HDT Monza sells for a record price at auction

The rarest road car ever built by Peter Brock is expected to sell for a record price at an auction in Sydney on Monday evening.

This is only the second time in 31 years that the car has been put up for sale and is the only one of its kind on the roads of Australia.

The wedge-shaped two-door coupe that racing legend Holden brought back from Germany in 1983 and called the HDT Monza was to be the new Monaro.

But after Brock installed a Holden V8 and made other changes to improve ride quality, the project died because it likely cost $50,000 — about four times as much as a new Commodore V8 sedan at the time.

Brock eventually sold the car to Holden dealer Paul Wakeling in 1985, who owned it 20 years before its current owner bought it in 2005.

Holden enthusiast Phil Walmsley says he's sad to be selling such a rare car, but "it's time to let someone else enjoy it."

Mr. Walmsley was able to reunite the racing legend with his rarest car in 2005, the year before Brock was tragically killed in a Western Australian car rally.

For him, it was the one who left.

It was the first time Brock had seen the car since he sold it in 1985.

“I was amazed at how well he knew the car, he still knew everything about it,” Mr. Walmsley said.

“He still lamented that he couldn't import them and put them into production locally with a Holden V8 engine. For him, it was the one who left."

Classic car appraisers expect the HDT Monza to sell for $180,000, a record for a Brock road car, when it goes under the hammer at Sydney's Shannon auction on Monday night.

Unlike most Brock Commodores from the 1980s, the HDT Monza is still in its original, unrestored condition.

Equipped with a British speedometer - as it was originally built by Opel right-hand drive in Germany for the UK market - it has only 35,000 mph or 56,000 km.

The HDT Monza is the only Brock road car that is not based on a car sold in Australia.

Last year, Brock's first road car, which he experimented with before going into production, sold at auction for $125,000.