One of Australian racing legend Peter Brock’s most iconic Holden Commodores is heading to auction three decades after it was made famous.
Listed by auction house Lloyds, this Holden VN Commodore Group A (chassis PE013) was built by Perkins Engineering in 1991 for Brock’s campaign in that year’s Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) – the forebear to V8 Supercars, now the Supercars Championship.
Mr Brock missed out on a podium in all nine races of the season, though he wound up sixth in points before later taking the car to the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, where he was joined by Andrew Miedecke as his co-driver.
The return to Bathurst was Mr Brock’s first in a Holden since 1987, where he had won his ninth and final Great Race amid a split from the brand which he’d long been associated with.
100s of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
In the Top 10 Shootout, Mr Brock qualified sixth with one of the wildest runs ever seen around Mount Panorama, constantly sliding the Commodore to cheers from the crowd.
Despite aiming for a 10th Bathurst title, his qualifying pace was almost 3.5 seconds behind the pole-sitting and eventually race-winning Nissan Skyline GT-R, and the Commodore’s lack of straight-line speed was evident compared to the Ford Sierra RS500.
While Mr Brock and Perkins split at the end of 1991, the VN was taken by the former to his new team Advantage Racing for 1992, finishing 11th in the title standings after missing two rounds late in the season.
Mr Brock and Advantage Racing held onto PE013 for the 1992 Sandown 500 – with Troy Dunstan as co-driver and a 10th place finish – before it was moved out of Mr Brock’s hands for the Bathurst 1000, with Mr Dunstan and Mr Miedecke teaming up.
With the V8-only regulations coming into effect for 1993, the chassis was converted to VP Commodore bodywork ahead of the late-1992 New Zealand endurance races in Pukekohe and Wellington.
In 1993, Mr Brock used the car for a handful of races before it was parked up and later run at Bathurst under different colours, with a new pair of drivers and with a Chevrolet V8 engine under its bonnet, rather than the 304 cubic-inch Holden ‘Iron Lion’.
As Mr Brock moved to the Holden Racing Team in 1994, Advantage Racing closed and sold PE013 back to Perkins Engineering where it was rebuilt and subsequently sold again to privateer Phil Ward.
Mr Ward retained the Commodore throughout 1994 and 1995 (at which point it became a VR), eventually selling it to Rod Salmon in 1999, who failed to finish that year’s Bathurst 1000 due to a gearbox failure.
The Commodore has since been returned to its original 1991 bodywork and livery, which also includes a period-correct TV camera in the position of Channel 7’s ‘RaceCam’.
Bidding is due to close at 2pm AEST on Saturday, August 31.
