Before the birth of the Monaro, Holden had a very little success in the production of motor sports with the best result being the Overall win in the 1958 in the Ampo Trial. Also, when Leo Geoghegan won the Sedan and Sports Car event at the Easter Bathurst race meet in a 48-215 (the cars were modified and raced with considerable success), in the same year but other than those, there was a 2^nd place at the 1963 Bathurst Production car race in an EH S4. There were some good HR's that were showing up around the country but nothing that could match the sheer power of the new Ford GT, what Holden needed was a V8 and a new style car was not far away.  The sales of coupes in America were out selling cars and it was hoped that a similar thing might happen in Australia.  The decision to build a coupe must have taken all of five minutes as Holden were starting to come of age and wanted to enter into a new phase of the market.  It had been experimenting with several ideas and a large 5 seat coupe became the aim and what they came up with was a lovely design.

The Holden Monaro when introduced on July 22nd 1968, was the first real Australian 'sports car' although Ford had beaten Holden to the punch with already offering a V8 in a sporty version of its four-door Falcon called GT.  Some experts say that the Monaro have been the most important car in the history of the Holden V8 despite the fact that the engine was sourced from the U.S.A.  Holden, when releasing the Monaro sent out the clear intention to Ford that not only was it going out there to be a competition to them, it was going out there to win races as well and it did at its first meeting.  The tight rivalry between Ford and Holden off the track was sparked with both marques having moved into the 'muscle car' market with products that were the same as what the public saw on the race track.  Bathurst was seen as the ultimate marketing tool for these new muscle cars as the race for production cars and the cars on track were more or less the same as those you could buy in the showroom of your local dealer.  Mass production of the parts vary slightly and although they are still perfectly well in a normal family sedan, they can still fail under race conditions or can cause very slight loss of power in some areas.

The Monaro became the first 'race car' from GM-H and they were serious about it because they now have a new winning car.  The Monaro was a variant of the HK sedan and came with engine options that included 2 Chevrolet V8's – the 307 and the 327.  The GTS 327 was the car that the public fell in love with and with several former U.S.A. blueprinted engines finding there way into the hands of selected local racers was all that was needed.  The engine had a five bearing crankshaft for reliability, four barrel Rochester carburettor, chrome rocker covers and a dual exhaust system.  This engine was strong with over 250 bhp which was needed to take on the powerful rival Ford engine.