When Holden’s Australian production was brought to an end in 2017, the company left behind a long legacy of terrific, all-Australian cars and concept vehicles. The 2008 Holden Coupe 60 was one of the concept cars that never made it to the production line.
We recently wrote about the Holden Hurricane, the first Holden concept car ever built. That car led to the Holden Torana GTR-X, another concept car that almost made it to market as a limited edition vehicle.
Those cars are interesting on their own terms, and are some of the most phenomenal concept vehicles to ever be designed in Australia.
Now, we bring you the Holden Coupe 60 — the last Holden concept car.
The Holden Coupe 60 was first shown at the 2008 Melbourne International Motor Show, debuting alongside the HSV 427. The Coupe 60 could have gone into production, and may have worn the Monaro name if it did.
Costing $2.5 million to develop and build, the Holden Coupe 60 was based on the General Motors “Zeta Platform”, a platform also used by the Holden Caprice, Ute, Commodore and Sportswagon. You can kind of tell from the body style that it was meant to look similar to the Holden (and Chevrolet) vehicles of the day.
But the Coupe 60 brought the freedom of concept car design to the Zeta Platform, with its slightly tilted doors (and only two doors, at that), its side exhausts, its bulging wheel arches and the chrome finish of the concept model. It was a supercar that never was, based on the styling of racing Holden Commodores at the time.
According to the car’s designer, Frank Rudolph, the team was trying to convey a sense of width with the Coupe 60.
“The rear lights are all LED, and the vertical arrangement is designed to pick up the vertical strakes on the rear diffuser. The duck-tail spoiler is new, too. I hate the older Monaro with the wing… wings are a dying trend – I hope,” Rudolph told Which Car.
“The car was built by a very small show-car builder in Japan. Data goes over there and they make the moulds and the structures. They’re great guys – I mean, we would love to build it here, but we’ve got so much work on, it meant that this one had to go outside.
“This has been a bit of an after-hours project, but it’s come together pretty smoothly. Often they’re a nightmare.”
The car was an absolute monster. A RWD V8, the engine could produce 300KW at 6,000rpm, fitted with 21-inch alloy wheels and brembo brakes.
Now, obviously, it never made it beyond the concept car stage, and only nine years after its reveal, Holden would shut down its manufacturing and new vehicle operations. A $2.5 million concept car only for the company to stop making vehicles in Australia. It’s pretty sad.
But, look, you can’t stop me from painting my 2014 Holden Gen-F GTS chrome and pretending it’s a Coupe 60 in Forza Horizon 5.
If you’d like to check out some of the greatest Holdens ever built, then I recommend heading to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia. It’s where I spotted the Coupe 60 and it was a terrific experience.