I miss this a lot: Chevrolet Monza S/R
Many thanks.
Looks like a post-pillarless generation Celica. Keep moving, nothin’ to see here…
I agree. My first thought was a blander 2nd generation Toyota Celica.
The grille and headlights remind me much more of a Renault 18, behind that it’s almost a perfect fusion of GM J/H-body hatches.
This was a big car. The Senator it was based on fell between the 5 and 7 series BMWs in size. It was about as big as a 6-series BMW, although the styling does share similarities with other cars of the era.
Nice, now where is an Opel Monza GSE for CC?
My first thought was that it looks very similar to the 1978 Holden VB Commodore. Makes sense really, since that was where Holden got the platform and styling.
ooh don’t mention that to aussies – they don’t believe in badge engineering and think that opel/ford/daewoo being engineered “for aussie conditions’ means they are an aussie car…….
If you really want to work them up, tell them how the “All Australian classic” 1950s FJ Holden was a derivative of a Chevrolet.
The Monza and Senator were well regarded back in the day, but I don’t recall any four-pot versions, they were straight-six only in the British Isles.The UK police used Vauxhall versions of the Senator. I don’t remember any serious quality problems, but the later Omega did have some issues.
The UK police moaned about Senators for only ONE reason uncle mellow the could not get the Lotus Carlton and NOTHING could outrun a Lotus Carlton where as the Senator was equal to big BMWs and Jags they resented the UK govts refusal to give them the 180mph sedan
Initially, the Opel Senator and Opel Monza were pure six-cylinder series.
The four-cylinder engine was only added in March 1983, in the so-called Senator/Monza A2 models. It was the same two-liter engine with electronic injection that was also available for the Opel Rekord E.
It is doubtful if it was a wise decision to delute the already weak image Senator/Monza with an engine from the Rekord.
I reckon the English should bin the Vauxhall name and go for Opel..
Vauxhall is such a joke brand in England..They couldn’t do any worse..Not saying Opel is exactly prestige….But Vauxhall as a brand is kaput..The cars aren’t too bad themselves.
Just the brand.
1928 saw the end of Vauxhall as the original company and the beginning of the GM era the purists bemoan that event 1903 the kicked off but anyway back to this car the Monza this didnt get out here the 4 door did though it was heavily modified to cope with Australian conditions and fitted with local engines 1900cc- 5L. The 2 door coupe was in Aissie experimentally in the hands of touring car legend Peter Brock as a possible new Monaro and while the V8 powertrain could be fitted the body structure was far too weak and expensive to reengineer to meet local standards, To look at this could be a 2 door Holden Commodore but here in Aotearoa we have these and their Vauxhall badgemates
I guess the beloved Rolls Royce marque ceased to exist in purists’ mind as well when the UK government nationalized the company in 1971. Rolls Royce (and Bentley) have been subsequently owned by third parties since then. Going without saying Jaguar-Land Rover now being owned by the Indians after India was owned by Britain for so many years. Maybe all new Jags will come with the scent of curry in the upholstery as their “new car smell.” I mean turn about is fair play right?
Craig I upset a RR Shadow owner he told me my diesel 406 Wagon looked lika holden I told him he should thank the nice people at General Motors every time he drives his Rolls they made the transmission and the airconditioning and please dont knock PSA you rent the patent on their suspension,
Everyone know RR cribbed a lot of their technology, because their claim to fame was the craftsmanship of their build, their sumptuous interiors, the famed grille with hood ornament, and of course the cache that comes with being an uber-expensive exclusive car. Sort of like the champagne CRISTAL that functions the same way an ultra expensive veblen good even though the grapes used are cultivated in the same dirt as much cheaper brands. Of course that is oversimplifying but there is a disconnect between perception and reality.
Mercedes rode that phenomenon to much success in the US, as did Lexus to a lessor extent. While the cars themselves were very good, the price and differentiation made all the difference. It is difficult to overestimate the snobbery involved by the “important” crowd. Nouveau riche may be more public with their behavior but no matter how old money and understated some may act, the expectation is still there.
‘The English’? What happens to the rest of the British in the rest of the UK? Changing the brand to Opel wouldn’t make the cars any better.
There was also a Mexican sedan version of the Opel Corsa that is called the Chevy Monza. I saw a ton of them in Mexico.
Things could have been different if GM had used cars like this to downsize 35 years ago in the US, but then they wouldn’t have been GM. It wasn’t lost on enthusiasts that Detroit thought cars like this were too good for us. Instead they dug in and argued against technology that imports offered here and that they offered in other markets. Were these every bit as good as Mercedes-Benz and BMW models of the era? Would it have mattered if they’d built them here and sold them for Buick or Cadillac prices? They certainly could have built Cavaliers that were the equal of Asconas, but they chose not to. Now we get rebadged Daewoos and they’ve thrown in the towel in Europe too. They’re happy making hay in China, which will be fine until Chinese expectations get too high for their approach.
I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned the “Brock Monza” http://www.hdt.com.au/view/monza
I’ve seen one that looked very similar to that, RHD but not sure if it had a V8. It had the VH front end so who knows?
The Monza at the top of this page belongs to me,
And the picture was taken at the Wallingford car rally 2013, (Oxfordshire, England).
I have been the proud owner of this 1982 3.0 S Monza for almost 4 years, its a series 1.5 and is the rare 5 speed manual, most of the Monzas sold in England were automatic.
And I love it, its great to drive especialy on long trips, so comfy and not that bad on fuel for a old car with what is concidered a farely big engine over here.
Some other pics as I read above your guy didn’t get a pic of the back.
Some more of the old girl getting some attention at the N,E,C 2012 on the AUTOBAHNSTORMERS stand. The Autobahnstormers are a owners club for the larger rear wheel drive Vauxhall/Opel cars.
And more, bit anoying can only add one pic at a time.
And again
Hi Graham,
Interested in selling the Monza?
Regards,
Dennis
Sorry Dennis. But no, it’s not going to be for sale for a long time,
I have no intention of selling it for the foreseeable future.
Peter Brock, the racing driver in Australia wanted to get Holden to import a version of the Monza – somebody actually came up with this, grafting the front end of the VH Commodore onto a an Opel Monza
Yes but without the structural improvements GMH engineered into the local model they werent interested in putting their name and warranty on them.
There’s more to the story than that mate, you gotta remember GMH in the 1980’s was fighting for survival, and realesing a string of new family cars tying up local engineering resources a low volume model that required significant local engineering input didn’t make for a good business case, let alone the lack of resources to make it a reality. Then by the time there was some slack in the system to cut loose some resources it was too late in the model run with the possibility of unsold outdated coupes sitting in showrooms next to brand new next generation models GMH moved on and we ended up with the Calibra as a strange kind of consolation in the early 90’s, but that’s a whole nother story ah brah.
A little update picture,
New wheels, suspension, a tint applied to the front indicators and head lights and a GSE interior,
The above mods have been done a while now.
A picture of the front end taken during the Wallingford rally 2016
Now Ferrari sells a Monza as well. Did they buy the name from GM, or is it just okay to name any car after a racing circuit?
Ferrari had a 750 Monza in 1955.
It has a family resemblance to the J Body, but is not at all related being based on the larger Opel Rekord/Vauxhall Carlton RWD platform. The Monzas had American type crushed velour interiors usually especially lurid colours like lime green, orange, burgundy etc. Good cars when running, but rust prone and with rather fragile camshafts on the 6 pot engine.
The resemblance was really the other way round as the Rekord E on which the Monza and Senator were based, came out in 1977, four years before the first J cars.
That’s an Opel with UK plates. How come it’s not a Vauxhall? Did this come in as a grey market car, say, from Ireland?
This shell was marketed as both Monza and Vauxhall Royale Coupe in UK.
It was during a time Opels were sold alongside Vauxhall models in the UK, not always from the same dealers. The arrangements varied over the years.
That front end gave me a flashback to my family’s VC Commodore from 1981.
I’m surprised none of the aussies have mentioned the Adeyer Sportif, which I think was a used Holden Commodore, chopped up and assembled into a Monza coupe, they did use a pair of genuine Opel rear quarter panels but the rest of the car was made in house.
I think Adeyer’s main product was an awful neo classic Excalibur/Zimmer style coupe based on a Holden One ton ute chassis.
Peter Brock’s HDT Monza prototype was a heavily reworked Opel with a Holden Commodore front structure under the original Monza panels to carry a Commodore V8 engine crossmember and local made TRW rack instead of the Opel’s steering box.
I don’t recall the HDT Monza having a Commodore front end as I expect Peter didn’t want people to mistake it for a ordinary commonwhore, it did have the HDT enhancements such as SS style front spoiler, colour coded bumpers, grill etc.
It may have been far to expensive to import Monza’s fully built up and then convert them, but there was nothing stopping Holden from building them from Opel panels, stuff like coupe door/tailgate/roof skins could have been easily pressed locally and a base 202/3.3 six auto would been more appealing to middle class trendy housewife than a Commonwhore sedan/wagon and the Holden Piazza.
I’m not sure why GMH and Ford Australia where so hopeless in the 80’s.
Was it due to the Aussie execs or their American overlords?
The Australian products certainly didn’t appeal to wealthy New Zealand buyers, its the reason you could buy a RHD Opel Monza straight off the showroom floor at certain local GM dealers.
Both the Monza and Manta GSi sold in tiny numbers compared to the Kadett GSi and the Senator 3.0i.
Meanwhile Ford Sierra XR4i coupes and Sierra Ghia 2.8 V6 5 speed wagons seemed to be widely available at any Ford dealer, strangely XR4is seem to have survived while the Ghia 2.8 wagons have become unicorns.
Both seem to be manual only, if you wanted an auto Ghia wagon you were stuck with the 2.0 pinto.
A few exclusive Ford dealers had Capri 2.8i, Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 and Escort XR3i Cabriolets.
Meanwhile the only hot Fords available in Australia in the mid to late 80’s were 323/626 Mazda’s in drag.
NZ dealers needed cars that certain types of people wanted otherwise they walked down the road and brought Lancia Delta turbos, Volvo 740 Turbo wagons, Audi 90, BMW 325i etc..
I saw an Adayer Commodore coupe years ago at a show, I can’t imagine they made more than a handful which is why they don’t come to mind!
The HDT Monza prototype was recently auctioned for $98k.
Car magazine´s Georg Kacher reviewed this and gave it the thumbs up. It changed my appreciation of Opel in a big way. It puts the rest of their cars in context. I´d very much like to drive a Monza sometime. My experience of the Senator was not enough.
Finally, it´s a great looking car, isn´t it? The big side glass is especially delicious.
Always liked these cars. I wonder how much better the equivalent Mercs and BMs of Ty day were in comparison.
A shame that Holden couldn’t get its act together to somehow market this, even if that had to substitute the Opel straight 6 for the local V8.
And a local version of the long wheelbase 6 light Senator would have been far more ideal than the tarted up SL/E or Calais versions of the standard Commodore
A few years ago I saw a Vauxhall Viceroy from a car’s collector, at first glance it was a Royale to me, but I’ve never knew about that name. Is it a trim version of the Royale?
Vauxhall Viceroy = Opel Commodore C (fully based on the Opel Rekord E)
Simply said, the Germans lengthened the platform of the Opel Rekord E to create the 1978 Opel Senator A. (a 4-door sedan, aka the Vauxhall Royale)
The Opel Monza (aka Vauxhall Royale Coupe), as pictured in the article, was the coupe-version of the Senator A.
The wheelbase was the same for all 3 V-car variants (Rekord/Commodore/Senator), just the front end panels altered the length.
Thank you!
Like the 1975 Chevrolet Monza, an overstyled and cheap-looking B-Pillar, again front and centre.