| Holden has solved one of the Australian automotive industry’s long-standing mysteries by confirming the existence of a convertible Monaro coupe - but the one-off vehicle, built by contractors TWR Engineering and Edscha in Europe two years ago, will never reach production.
The Holden Monaro convertible - the car that never went into production |
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Marilyn was built by the now defunct TWR Engineering in 2002 at the request of Holden to investigate whether a convertible programme was possible. Financial analysis confirmed that the costs associated with producing a current platform coupe convertible could not be justified.
"There is no doubt that the Coupe Concept provided the catalyst for all that came after, because it allowed us to believe in ourselves," said Michael Simcoe, Holden executive director GM Asia Pacific Design. "It gave us permission to push forward and continue to create, through these vehicles and those to come, a clear and strong vision of what Holden is and where it intends to go.
"The TWR Engineering brief for Marilyn was to produce a convertible design based on minimum changes to the coupe."
Amongst the changes needed to successfully complete the task were changes to A-pillar assemblies, rear quarter body panels, trunk lid outer and the doors were modified to take a frameless glass system. There were reinforcements made on the underbody and mountings for a bolt-on cruciform structure to help optimise structural requirements.
The fully lined and insulated black canopy was designed as a six-bow system to retain styling shape and roof operation is fully automatic with a competitive cycle time.
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