Rocky Conte came to Australia in 1963 with a few bucks in his pocket and a desire to improve his lot in life. He bought a pink EK Holden of the same year to get around in and set about building a family and a transport company. By 1979, the transport company was going gangbusters and his first-born son, Carmine, was not quite one year old.
First published in the December 2002 issue of Street Machine

Rocky felt it was time to treat himself to a new car. Something nice. Something that would be a demonstration of his success in life and with the business. It was a bright and shiny, Flamenco Red, brand spanking new, top-of-the-range Holden Commodore VB SL/E four-speed 308 V8, with all the gear.
He walked into the dealer’s, slammed 10 and a half large in cash on the counter and drove his new car home to a lock-up garage that he had swept clean a couple of days before. The only time the car saw the light of day in the next 18 years was for weddings, special occasions, and one time in ’81 to get a Brock kit fitted.

By the time Carmine turned 18, the car had only done 27,000 kays and was as good as the day Rocky brought it home. Almost. Carmine convinced his dad to let him drive it and soon discovered the wheel bearings were shot from sitting around, so he got permission to change them. Then he persuaded his dad to let him change the factory pump-up shocks, because they were too high. He put Monroe’s in, with Super Low King springs, dropped it three and a half inches and fitted fully-polished F9R Simmons wheels.
The old man didn’t say anything.

Right, thought Carmine, time for a zorst. Genie 1.75-inch four-into-one headers, into a 2.5-inch stainless system, were the go, but it lacked a little something. He knicked a bit of five-inch chrome truck exhaust from the old man’s transport company and had it bent into a dump pipe. Now it looked and sounded like a Brock Commodore.
Carmine moved to Melbourne for five years to do a uni degree, so he only saw his folks a couple of times a year when he went home. And each time, he checked on the car. A plan began to form in his mind, and he put aside every spare dollar he could.

As soon as he had the bucks, the car went into EDS Auto Interiors, in Coburg, for a full interior replacement. In leather. Top of the range Aerotech Series V seats with crushed leather, pump-up lumbar support, side bolstering and map pockets. The rear bench was stripped, re-bolstered and covered in biscuit leather with custom rear headrests. All of the seats had the HDT UNO insignia inserted. Uno. Number one.
“While they were at it,” says Carmine, “I had the centre console recovered, and the handbrake and gearstick gloves done in Lipstick red leather, and an Italian chrome gear knob fitted. But it still didn’t look quite right. Something was missing.”

He hit on the idea of lifting the interior up a classy notch by installing four brand-new wood grain VS II Calais door inserts, but could only find two after searching the entire Holden dealer network, and he refused to use second-hand stuff. So two it is. Firethorn Red carpet and home-made Gold checker plate floor mats finished off the interior.
Still the old man didn’t say anything.

Time to lift the exterior, thought Carmine. Time for a body kit. He didn’t want to buy a kit in a particular style, so he picked the best bits from all of the HDT kits. Mick Daugherty Panels fitted up and painted the bits, and lipped the guards while he was at it. He didn’t have to touch the car because the 21-year-old factory paint job was still immaculate. Carmine slipped in a VC SL/E grill and got rid of the headlight wipers. He had the window surrounds, the grill and side mirrors painted in two-pack high-gloss Tuxedo black and whacked on the 18-inch Grange rims and Yokies.
Not a peep out of Papa.

Carmine’s mechanic uncle ported and polished the heads, bored it 30 thou over and bolted in a Supra five-speed and clutch. Then he went to town on the sound system and the boot. Ziggy, from John King Signs, laser etched the Marlboro insignia from Perspex as a tribute to Brocky’s early Marlboro HDT Bathurst Commodore victories.
“The car has still only done 50,000 kays and is a long way off finished,” says Carmine. “I put the Enkei Enzo’s on it for shows, and I’ve done a heap of other tidy up stuff, but there is more to do.”

He has kept all of the original parts, so he could go that way. Or, maybe a bigger donk and drive train. Hmmm! Bigger rims are on order and perhaps a full leather dash. Meantime, it’s polish, polish, polish and crooooze.
Oh, and why do I reckon Rocky says nothing? Ask yourself how much money and effort has gone into the car. Then ask yourself: who still owns it?

Brock treatment
One day, in Shepparton, Carmine got the word that Brocky was in town and that he was signing autographs at a Mobil service station. He jumped in the Commodore and drove down there, parking around the corner. He was nervous as buggery, his heart was pumping, but he was determined. He gets to speak to the man, still signing autographs, and he asks if he’d sign the car.
“Yeah, sure,” says Brocky, “Whaddya got?”
“A Commodore,” replies Carmine, shitting bricks.
“Well, go get it,” says Brocky.
Carmine does, quick as a flash, and the man sits in it. Carmine was blown away. Then Brocky signed the boot lid, the dash and the cold air racetray. You reckon that didn’t make Carmine’s day.

CARMINE CONTE
1979 VB COMMODORE SL/E
Colour: | Flamenco Red |
GO STUFF | |
Motor: | 308 Holden |
Heads: | Ported and polished |
Exhaust: | Genie four-into-one |
Gearbox: | Supra five-speed |
UNDER STUFF | |
Brakes: | Factory with DBA slotted and drilled rotors |
Springs: | 3.5-inch Kings Super Lows |
Shocks: | Monroe Sensatrack |
Bushes: | Nolathane |
SHOWY STUFF | |
Seats: | Aerotech series |
Bodykit: | VH Group 3 with VK Group 3 side skirts, VC Brock rear wing |
Shag pile: | Brock Firethorn Red carpet |
Tiller: | Autotechnica |
ROLLING STUFF | |
Rims: | Enkei Enzo (show), HSV WH Grange (street) |
Rubber: | S306 Yokohamas, 225/40/18 |
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