HDT Monza set for record price at auction

The rarest road car Peter Brock ever built is expected to fetch a record price when it goes to auction in Sydney on Monday night.

It is only the second time the vehicle has been offered for sale in 31 years and is the only one of its type on Australian roads.

The wedge-shaped two-door coupe -- which the Holden motor racing legend imported from Germany in 1983 and called the HDT Monza -- was supposed to become the new Monaro.

But after Brock fitted a Holden V8 and made other changes to improve how it drove, the project died because it was likely to cost $50,000 -- about four times the price of a brand 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 is 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, one year before Brock was tragically killed in a car rally in West Australia.

For him it was the one that got away.

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

"I was amazed how familiar he was with the car, he still knew everything about it," said Mr Walmsley.

"He was still lamenting the fact that he wasn't able to import them and put them into production locally with a Holden V8. For him it was the one that got away."

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

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

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

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

Last year, Brock's first ever road car -- the one he used to experiment with before starting production -- sold at auction for $125,000.

What would you bid for the Monza? Let us know in the comments below.