Peter Brock’s personal HDT VH SS Group Three is going to auction through Grays, with bids opening on Thursday.

One of 322 built, Brock was the first owner of the car, which features his name and details in the log book.

This Group Three featured heavily in print when new, most notably appearing on the cover of Modern Motor’s January 1983 issue alongside Brock’s Bathurst-winning VH racer. Both cars were put through their paces at Holden’s Lang Lang proving ground with Brock and late HDT offsider, John Harvey, at the controls.

The car also graced Street Machine’s own April-May 1988 issue, where it earned both a place in the ‘Brock File’ series and its own pull-out poster.

Aside from ferrying Brock and various motoring journalists, the VH also served as parade transport for 1983’s Moomba Queen and Aussie Bond girl, Lynda Knight. For this role, a sunroof was fitted to the car.

According to Grays’s representative Rian Gaffy, the Group Three was bought from a Victorian used car dealer by its second (and current) owner with around 20,000 kilometres on the odometer. He then drove the car for several years before deregistering it and placing it in storage. Today, with an odometer reading of 124,395kms, the car is being kept at Grays’s Pinkenba warehouse in Brisbane. Gaffy says the car is in excellent unrestored condition, barring a minor tear on the driver’s door trim.

Plenty of memorabilia will be sold with the car, including a copy of every publication it appeared in and the original (but no longer legal) number plates.

A signed, hand-written letter from Brock confirms he used it as his personal transport from July to November 1982. This letter also states the car was tuned to achieve “about 60hp more at the rear wheels than is standard.”

The auction comes a month after one of Brock’s later daily drivers, VK Group A #005, sold at Grays for $1.057 million. While VK ‘Blue Meanies’ typically attract higher prices than their predecessors, Gaffy says this car’s extensive documentation is a bonus.

“This car has a lot more provenance, as it was used a lot more by Brock.

“It actually has his name in the logbook, whereas the VK just said HDT, so I’d like to think this one would be up around that [$1.057m] figure.”

In 2018, Brock’s 1982 and 1983 Bathurst-winning VH race car sold with an incredible final bid of $1.610 million.

The Group Three represented the most highly-equipped VH of the HDT range. While Group One and Two cars were available with a 4.2 litre V8 only, a five-litre was optional for the Group Three, backed by an M21 four-speed manual as standard. Upon launch in June 1982, a five-litre example was priced at $19,149.

Ultimately, it was this car which received the most orders. “From that exercise we decided we didn’t need to build cheaper cars,” said John Harvey to Street Machine in 1988. “Full house, fully equipped Commodores were the only way to go.”

Bidding for the Group Three will end at 8.30pm on June 29 on the Grays website.