A RARE pilot VN Commodore Group A SS with interesting road and race history – including an appearance in the Bathurst 12 Hour – has appeared for sale in Western Australia with a price tag of just over half a million dollars.
The car began life as Special Vehicle Order 257, a white prototype/pilot Group A SS that was reportedly designated as the drivetrain test and engineering development car.
Turned out in Alpine White, it’s a car that normally you’d expect to have been sent to the crusher once its pilot car duties were complete, however it was given full compliance tags and road registration due to the requirements of its drivetrain testing to be carried out on the road rather than the test track.
It was turned into a racer for the 1992 Bathurst 12 Hour production car race (the second running of the event) after its test duties were complete and prepared by Peter Fitzgerald’s team for Holden Motorsport with Fitzgerald (who had won the inaugural race in 1991 in a Supra), Brett Peters and Jim Zerefos sharing driving duties.
In fact, this Group A VN SS was run alongside the headline-grabbing, Akubra-sponsored Holden Ute driven by Allan Grice, Brad Jones and John Spencer.
Armed with a hand-built engine sourced from the Holden Racing Team, the VN Group A SS spent time in the lead of the 12 Hour, though various issues impacted its Easter classic assault and the V8 Holden finished 13th outright.
Later turned into a show car for the Strathfield Car Radios team to mimic the actual Group A racer driven by Graham Moore and Wayne Gardner in late 1992, the pilot car competed in various IndyCar and Grand Prix tarmac rallies and was used for all sorts of promotional appearances.
The car that has appeared for sale is one of only a handful of VN Group A SS Commodores not to be produced in the familiar Durif Red, of which 302 were produced.
An exemption was applied to allow the VN Group A SS to be homologated for Group A touring car racing given a minimum of 500 units were to be produced under the rules of the time.
The VN Group A SS Commodore was the last homologation special produced by Holden for Group A touring car racing, following in the path of the VK SS, VL SS and VL Group A SV models.
The car for sale has externally been returned to its original pilot specification with a range of refurbishment and restoration work recently completed by OCD Obsessive Car Detailing in Perth.
With 149,000 kilometres on the clock, this unique piece of Aussie muscle car history will no doubt grab a lot of attention.
It has an asking price of $550,000 and more information is available here.
