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In the sixties, Holden had been busy experimenting with several concepts such as fuel injection and overhead camshafts. It was decided to design a Holden sports coupe on July 14th, 1969. By December 15th, the first body had been built, showing the effort and outright determination of building a production lightweight sports coupe. After this, the engineers started on the mechanicals, which had already been developed in the Torana, created on the track by Harry Firth and the boys. The Torana running gear seemed a perfect option. It helped drop the production costs, which is why Holden developed the six-cylinder race engine in the first place instead of continuing with the Chevrolet V8s and Monaro. There were certain criteria that this coupe had to meet if it was to become a production model, and the most important was the price! The Torana had the right ingredients in the suspension, transmission, and engine departments. What Holden did with these restrictions was nothing short of brilliant, and it was a great shame it never made it to the production line. The GTR-X was loaded with features like 4-wheel vacuum-assisted disc brakes, retractable seat belts, foam-filled fuel tank, and electric windows, to name a few.
The GTR-X had to be sold for approximately eight years to show a reasonable profit margin, however, to cover the tooling, production, and design costs. The GTR-X came very close to going into production, and the decision not to was probably because of the release of the Datsun (Nissan) 240Z. The Datsun won the world over, and the price was super competitive, which showed in its sales, the 240Z became the biggest selling coupe globally! Colour sales/info brochures on the GTR-X were even printed and handed out at various motor shows. Opel may have contributed to the demise of the GTR-X as well because it was already selling its coupe, and the parent company GMC was not sure the market could handle two low-cost coupes as both Opel and Holden exported to the same countries then and still do today. The Opel was a very modest performer, and the GTR-X would have been much closer in performance to the Corvette, but it is now history, and Holden was only allowed to build one coupe, the Monaro.
Source: www.canberratoranaclub.com
Images: GM; www.gmh-torana.com.au
