Supercars co-driver and car restorer Jack Perkins revealed the “barn find” VL Commodore in the latest video on his popular Perkins Engineering YouTube channel.
Although never racing in Australia, the car is historically significant as a key part of the transition from Peter Brock’s Holden Dealer Team to Tom Walkinshaw’s HSV/Holden Racing Team empire.
That’s reflected in the fact the car has three different codenames: HDT 13, HSV 023 and TWR 021.
It was originally built by the HDT as a VK model and shipped to Europe for the Mobil team’s attack on the 1986 Spa 24 Hours, before also being run in the Silverstone Tourist Trophy.
The car remained in Europe and was bought by Walkinshaw’s TWR empire ahead of a planned entry into the 1987 World Touring Car Championship.
It ultimately only contested one race, shared by Walkinshaw and Jeff Allam at the Nurburgring, before taking on arguably more important duties.
The car was used by TWR as a wind tunnel test mule for the new ‘Walkinshaw’ model VL SS Group A SV after Walkinshaw took over the Holden road and race contracts amid the demise of the HDT.
It was then flown to Australian in 1989 and painted in HRT colours but not raced by the team, eventually being sold as a shell to a private buyer who retains it to this day.
The owner recently contacted Perkins about restoring the car, having seen the driver’s work on other – mainly Perkins Engineering – Commodores through YouTube.
Perkins Engineering ran the HRT program for Walkinshaw in 1989 before TWR established its own Australian outpost, which continues today as Walkinshaw Andretti United.
“This is what we call a barn find,” beamed Perkins in his video about the car, below.
“It’s the first time in nearly 40 years has this car come out from under cover and we’re delighted that it’s here at Perkins Engineering.”
Perkins runs through various details of the car in the video, including places where the yellow and blue Herbie Clips colours used in 1987 can still be seen.
It’s currently presented as the 1990 Bathurst 1000 winner. The actual winning car from that race was long held onto by TWR and is now owned by Eggleston Motorsport.
“Just to see the car like this is unbelievable,” added Perkins.
“I want to thank the owner for entrusting us with the task of taking this car, having a good look over it and assessing what we can and can’t do to potentially get it back on the race track.
“It’s really cool to have it here, look over it and be part of its story. Uncovering a barn find, I can’t describe how neat it is.”
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