Owned by PremiAir Racing boss and car collector Peter Xiberras, the Holden is now wearing the Air Force-themed livery for the first time since that dramatic Great Race.
The livery conversion was undertaken at Triple Eight HQ ahead of an appearance for the car at the Winton Festival of Speed on August 1-3.
Xiberras purchased the VF model Commodore in 2020 from Kostecki Brothers Racing, which had returned it to its regular 2014 Red Bull season livery before placing it up for sale.
Whincup raced the car from mid-2013 to mid-2015, meaning it was part of two championship wins and two narrow Bathurst defeats for Whincup and co-driver Paul Dumbrell.
The first was a second place in 2013, and the second its most famous moment of all when its fuel tank ran dry on the final lap a year later, allowing Chaz Mostert to snatch the win.
“When you look at all the Triple Eight cars, they’re all Red Bull so they all look similar, but this one is just different,” Xiberras told Speedcafe amid a shakedown run at Sydney Motorsport Park.
“Without being rude, every time someone says, ‘which car’s this?’, you say, ‘it’s the car that ran out of fuel’ and everyone instantly knows what it is. So, I thought, ‘stuff it, I’ll put it in that livery’.
“Not every car will be in everyone’s favourite livery but for me, you’ve got to pick something that means something to you or that stands out or is different, whatever it might be.
“I love it in that livery, I think it looks great. I hope it puts a smile on people’s faces.”
Triple Eight ran the camouflage livery on both of its Commodores in the 2014 Great Race as part of a tie-up with the Royal Australian Air Force.
The cars were flown into Bathurst Airport on Tuesday of race week via a Hercules transport plane as part of the promotion.
That proved an entrée to a dramatic week that included Whincup starting the race from the back of the grid following a crash in Friday qualifying.
Sunday was also a rollercoaster as an early charge was followed by a clash with Todd Kelly, a trip to the garage for repairs, another fightback and, ultimately, the famous last-lap disaster.
The car was briefly raced by Lowndes at the end of 2015 before being on-sold to KBR. Its time in the Super2 Series included Brodie Kostecki’s breakout race wins in 2018.
Xiberras had the Air Force livery reapplied by Triple Eight to ensure it is 100 percent faithful to the original.
“I ran it through them, and they were happy to do it. There was no pushback,” he said.
“The guy that wrapped it is the same guy who did it in 2014. He remembered the car and they still had all the files for it.”
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