Brock collection Sold
Several famous #05 racecars will return to the track in Historic competition following the sale of Peter Champion’s ‘Brock Experience’ collection. HDT Special Vehicles owner Champion con rmed at the Muscle Car Masters in early June he had found a buyer for his 28-strong collection of ex-Peter Brock racecars and replicas. He retains his HDT road car collection.
“It is no secret that after my heart attack in 2012 that I offered the collection for sale,” Champion explained. “During the years I’ve had offers for individual cars and I have maintained that the collection was only available for a sale as a whole. True to my word, the (racecar) collection was sold as a whole bar one car.”
That one car is the Daytona Coupe in which his great mate lost his life during the 2006 Targa West tarmac rally. Champion explained to AMC his reasons for retaining the Daytona Coupe stemmed from his original motivation for restoring it in the aftermath of the accident: he didn’t want a situation where people were trying to sell individual components of that car. He said he “agonised over the decision” but ultimately believed the best way to respect Brock and his memory was to rebuild, restore and retain it.
“I didn’t think that it was the right thing to do to move that car on.”
As to the rest of the collection, displayed at Dreamworld since 2015, his friendship with Brock drove his desire to sell it as a whole.
“It’s a bit like when your kids leave home, you still love them but it’s time for them to move on. I had a lot of fun putting the collection together with the man himself. But I only ever saw myself as a custodian of them and the time had come.”
Champion wouldn’t be drawn on the purchaser’s identity, saying, “The new owner wishes to remain anonymous and will make announcements at their discretion.”
No announcements had been forthcoming as this issue headed to press in early July, however AMC understands the initial purchaser has already found new homes – emphasis on the plural – for several of the cars. Indeed, by the time you read this it’s possible the collection will have been further broken up.
Excitingly, at least two #05 Commodores are destined to join the Heritage Touring Cars eld in the hands of historic racing enthusiasts: the VH in which Brock started the 1983 James Hardie 1000, to be driven by George Nakas; and the Brock/Moffat Wellington 500-winning VK, with Chad Parrish behind the wheel.
No word yet on new homes for the ‘Big Banger’ VK from 1984, nor the two-time Bathurst-winning chassis of 1982 and ’83 which remains in a hybrid form: ’82 livery and ’83 bodykit.