It was expected to reach a higher price; it is after all a piece of Australian Motorsport history and a legendary car in many Holden fans’ eyes.
It was a legend of Bathurst and therefore demanded a high price, but the 7 figure sum that was expected was not reached.
The car did however sell under the hammer for AUD$500,000.
The bidding opened at $366,000 and jumped to $465,000 where it stalled for some time before hitting the $500,000 mark to close under hammer.
Many were of the opinion that the car was well under it’s true value however the fact that it did sell means that it had reached the reserve price set by the seller.
The buyer from Queensland becomes the car’s third owner since new, and was a late entry to the auction.
The 1969 Holden HT Monaro GTS 350 is so special, because it was the first Holden Dealer Team (HDT) car prepared for racing by legend Harry Firth, which was raced by Kevin Bartlett and Spencer Martin.
Firth’s head mechanic, Ian Tate, was there at the auction, along with then HDT Boss Joe Felice and the 90-year old salesman “Uncle Bob” Phillips from Preston Motors who delivered the brand new car to Firth at the time.
“On this Friday night, four young fellows came in that I knew at the dragstrip and they wanted to buy one of these Holdens. The old fellow had his overcoat on and the money in his right hand and paid $3,084 (for the Monaro),” Philips reminisced.
From $3,084 in 1969 to $500,000 48 years later .. that’s still a very impressive investment return!
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