The 30-year-old sampled Group A and Car of the Future Holden Commodores at Sydney Motorsport Park this week.
That followed a recent taste of a pair of Project Blueprint V8s, providing a window into three distinct eras of Aussie touring car competition.
It’s all part of a driver coaching role orchestrated by car restorer Chad Parrish for collectors Peter Xiberras and Peter Abood.
“It’s a total privilege to drive all of these cars. There’s so much history, every single one of them has their own story,” Buchan told Speedcafe, tipping his hat to the drivers of the Group A era.
“Motorsport back then was very different to what it is now, but a massive appreciation for what those guys did in these cars and how they made them last so long is beyond me.”
Even a 2013-build Triple Eight Commodore feels like a throwback for Buchan.
“The VF still shows its age in areas,” he said of a car raced by Jamie Whincup from 2013-15.
“The dash you have now is massive, the screens are tablets basically, whereas that is like a little tachometer with a bit of info. It’s quite small.
“The rest of the car is very, very sharp.
“But then you go into the VK and there’s gauges to keep an eye on, you’ve got to drive the car based off the gauges.
“You feel the gearbox gets better when it gets a bit of temp, then you’ve got to turn the cooler on so it doesn’t get too hot.
“It’s a sensory overload in the old ones as much as the new ones for totally different reasons.”
While Buchan enjoys driving the classic cars, he stressed he wasn’t pushing their limits.
“The laps I did were to essentially just make sure the car was holding together and then hand it over to Pete to drive,” he said.
“I’m certainly not going to take any risks in cars like this that most people would have in the museum, not at the track.”
The Sydney run was effectively a shakedown for the cars ahead of the Winton Festival of Speed on August 1-3, when Buchan is again set to get behind the wheel.
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