40 YEARS OF HDT
GREAT MEMORIES
“THE PROSPECT OF AN HDT WITH EXTRA POWER AND FURTHER-ENHANCED HANDLING WAS MIND-BOGGLING”
It may be a cliché, but the whole win on Sunday, sell on Monday mantra was to work well for Holden and HDT Specia l Vehicles after t he success of Holden’s racing Toranas during t he 1970s. This culminated in its last, incredible si x-lap win – wit h a lap record on t he last lap – at Bathurst in 1979 in t he hands of Peter Brock.
HDT of course stood for Holden Dealer Team, the developer of high performance road and race cars. Peter Brock was its owner and front man from 1980 until the infamous split with Holden in Februar y 1987. For many of us, the cars Brock created for t hat si x-and-a-bit years are now legendar y Austra lian classic cars worthy of any collect ion.
HDT’s first product was the VC series HDT
Commodore. Available in just three bold colours – which we’ve collected here for our historic Unique Cars photoshoot – the new hi-po SL/E-based road runner was a stunner. Just t wo years before, in October 1978, Holden’s fresh new Commodore had broken new ground for an Austra lia n family car in terms of its precise steering and its decent handling. In t hat situation the prospect of an HDT version with extra power and further-enhanced handling was mind-boggling.
The HDT Commodore’s first public showing was at Calder Park Raceway in November 1980, where 11 HDT Commodores lined up for the Race of Champions, a support race for t he Austra lian Grand Pri x. Piloting t hose cars was a mix of Austra lian and internationa l racing ta lent –
including Unique Cars’ own John Bowe – who participated in t wo races. Racing legend Kev in Bart lett won t he f irst race on Saturday, wit h Bowe coming second. After starting some way back on t he grid, Peter Brock himself won t he second race, on Sunday, ver y closely chased by – again – John Bowe.
Watching a repeat of Sunday’s race – it’s on YouTube – is borderline hilarious. The TV commentar y from Formula 1 ace Jackie Stewart and Channel 9’s Kev in Sparkes – and the sounds of 11 throbbing V8s – is just about drowned out at times by t he a lmost ceaseless squealing of the HDT Commodore’s road-spec Uniroyal t y res. There was plent y of ‘jost ling for position’ and many of the cars ended up in the dirt on a number of occasions.
But the race a lso demonstrated just how good the original Brock Commodore was.
Austra lian family car owners were used to unremarkable handling produced by sturdy but dated underpinnings on cars shod with cross-ply t y res. While radia l t y res had arrived, t heir use was far from universa l. Yet here was a road car – a lbeit a high-performance one – that could hold its own on a race track. Putting a dozen road cars onto a track in front of t he genera l public was a ter r if ic publicit y stunt.
Those 12 cars – t he last of t he dozen stayed in t he pits af ter suf fering problems prior to racing – were built by HDT ahead of Holden/HDT’s planned 500-build production so were something of a test run for HDT at its Leveson St, North Melbourne production premises.
Based on t he SL/E wit h t he optiona l 5.0-litre V8 ( V B SLEs had a 4.2-litre V8 as standard) the HDT Commodore featured output, handling, and st yle upgrades. The body k it featured a front spoiler,
“HERE WAS A ROAD CAR – ALBEIT A HIGHPERFORMANCE ONE – THAT COULD HOLD ITS OWN ON A RACE TRACK”