MIKE AND THE TOPLESS MONARO

While Mount Panorama is new to Mike Flewitt, the Australian automotive scene is not. During his rise up the automotive ladder he ran TWR Automotive for Tom Walkinshaw around the turn of the millennia and that brought him into contact with both Holden and Holden Special Vehicles. All up, he spent around two years working on various projects in Australia. He led a team of engineers helping overhaul the Elizabeth assembly plant, while TWR also developed future models for Holden and assisted HSV with refining its V8 beasts. “We did a ute version of the Commodore for Holden and then we worked on a convertible version of the Monaro and we actually built one of them … the cars then were proper Holdens,” he says with obvious fondness. “They had real character; they were fantastic.”