THE last VL Group A SV Commodore – often dubbed by fans as the ‘Walkinshaw Commodore’ – to tackle the ‘Great Race’ at Bathurst is set to undergo a stunning transformation back to its original livery.
Unseen for many years, the former Everlast Automotive Commodore holds a special place in Holden V8 racing history as being one of the first of the fuel-injected ‘batmobiles’ to compete in the 1988 race and, more importantly, the last of its kind to line up in the October classic in 1995.
Canberra veteran Bill O’Brien, Brian Callaghan Jnr and Ron Barnacle drove the car to finish 10th in the 1995 race, in which it was the only one of its kind in the field. The 1995 race in full is available here to buy on DVD from the V8 Sleuth Superstore.
The car is featured in V8 Sleuth’s 1990s Bathurst book, including imagery of every car from every year’s race, available here now in the V8 Sleuth Superstore.
O’Brien replaced the car with a Holden-powered VR model Commodore for the 1996 Bathurst race that ran with many of its mechanicals sourced from the VL.
However, his former VL Commodore – which originally started life as the FAI Insurance-sponsored, Roadways-built car of Allan Grice and Win Percy for Bathurst 1988 and was driven the following year by Grice and Peter Janson – won’t be spending any more time in its familiar blue Everlast colours.
Its original 1995 Bathurst livery is set to be replaced by its 1988 FAI livery as its owner, a private collector in Victoria, begins restoration of this great piece of Australian touring car history.
V8 Sleuth has been supplied with the images in this story, showing the car’s fading 1995 Bathurst stickers and paintwork that are set to be traded in for the blue and white FAI livery.
The car has sat among a collection of ex-touring cars for many years since last being raced.
It famously formed part of the two-car Daily Planet Racing team at Bathurst in 1992, though was withdrawn and didn’t start the race after catching fire with John Trimble at the wheel at the bottom of Conrod Straight during Thursday qualifying.
Trimble, who regularly raced Daily Planet-backed cars at Bathurst in the 1990s, passed away in March 2022.
The ex-FAI car isn’t the only VL Group A SV Commodore raced by O’Brien in the Bathurst 1000 during the 1980s and 1990s.
He originally ran his Perkins Engineering-built VL Commodore updated to fuel-injected specification, and then later drove the Brian Callaghan car at Bathurst with Everlast signage in 1992 and 1993 – the year he was famously involved in a crash that took Dick Johnson out of the race.
