Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Muscle Cars for Shannons Melbourne Winter Auction

Australian Muscle Car collectors will be closely monitoring Shannons upcoming Melbourne Winter Auction on June 1, when three highly desirable limited-build vehicles will go under the hammer.

Ford fanciers will be particularly interested in the multi-award winning two-owner 1978 Ford XC Falcon Cobra Coupe (build number 392 out of 400) that has covered just 172,000km from new.

Described in Ford’s marketing literature of the day as “a spirited car for the enthusiast”, the Cobra was a limited edition run of XC hardtops inspired by Ford’s triumphant one-two victory at Bathurst in 1977.

The Cobra being was first delivered through Edwards Ford in Koo-Wee-Rup to a local enthusiast from Tyabb in 1978.

With a late build number 392, this Cobra retains the original 302-cid V8/3-speed automatic engine/transmission combination and also comes with air conditioning and power windows. It has been dressed up in the livery of an Official Track car using the same decals seen at the 1978 Hardie Ferodo 1000.

The Cobra has been a regular participant at events including the 2005 Easternats at Sandown and was the pace car for a parade of historic Group C cars at Bathurst in 2005. It also won ‘Best Cobra’ at the 2005 All Ford Day at Geelong, along with numerous other awards.

Shannons are estimating a sale price of $84,000-$94,000 for this highly-collectible Ford.

Holden enthusiasts have two very collectible limited-build Commodores to choose from a 1988 Holden VL Walkinshaw Group A SS Sedan (number 238 of 750) and a 1990 Holden VN Commodore Group A SS Sedan (number 83 of 302).

The 1988 Walkinshaw Group A SS was the first model offered by the new Walkinshaw performance tuning operation that replaced Peter Brock’s Holden Dealer Team and the 750 cars required to homologate the car for racing were built between March and November that year.

All Walkinshaw Commodores were finished in the same Panorama Silver and were priced on a par with the best European luxury cars at $47,000 – more than three times the price of a base VL when new. With enormous growth in prices over the past couple of years, the Walkinshaw Group A Commodores have fast become hot property on the modern Aussie muscle car scene and prices seem set to continue rising in the near future.

Delivered new via Zupps Motors in Mount Gravatt, Queensland, this particular Walkinshaw Group A remained in Queensland until 2004 before moving to Victoria and remains in excellent condition throughout. The vehicle comes with service history and has covered just over 96,000km from new.Shannons are quoting a guiding range of $56,000-$64,000.

For a little less money (estimate $38,000-$48,000), there’s an even rarer 1990 VN Commodore Group A SS sedan that replaced the Walkinshaw in 1990.
Based on the all-new VN Commodore with the intention of homologating the car for Group A touring car racing, Walkinshaw built 302 cars employing a highly developed version of the 5.0-litre V8 mated to a ZF six-speed manual transmission sourced from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1.

The Group A SS was capable of sprinting from 0-100 km/h in just 6.5 seconds and could do the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds, figures few European sports saloons could match.

With the current owner for the past 12 years (but off the road for the past three of them), the immaculate VN SS Group A being auctioned has had just three owners from new, all of them mates, and according to Shannons is correct in every department.

To view all auction lots and see results, visit www.shannons.com.au