THE Mobil 1 Commodore that left Peter Brock stranded on the start line at Bathurst in 1992 with a broken tailshaft is being brought back to life.
Kiwi collector Kane Lawson has acquired the chassis and has commissioned Melbourne-based Eggleston Motorsport to undertake a complete restoration.
It will be returned to how it raced at Bathurst in 1992 in the hands of Brock and German driver, Manuel Reuter.
The car is pictured in V8 Sleuth’s book release, ‘Bathurst Every Car, The Photographic History 1990-1999’, available on sale here from the V8 Sleuth Superstore.
“I was a massive Peter Brock fan as a kid and my dad always used to take me to see him whenever he did promo events in New Zealand,” Lawson told V8 Sleuth this week.
“The chassis is at EMS now. Ben (Eggleston) and his guys picked it up recently. To do the restoration properly will take a few years but it’s all part of the process.
“It’s just a body shell now with crates of components. Between Ben and Jack Perkins they have been able to identify that they are the right parts for the car.
“It came with an engine and gearbox and the engine has gone straight to Neill Burns to work on. He has photos of that engine when he built it up to go to Bathurst back in the day, so he’ll restore it to that spec.
“I’m leaving Ben and his team to do their thing. I’ve seen what they do with their restorations so I’m going to let them go about their job.
“There’s a few bars to be cut out of it to make it period correct. The plan is to restore it back to 100 percent correct as it sat on the grid at Bathurst in 1992. I’m really, really looking forward to the restoration process.”
Originally a Perkins Engineering-built Group A VN Commodore used by the Brock/Perkins Mobil 1 team in 1991, the car was one of two that went to Advantage Racing for the following year when it was founded to run Brock’s racing program.
Raced mainly for Perkins in 1991 and by Neil Crompton in the 1992 Australian Touring Car Championship before it was parked due to the team’s lack of budget, it was converted to VP specification and fitted with a Chevrolet engine in time for Bathurst.
After breaking its tailshaft at the start of the race, the #05 Commodore was towed to the pits and re-joined the race, eventually finishing a distant 27th.
Brock raced the same car in Adelaide at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix touring car support event, however steering failure sent him hard into the concrete wall at the chicane in the Sunday race.
The chassis was eventually repaired and raced by privateers Bob Jones, Mike Conway and Wayne Russell before spending time in New Zealand prior to its return to Australia approximately 10 years ago.
Lawson, who is based in Christchurch, intends to run the car at some Historic events in Australia once the restoration is complete, before sending it to New Zealand.
