For Sale: 1969 Holden Monaro GTS 5L. One careful lady owner driver for 55 years. V8 grunt you can hear long before you ever see this yellow hornet coming. Just 74 000 miles on the clock. Looking for a buyer who'll make another 55 years of memories in this, the first super racer designed Down Under.
Kevin Derrick, CEO of Creative Rides, says that's precisely how he would have worded an old-style newspaper classified ad if he was to write one today for this incredible family saloon race car that goes under the hammer at this year's auction event at Montecasino in Johannesburg over the weekend of September 7th and 8th along with 182 other classic and collectable showpieces.
The auction catalogue includes supercars, sports cars, collector off-roaders and classic cars from across the world, but particularly showcasing a stellar European line-up at the third annual Creative Rides collector car auction at the entertainment hub in Fourways.
Derrick says: "You simply don't see first generation Holdens anymore. You don't see many of them in Australia, and they're absolute hen's teeth in South Africa.
"At Creative Rides we've never seen one like this, and that's also the consensus among the scores of collectors who've viewed this car since it was listed for our auction next week.
"It also comes with an incredible history; standing as a symbol of a miraculous love story that's endured for nearly seven decades.
Derrick says he first came to know about the Holden on a Saturday morning a few months ago when an unassuming elderly man walked into the Creative Rides showroom in Bryanston, strolled around looking at the showpieces on the floor, then turned to him and said: "Would you be interested in selling a Holden?"
"My first thoughts were 'are you kidding', swiftly followed by 'hell yes!'
"I sat down with the man who introduced himself as Peter Conidaris, and listened to the most amazing story."
Mr Conidaris takes up the tale: "It seems such a long time ago now; 1969, when the first Holdens were brought out from Australia.
“At the time my young wife Daphne was in the hospital. She had a back injury, and all the doctors said at the time that there as an 80% chance that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
"I had a restaurant in town, and every night on the way I would stop off at the hospital to visit her.
"On one of those nights I was waiting at a traffic light, and someone dropped a pamphlet though my window into the car."
The pamphlet was a life-changer for the Conidaris family – an advertisement for the then-new Holden Monaro.
"I'm still not sure why, but I took that pamphlet into the hospital with me and showed it to my wife. She looked at it and said: 'Wow!'
"So, I said to her, if you can walk out of here [hospital] within a week, this car will be standing in the driveway in Northcliff waiting for you.
"Needless to say, within a week she was walking.
"We're 86 now and she's still walking, thanks to this car."
Mr Conidaris says the family enjoyed a lifetime of memories in the powerful Holden Monaro GTS, but it was always his wife Daphne's baby.
"There comes a stage, though, when a V8 isn't necessarily sensible anymore, and that's probably when you're 86! It's time to pass the baton onto a new family that has a lifetime of memories ahead, just like the ones we've made since 1969."
Derrick echoes his client's sentiments, saying: "You're only ever the custodian of a classic car; you never own it."
He says this a remarkable remarkable Holden Monaro.
"It's a numbers matching car, as it came off the factory floor. This one happens to be yellow, but bright red, yellow or orange paint colours were in fact the most requested by buyers. These colours were added to the factory bonnet stripes, contrasting vinyl roof, side sill stripes, shark-like gill vents, chrome sill and arch trim, and bonnet scoops.
"These aren't exactly stealth machines. The V8 engine does what it says on the label and it does it well. It's a thunder car and you can feel the throb of the engine wanting to fly when you're sitting with the car in neutral.
"This model comes equipped with 14-inch wheels, a pristine black interior, and papers to get you out on the road immediately.
Creative Rides Director and Lead Auctioneer Joff van Reenen says there's absolutely no doubt that this Holden Monaro is going to be one of the most fiercely contested lots on the auction.
"Forget SA-Australia rivalry on the rugby field; it's not going to have a patch on what we expect to see with bidding for this car when it comes on the block next Sunday.
"Of course, we're hoping to see the highest bid come from South Africa because it would be great to keep this incredible car on our shores, but that means it'll be a battle, and a hard one.
"We've found no history of these classics being auctioned in South Africa so there are no records to break. Whichever way, Creative Rides will be setting a record with this stunning V8 at the Montecasino showcase."
Van Reenen says the Montecasino auction next month will be both a live and online event, and live-streamed through the Creative Rides app to a buyer pool across the world. The live stream can also be watched on YouTube and on www.creativeridesauctions.com.
"Bidder registrations and buyer enquiries are now coming in from countries as varied as the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Mauritius, most of the European mainland, Brazil and even several nations in the Caribbean.
"Qualified bidder registrations have also climbed by more than a third this year, and the numbers are growing with every auction."
Van Reenen says all information about this year's Montecasino auction can be found at www.creativeridesauctions.com and on the Creative Rides app, which is a free iOS and Google Play download.
Bidder registrations can also be done through www.creativeridesauctions.com.
"We're expecting record crowd numbers through the gates on both days, because this year's sale is going to be the best collector car auction yet," says Van Reenen.
Entry tickets for adults are R250 for the whole weekend. Entrance is free for children under 18.
