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Monaro Blows Its Top

The sky's the limit for the Vauxhall Monaro! Not content with making the most powerful car ever to carry the Griffin badge, the company has also revealed a surprise convertible model.

By Tom Barnard

02nd June 2004

The muscular V8-engined drop-top is codenamed Marilyn - a play on the coup΃©'s native Australian nickname of Munro. It has become a legend in its own right, though, as rumours of the cabrio's existence have circulated for months around the industry. Vauxhall's sister company Down Under, Holden, has finally come clean with the first pictures and details of the car.

Designed at a cost of ΂£1million, the convertible was engineered and built in the UK by the recently bankrupted consultancy TWR. The brief was to create a car that would be relatively easy and cheap to put into production, and provide a bargain-priced alternative to the top-selling BMW 3-Series Cabriolet.

However, despite strong support for the project, bosses at General Motors have decided to postpone the soft-top's launch until the next-generation Monaro arrives in 2007. This is because the US version of the car - the Pontiac GTO - has proved a flop in America.

Buyers were put off by the current vehicle's dull styling, so GM is rushing through a more exciting model based on the new Zeta large-car platform. This RWD chassis will also underpin the next Omega, due in 2006, and was used in a Buick drop-top concept seen at this year's New York Motor Show.

The UK version of the new Monaro will have a wider engine range, too. V6 and diesel units will be offered alongside the V8 to broaden its appeal.

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