Vauxhall Monaro VXR 500 Review: If You Want a Muscle Car Done Right, Ask Australia

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It may be our finest export, however, the rest of the world never got to enjoy the pure legend that is Ford's Falcon from the BA to the FGX and its legendary Barra straight 6. While this Holden is rocking an American V8, the Ford was entirely Australian and I think its character reflects that. RIP Aussie engineering, both teams can rally together around the good times we had and the legends that were created.

Both impressed you've managed to find one to review and annoyed as usual when a YouTuber highlights a car on my wishlist that I hoped people would forget about!

The Fifth Gear review of the VXR500 has stuck with me. I think the comment was “it will do 70 in first gear, so all the other gears are just there to see how angry the police will be with you” great car, I still think the original 5.7 was the best looking of the bunch, cleaner lines.

Here in Australia when the neighbours bought a Monaro you knew you lived next to a boogan. And if my blue singlet was clean enough I would grab a can of VB and a pack of Winnie blues and go to stand next to said neighbour not really saying anything just doing that thing where the bonnet is open and there's 3 guys stood round it beer in hand all in reverence of the mighty Monaro

A AMG, And BMW Nerd mate in Germany, came to Australia. Test drove our 6 litre version. Went home, sold the AMG AND BMW'S. Bought one of these. And has never looked back.. I asked him to watch this video. His reply. Still got it, best thing ever. Love it. Never breaks down. Unlike his son and wife's bmw and amg...

I bought an LS2 Monaro as my daily driver 12 years ago and still have it today. I don’t drive it much any more, but when I do, I’m quickly reminded why I’ve kept it so long.

Thankyou Jay for making this video. AUSTRALIA loves you 🇦🇺😃

Aussie here: The Monaro’s, while common’ish here, still fetch $50k+ for a good regular one, and a lot more for the HSV versions. The loss of our car industry, has made both Holden and Ford performance models worth good money. Sure the common as mud poverty spec cars are still being flogged to death by bogans, but the good cars are being collected and appreciated.

Love to see another Holden on the channel! The Monaro is certainly a special car. To complete the trio JayEmm, I HIGHLY recommend you try and track down one of the 15 final VXR GTSR's. The VF commodore platform that it is based on, is a complete night and day difference in every way. Handling, Performance, Interior (For an Australian car) and refinement. With the cherry on top being the glorious LSA Supercharged engine. It will walk over this completely in every aspect (And if you take the limiter off, even with the slightly less power, I wouldn't be surprised if it left this for dead)

Worth every Penny for the sound alone. That it also has the ability to put an ear-to-ear grin on the driver’s face makes this an absolute peach. The world’s a better place for it.

People are actually exporting these Vauxhall Monaro’s back to Australia , as they command more of a premium since Holden has come defunct… The Monaro is to Australia as what the Mustang is to the USA.

As an Australian. When new they were expensive vs a Monaro. But now they are rare and you'd consider the owner a guy who has good taste in local muscle. No shrimp though.

Thanks again Jay, it was a brilliant day in the Scottish sunshine. Glad you enjoyed the car!

I'm currently on my 5th Pontiac GTO here in the USA so obviously I love these Aussie imports. So much so I recently got a Pontiac G8 GXP 6-speed (final VE Commodore). The closest thing we got to this thing was the Sport Appearance Package - SAP - LS2 GTO. I have an 05 6-speed full SAP kit GTO now which came with GM-branded Magnaflow mufflers - best sounding factory exhaust I've ever heard (outside of a F50 or something) it's perfectly tuned and just loud enough to potentially be aftermarket, but restrained enough to have your boss in. Otherwise it was purely an appearance package, but because the SAP kit alone was almost 14% of the MSRP it's very rare (1%-5% are SAP). The gearbox must've been a kit or something - these had the T-56 with long throws so many people do short shifters. Diff whine is common but solvable with proper Torco fluid and friction modifier. Loved the review and glad you liked it - I kept buying these because it allowed me to effectively drive for free when well bought; haven't lost money on a single one of mine yet besides ~$1,000 on my W40 04 GTO, but that was after 125,000 miles added and getting T-boned.

Thank you for posting that video and reminding us Aussie's of a better time. They were old school muscle cars and fairly simple but extremely cool.

In South Africa they were called Chevrolet Lumina, we had the sedan and ute.

I’ve never been happier to watch a JayEmm video

Liked your story James. From an Aussie, note that HSV never marketed or sold the car here in Aus as a Monaro. It was as I think you said briefly the HSV Coupe GTO, or the Coupe GTS with a Callaway fettled 5.7 litre V8. We had to wait for the final series Holden brought out to see HSV slap a supercharger on a LS3 V8. Note, we aren’t Americans and have prawns not shrimps 😂 And if my neighbour bought a HSV Coupe or a Holden Monaro, I would be impressed - because as you say: if you know, you know these were very good & probably the best looking Holden (HSV) ever!

One of my "dream garage" cars! I knew of one guy who bought one of the first 5.7 models, and sold it a few months later complaining that it was "too much car for him"! Keep it stock and just USE IT LIKE A $2000 HOOKER! Take it nice places, treat it nice, and when in private and no-one is looking, treat it like your naughtiest fantasy! At all times, you are going to want EVERYONE to notice! .....mainly the smile on your face!