HDT's prototype Commodore V8 for sale

A rare Brock VB Commodore prototype with an interesting history will be the headline act at the Shannons Winter Classic Auction in early August.

The Holden Dealer Team road car division was forged out of necessity for Aussie racing hero Peter Brock. When the Holden factory withdrew from Australia’s premier motorsport category at the end of 1979, a consortium of dealers banded together to finance Brock’s purchase of the race team.

In return, Brock would sign his name to a range of high-performance Commodore road cars, 500 of which were required to homologate the cars for local Group C Touring Car racing. They would be sold through a select 57 Holden dealers; those who had supported the race team’s continuation.

The official line of Peter Brock Holden Dealer Team Commodore road cars commenced with the VC range in 1980. Based on luxurious SL/E underpinnings, but with prodigious performance and handling upgrades, these formed a base for Brock’s 1980 Bathurst win in the VC HDT car.

The VH HDT went on to take another two Mt Panorama victories in 1982-83, before the legendary ‘Last of the big bangers’ VK won the final Group C Bathurst with Brock in 1984.

As a result, the road car variants are globally revered. But while the VC/VH/VK and later VL roadies commonly feature on lists of Australia’s best muscle cars, fewer realise that the first Brock Commodores were actually based on the VB.

Two VB prototypes, numbered 000 and 001 on their Momo steering wheels, were built as rolling testers. The first was an Atlantis Blue manual, and the second is the vehicle you see here.

It started life as a 4.2-litre V8-powered company car before being converted at HDT’s Clayton workshop in 1980. There, the ‘253’ V8 was flicked, and in its place went a warmed-over 5.0-litre ‘308’, along with a beefier Turbo-Hydramatic 350 three-speed automatic gearbox and a larger rear axle equipped with a limited-slip differential.

The engine received big-valve heads, extractors, a blueprinted carburettor and distributor ignition system, while under the body-kitted skin – now painted two-tone Malachite/Sage Green, and updated with VC front grille and tail lights, though keeping the VB side mouldings – Bilstein shock absorbers and Irmshcer alloy wheels were added.

HDT racer John Harvey then used the prototype as regular transport, before dropping it off at Les Vagg Holden in Pennant Hills, New South Wales in 1982. The race team was on its way to Amaroo Park circuit, and asked the HDT dealer to move it on its behalf.

Amazingly, the person who sold the prototype back in 1982 is the vehicle’s current owner. The story goes that it was sold to a friend of the current owner’s step-father, before coming under his ownership in 1993.

At that point the VB underwent a long-term restoration. A 15-year labour of love, the resto included rebuilt mechanicals and the application of many new body panels. It was also resprayed in this time period.

A letter of authenticity from HDT accompanies this vehicle, which is expected to find a new owner when it goes under the hammer at the Shannons Winter Classic Auction, to be held August 10.

Shannons expects it to sell for between $85,000 and $95,000, though with the Brock cachet a bidding war could see it exceed six figures.