The last example of the car which put Walkinshaw on the path of being Holden’s in-house performance arm for the best part of three decades has come out of hiding, and its owners are willing to sell.
Prior to 1988, Tom Walkinshaw Racing was best known for racing Jaguars which had won the 1985 Bathurst 1000, but that all changed when Holden had its infamous falling out with Peter Brock and his dealer team in 1987.
Needing to homologate a car which could better compete in Australia’s top-flight racing series against turbocharged Nissan Skylines and Ford Sierras, Holden tasked Tom Walkinshaw with building a faster VL Commodore.
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The first model to be made by Walkinshaw was the VL Commodore-based SS Group A SV, with 750 road-going versions built – far more than the 500 needed to go racing – all finished in Panorama Blue.
This particular car is example #750, the final version to roll off the production line in Clayton, and the family which has owned it has listed it for sale via Stag Auto.
With an odometer reading of 19,699km, this VL Walkinshaw was first owned by Bob Forbes, a stalwart privateer in Australian touring car racing in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In Forbes’ ownership it clocked up just 1140km, where it was then parked up unregistered in Sydney, later being sold to Suttons Motor Group and displayed in the firm’s Scuderia Veloce Willoughby dealership.
Fast forward to 1998 and chassis #750 was eventually sold to the family which now owns it, but is willing to relinquish its custodianship of this sought-after piece of Australian motoring history.
All road-going VL Walkinshaws were powered by Holden’s 5.0-litre V8 engine (also known as the 304 for its cubic inch displacement), with 180kW and 380Nm sent to the rear wheels through a Borg-Warner T5 manual transmission.
Its unique bodykit – called the Batmobile by fans and the Plastic Pig by its detractors – remains original and untouched, as do its HSV wheels, which includes a full-sized spare in its period Bridgestone RE71 tyre.
Inside it’s the same case, with the cabin presenting immaculately with its Momo steering wheel, grey cloth upholstery, and rear door handles with very 1980s integrated ash trays.
Price is on application, though higher-kilometre examples have been known to sell for in excess of $200,000 in recent years.
Following the VL Walkinshaw’s production run, the homologated race car ended up winning the 1990 Bathurst 1000 for the Holden Racing Team in the hands of Allan Grice and Win Percy, who outlasted the better-favoured Sierras and Skylines.
