First published in the February 2008 issue of Street Machine

What better way to promote Australia’s newest high-performance road car than by racing it? That was the thinking behind the Race of Champions at the Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park in November 1980. Lining up on the grid were 11 mechanically identical HDT Commodores (there was supposed to be a dozen but one car suffered problems). Based on Holden’s top-line SL/E 5.0-litre V8 manual, the first-ever hot Commodores featured engines and suspension fettled by Peter Brock’s Melbourne-based tuning shop, HDT Special Vehicles.

Street Machine’s own Kevin Bartlett won the first race, on Saturday, with a young bloke by the name of John Bowe taking second. After starting some way back on the grid, Peter Brock won Sunday’s second race in his black car.

Watching a repeat of Sunday’s race is borderline hilarious. The TV commentary from Formula 1 ace Jackie Stewart and sports reporter Gary Wilkinson, along with the sound of 11 throbbing V8s, is just about drowned out at times by the almost ceaseless squealing of the HDT’s road-spec Uniroyal tyres. There was plenty of ‘jostling for position’ and several of the cars ended up in the dirt.

But the race also demonstrated just how seriously good the original Brock Commodore was. Back then, Australia was Kingswood country. Cross-ply tyres were the norm; motorists were only just getting used to the term Radial Tuned Suspension. Reviewers were in awe of even the base-model Commodore’s on-road dynamics. So putting a dozen road cars onto a track was a visionary idea.

In the hands of such expert drivers, the HDT Commodores blended their potency with poise. Even with the noses diving under brakes, the fettled Commodes looked stable as the drivers worked the wheels into the corners.

Most of the cars were damaged during the weekend’s racing, with the panels kicked straight and new lights fitted overnight. They were properly repaired in the months after the event.

According to John McCoy Lancaster, owner of the ex-Jack Brabham Race of Champions HDT Commodore here, the race cars were warehoused until May 1981, following the November ’80 race. Eventually they were offered for sale, through a tender process, to the sponsoring dealers of the HDT network. Only five dealers showed interest in the race cars however, so they were offered to the entire Holden dealer network a few weeks later.

However, by this time (June 1981) the other 500 cars were being produced for the dealer network. If you had a choice between a brand new HDT Commodore and one that had been flogged around a racetrack, damaged and repaired, what would you have chosen?

After nine months in limbo, this one was delivered to its first private owner on 9 Sept, 1981. John has some dates but not all details, but he’s confident this car had four owners before he and wife Donna bought it in March 2006.

John is into cars. He and Donna have owned a few classic Chevs and he’s been active in the club scene for many years. In fact, he’s the bloke who organised the Street Machine Yankee Doodle Dandy Supercruise in the 1990s and is the voice of Radio Revhead at Summernats.

“We were looking to buy a late-model Monaro but a mate called us and told us about a car we might be interested in — a VC Race of Champions car,” he recalls. “One of my mates at school had a father who had one new, and I loved it. I remembered watching the action of the GP in 1980 and looked at the pedigree of this car — built by Brock and raced by Brabham — and decided it would be pretty cool.”

Covered in dust, the car hadn’t moved from storage in Victoria for two years. “It had the dents and scars of everyday life for two decades,” John says. “I guess I’d describe the car as being ‘untidy’. One front door was creased and it was battle-scarred. It had some rust around the back window and that was about it. The fibreglass was dilapidated.”

But you don’t say no to a car like this because it’s dusty and has a few dents, do you? “No. I picked it up as an opportunity to restore and enjoy it.”

With the car moved to Sydney, restoration began straight away. “I wanted it done by my 40th birthday and to show off at the 2007 Muscle Car Masters,” says John. “Owen Webb recommended Andrew Ash at AA Panelcraft in Bowral to do the bodywork.”

Andrew recreated the 80s-era factory lustre in every detail. All the components are original except the front spoiler — it was simply too rooted to work with — but HDT supplied a replacement. Andrew also perfectly restored the HDT-spec Irmscher wheels and applied the recreated red/white/blue HDT stripes that were a huge part of the HDT Commodore’s street credibility in 1980.

The exterior door mouldings were restored by Donna — what a wife! She’s in cahoots with her dad, Alan, at Moulding Repairs and Polishing. The car also scored a complete set of new weather sealing and window rubbers from Rare Spares.

Bill at Hy-Tone Trimming in Riverstone, NSW, was responsible for the interior restoration.

“He’d done a couple of HDTs before so knew a bit about them,” says John. Not everything was easy, however. “I was able to purchase new carpet from HDT but for other aspects I had to do a lot of research. For instance, I wanted to get the plastic chrome interior door handles redone. I eventually found a place that could do it — Bronzing Studio in Castle Hill, NSW. The velour and vinyl had to be specially sourced — it’s all NOS.”

Bond Roll Bars refurbished the car’s rollcage that had, amazingly, survived with the car.

The engine bay was refreshed by Terry Bebbington of Bebbco Automotive in Granville but not restored, as John is quick to point out; he wanted to retain its patina. The car shows 227,000km on the clock and runs on a diet of additive-laced Premium and Castrol GTX2. And yes, the air-con works.

John and Donna acknowledge owners of other VC HDT Brock Commodores, especially the other Race of Champions owners, as being of great assistance with the restoration. For instance, the ‘race’ stickers on this car were carefully created after lots of research and measuring by Stephen Garth, the Melbourne owner of the ex-Bob Jane HDT Commodore.

“I was on a steep learning curve,” says John of his Brock Commodore knowledge. “We’ve done a lot of research to get it right. It’s been a lot of fun.”

JOHN & DONNA McCOY LANCASTER
1980 VC HDT COMMODORE

THANKS
AA Panel Craft; Hy-Tone Motor Trimming; Bronzing Studio; Bebbco Automotive; McCoy Moulding Repairs; HDT Special Vehicles; Bond Roll Bars; Rare Spares; Owen Webb; Steven Garth; Kerry Dowling.