1972 Chevrolet SS - today's unique tempter

By: Unique Cars magazine

Date: 22.01.2021

1972 Chevrolet SS coupe

1972 Chevrolet SS coupe

1972 Chevrolet SS coupe

1972 Chevrolet SS coupe

1972 Chevrolet SS coupe

1972 Chevrolet SS coupe

Aussie-derived Monaro from South Africa

Does this look familiar? It might be badged Chevrolet and carry a different front end treatment, but it is in fact an Aussie Monaro modified for the South African market.

In a feature on the Aussie-South Africa connection for Ford and Holden, Joe Kenwright revealed: 

"Pontiac designer, James G Ewen, was sent from the US to establish a South African design and technical centre in much the same way former Pontiac man Joe Schemansky was sent to Holden for the same task almost five years earlier. Lou Stier, a former GMC truck man was sent to Brazil. It was the job of these three men to distil GM’s latest international design trends and apply them in a local context.

"This explains how the same core products from the US divisions, Opel, Vauxhall and ultimately Holden were tweaked to look different in each market, usually on site for local tastes. Young Holden engineer Norm Thurling was sent from Europe to South Africa in 1968-69 and then seconded in 1970 to Ewen’s design team to help implement the design changes."

See the full feature here.

Meanwhile this 1972 example seems to have a well-recorded history, having initially been sold through Jowell's Garage in Springbok.

It's running a 308 V8 and four-speed manual. Typically it would also have a 10-bolt LSD rear.

The seller in WA says it's a low-mile example with just 67,000km on the odo and is in good original condition. It's on the market at $98,888.

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