BROCK’S BOX OF BOLLOCKS?

Now we’re at the 30th anniversary of Brock’s disastrously brave and polarising (pun intended) insistence to force his untested Polarizer on GMH. I think it’s a good distance to appraise the device, from a modern perspective. Was there any scientific basis to the device? Did it do what it was claimed to do and why was Brock so convinced of its benefits that he trashed one of the most lucrative corporate deals an individual has ever negotiated in this country? The fact he recovered from this disaster and made up with GMH is beside the point, as he had no idea how things would pan out in the future when he made his leap of faith. So what drove him to be so obsessive? Drugs? Hippy philosophy? What was he on? Could be time for an in depth expose of the whole nefarious affair. Gary G Smith Ravenshoe Q 4888

Tim Pemberton, Peter Brock’s longtime publicist offered perhaps the most illuminating insight into Brocks mindset at the time. He firmly believes Peter was deluded. “There are a lot of people around who’ll tell you what you want to hear. People just told Brock what he wanted to hear.

“I’ll tell you a little incident. About 12 months before this all happened, myself and Brock were sitting in the office and we thought up something or other. It was all bullshit but I thought it would be a good story to throw out to the media. Sure enough, it got a big run [because] anything [Peter] did got a good run. Then he said to me ‘That’s unbelievable because now it’s in the newspapers it’s true. It’s become a fact’.

“I said, ‘Come on, Peter, you’re starting to believe your own bullshit.’

“That was a frightening moment because it hadn’t happened before. You get to the stage where you’re surrounded by yespeople saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s fine, go in your direction’, and it’s not what he needed.”

Holden famously took a Polarizer unit apart and found crystals, magnets, tin foil, and epoxy resin. One was sent to Detroit for technical appraisal, after which the following statement was issued in November 1986: “HMC does not approve or accept any responsibility for the fitment to Holden vehicles of the attachment described as an Energy Polarizer.”

Pemberton’s on record as saying that “Brock polarized himself out of the equation.”