The last HSV VL SS Group A Walkinshaw ever made is on the market in original, unrestored condition, with its logbooks showing it was first owned by ex-racer and touring car team boss, Bob Forbes.

Number 750 was the last Walkinshaw ever built, rolling off HSV’s assembly line on 9 September 1988, and with only 19,666km on the clock since then, it has remained essentially unchanged over the years.

The car’s original spec includes the twin-throttlebody, fuel-injected, 4.9-litre V8 and five-speed manual, FE2/Bilstein suspension, and even its original Bridgestone RE71 tyres (including its spare alloy with factory markings).

Forbes’s Sydney-based team campaigned GIO-backed Walkinshaws in the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) from 1988 to 1991, a period that included the Holden Racing Team’s 1990 Bathurst win in the model.

“I ordered the last one,” said Bob Forbes of this final road car. “Originally, I got allocated number 500, and then Mr Walkinshaw decided that he wanted number 500, so I went peacefully. Then they said, well, you just happen to be in luck – we’re going to run another 250, so we’ll give you 750.”

Forbes never registered the car, having bought another Walkinshaw to use as his daily driver, so #750 was parked up and preserved. It only covered 1143km during the almost 10 years of his ownership – and that was just the drive from the Colac dealer to Forbes’ Sydney workshop, done on trade plates.

A decade later, Forbes sold it to Scuderia Veloce Motors in Sydney, before it ended up at Suttons City Holden in Rosebery.

Nick – the father of the current custodians – became the second owner after his previous pride and joy, Walkinshaw #708, was pinched from the local shops. His four daughters, who’d grown up with the silver Commodore, were heartbroken. “I remember walking through the door coming home from school, and my mother was literally in tears, her face red,” daughter Vanessa said. “I was about nine years old, and I just remember bawling my eyes out.”

For that reason, #750 kept a low profile after it was first road-registered in January 1998 and driven out of the Suttons yard by Nick to surprise the girls. “The night Dad drove it home, he had parked the car in a way that the hedge in the front yard had hidden it,” eldest daughter Simone recalled.

Vanessa’s near-obsession with the car saw Nick pledge #750 to her on her 21st birthday, on the condition that she share any future windfall across all four sisters if she was to part with it.

While the Walkinshaw was priced at $45,000 before on-roads when new, recent sales of the model include the $221,000 paid in August 2023 for #349 with 59,630km on the clock, and at the time of writing, #333 – sold in 2018 for $340,000 – is advertised at $575,000, having never been road-registered and with only 1308km on the odo.

The highest Walky listing came in 2021 with an asking price of “more than $1 million” for a pristine, original, 1479km example, #439, although its actual selling price was never revealed.

Number 750 is now listed on Stagauto.com.au and advertised with price on application.

Despite the car’s potential value, the emotional ties Vanessa and her sisters have to it made the decision to sell seriously tough – even with father Nick’s blessing. “It’s hard,” Vanessa admitted. “I look at the car and feel like I’m giving up a child. I feel like I’m going through a break-up!”