Record-setting GT-HO back on the block

By: Cliff Chambers, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 23.11.2021

Landmark Shannons auction starts tonight

Shannons' 40th anniversary auction, starting tonight, has a rich stock list that will provide plenty of interest for market-watchers.

The Falcon GT-HO Phase III that in 2007 set an auction record of $683,650 is back on the market and taking a shot at the $1.3 million mark, recently established by another road-going HO.

Also included in the Brisbane-end of the online sale, which marks 40 years since Shannons held its first auction of specialist and collector vehicles, are several significant Holdens including the first and very last CV Series Monaros to be built.

When the headlining GT-HO was bought almost 15 years ago by a Queensland-based collector, the price paid was strong enough to convince some observers that it might never be exceeded. For as long as fallout from the Global Financial Crisis lingered, that did seem a possibility, but recent activity has created huge demand for cars like this one.

According Shannons Auctions, this was just the second XY GT-HO to be built, painted Track Red and supplied as personal transport to Ford Australia’s Competition Manager, Al Turner.

The car was built with specialised options that included cloth insert seats, a long-distance fuel tank, rear venetian blind, mudflaps and an eight-track cartridge music system to play while driving are still in the boot.

Much was made in the past of the car’s unusual orange GT side stripes and there is evidence that these were not fitted when the car was photographed by Modern Motor magazine in late 1971. Some paint repairs have also been undertaken, probably during the 1980s, and the stripes could have been added at that time. However, Shannons says, it is incorrect to describe the car as ‘fully restored.’

Following its 2007 sale it was autographed by Ford factory driver Allan Moffat, although Moffat had no personal connection to the car. It has now travelled a verified 25,449 miles, or fewer than 500 miles extra since its last auction appearance.

The Turner connection tallies with information supplied to a former owner, who says he was told that the car originally ran a race specification motor. While this claim is impossible to verify, the same individual has a drag strip docket showing the car running a 400 metre ET of 13.17 seconds – over a second faster than the times recorded during magazine tests of a ‘stock’ Phase III. 

The Holdens in Shannons’ sale are headlined by an A9X Torana Hatch that is expected to bring more than $400,000, but also on the list is a ‘bookend’ pair of very important CV8 Monaros.

One is billed as the first production CV8. This car (above) in Devil Yellow has never been registered and shows just 90 kilometres.

If anything, though, it's overshadowed by another yellow Monaro (below) – this one is a CV8Z and very last car of its kind built by Holden. The colour is Torque – a darker shade of yellow – and is enhanced by colour-keyed seat stitching, special wheels, black badges and a non-sequential VIN.

Cars like this would normally be kept by Holden but this one was donated to the Leukaemia Foundation, for fundraising. In March of 2006 it sold on Ebay for $187,600; the highest price to that date for an auction item on the Australian site. The buyer, a well-known Ford enthusiast, had never owned a Holden before and bought the car "as an investment." The underbidder, who lived nearby, was a Monaro-owning Holden fanatic who said he hoped the buyer would allow him to sit in the car he almost owned.

Shannons Guiding Range of $160-180,000 on the CV8Z – a figure that is likely to be smashed well before bidding ends.

See the auction here.

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