Wayne's VK Commodore

In 1985, I fell in love for the second time in my life. I saw a VK Commodore at the shops in Doveton, Victoria.The car was a red unmarked Police car, V8 manual with the recognisably lower suspension. That week I went and bought my first ever Holden and never looked back. Although always a racing fan, and inclined towards the blue oval, I now found myself going to Sandown hoping to see the General triumph over Henry. All of a sudden, when I changed camps, Holden stops
winning races. During 1985, the BMW's were the car to have along with Volvo "SUNBEAM" Special. But oh the sound of a 308, even without extractors, was a beautiful thing. As the years went by, the affection for the VK only grew stronger, even though I knew the quality of this model was actually worse than GM's previous locally built cars. Gaps bettween panels as big as Bass Straight were not uncommon. Thank god those days are gone, even if we did at least have a beautiful
pushrod 4987cc iron block 8 cylinder engine in a V configuration. WOW,,,,,,,,,,
Anyway, while living in Tamworth during 1997, I got involved with the Tamworth Sporting Car Club, having a run in sprints and Hillclimbs in my SV89 VN. Had a ball, but nearly destroyed the 89 at a Bathurst Hillclimb the same year. At that time I decided to buy a dedicated hillclimb car. On arrival back in Tamworth the following day, the search started and finished at the Tamworth City Wrecking Co. I had
found my next car. An SL VK sedan, straight with raised country suspension pack, no engine or box, but otherwise complete. It had started life as a 202 manual in silver. For a $1000, I had a start. Off to a mates panel shop to start preparing the body for painting and a roll cage, even though I had never done either. The rubbing back and bogging up and rubbing back and bogging up was the worst part. I am not a patient man, so although I could see it taking shape, it still felt like it was taking forever. Alan Barnes of Barnes Smash Repair slowed me down to make sure it looked perfect once finished. The air chisle I used to remove the sound deadening from the floor made short work of 25kgs of poo. After chiseling away at the floor, the next job was the fitting of the roll cage. I had met this guy in Tamworth who had come recommended to me for the job. He had apparently fitted roll cages to racing cars in Sydney, 2 litre Super Tourers, so I gave him the job. I reminded him of the new specifications being introduced by Cams, to which he said he was familiar. Well, as I found out some time later, like a couple of years later before the car was ready for its debut, that the cage had been made of the incorrect grade of steel. $1000 for the cage in Tamworth down the drain. Anyway, I prepared more of the body, masked her up, and Alan Barnes painted her for me. First the under coat and spray putty, then white all over. All this had taken a few weeks from when I took delivery of the shell. It was starting to look half respectable and clean. I started the
masking up for the blue and red colours to go over the white, trying to keep to Brocky's original as much as I could. It was still just intended to be a Hill Climb car, so did not need to be perfect, just similar. Mobil blue went on first then a bright red. Overall, I am happy with the paint job, Barnco only stinging me for $400. I have been asked by some people at the track if the car is indeed one of Brock's actual cars. I always say no, definitely not, but am pleased to know that some people still remember this colour scheme. Brock, Harvey, Moffat and co took this paint scheme to Europe in 1986, to take on the worlds best Touring Car Teams and Manufacturers. The VK's did as well as could be expected against the cheating Euro's. Walkingshaw was one in his Rovers and of course the BMW supported teams were the worst of the cheats. Our(Australia's) cars had all sorts of trouble, particularly with fuel quality affecting head gaskets. While the Euro's were running advanced fuel injected systems controlled by computer, we were still using a four barrel carby and not a computer to be found, other than the one the teams flights were booked on. The highlight was at Spa. This is a 24 hour race at one of the best tracks in the world, bar none. Although the VK's only finished in a lowly position, they crossed the line together and won the Kings Cup. The emotion and response from the spectators to the Aussie Spirit displayed by the HDT and Gricey's Chickadee team was awe inspiring. To this day, I am sure locals still speak of the day the Aussies showed why our soldiers are close to the best in the world and why Holden truly is an unbreakable car. With the paint job done, it was time for the engine and gear box to go in. The 308 I had bought was a tired old thing, but at that stage, I felt it would suffice for Hill Climbs. The gearbox I chose was a single rail, mainly because it was the right price, welded up 10 bolt salisbury with disc brakes. The carby, dissy, springs, shocks, brakes, sway bars and exhaust all came from the wreckers. Once the car was assembled however, it did not matter to me where all the bits came from. It just looked good. Wheels were 15 inch interceptors painted from a can in white.

I then moved to Melbourne, and had to pick a car club to join. On having picked the HSCCV, Chris and I decided to make our first event the Mt Ararat Hill Climb. So of to Mahnkens Automotive for a dyno tune she went. All this was still part of the build of the car I was soon to discover. Wayne Mahnken soon let me know that the state of the existing 308 was such that getting up the driveway may prove to be a hurdle in
itself. After some discussion, I agreed to buy from him an ex Auscar 308 fitted, supplied dyno-ed for $5500.00, including a list of other jobs to make the car technically legal for Cams sanctioned events, like Hillclimbs and Sprints. The entire project up until now had taken from 1998 to 2003. Where I had set out to spend around $5000 for the entire car, it had now hit something like $20k. The wiring, three sets of wheels, two roll cages, two engines, specific bell housing, seemingly a new trailer hire every other weekend, new clutch and pressure plate, the list goes on and on. Many mistakes were made along the way, but they were all soon forgotten
when she hit the track forthe first time. It was a Wednesday practice day at Calder, 36 degrees. March 2003. She still had wrecker spec suspension, no body kit and 5 year old bald 16 inch tyres. But we had a ball. Over the hump on the back straight, the car just wanted to spin the wheels in third gear. This was the first time I had experienced this kind of power before. We were sharing the track with Supercars,
Porche Cup cars, Formula Fords and Sports Sedans too. They were obviously much faster than the VK, we had to learn very quickly to watch our mirrors and get out of the way at the right moment. The FF's were the scariest. The car was fast and reliable, nothing went wrong or fell off, she just got hot, as usual. I actually called Mahnken from the track about the temp being around 110 degrees c, to which he replied in typical fashion, she'll be right mate. Thanks Wayne, it was. One thing we learned that day, was that with wreckers suspension, do not use the kerbs. This was first discovered by Chris trying to go fast through the esses after the hump. He ended up spinning it, nearly clobbering the outside wall backwards. Lap times were in the order of 1.18. The final question was, was it all worth it. Without a doubt. I felt like I was king of the worlds racetracks that day. Like I could go on to do Spa, Bathurst and Laguna Seca in consecutive week ends. And come up the winner. Nice to dream, but if you can't dream, stop the world and get off. Ok, so I know I am a bit on the round side, and not very fit, but I ended up being surprised how much fitness would be required to to a lot of driving at high speeds. So I will never win a race, but the whole point for me, was to give Chris and myself a joint activity, and to have fun, push ourselves as far as we could at high speeds to develop into better drivers, and of course, through our chosen club, meet fantastic new people. Everthing we set out to do, we achieved. Thanks to Family Hotel Tamworth. Barnco Smash Repairs Tamworth. Tamworth City Wreckers, Mahnkens Automotive Moorabbin, Tamworth Sporting Car Club, Chris, Peter Stewart, Bruce Lethborg, Coates Hire Oakleigh, and especially to Summit Holden in Elsternwick and The Holden Sporting Car Club of Victoria.