Commodore breaks auction record
But Peter Brock’s ‘Big Banger’ fails to fireThe only two-time winner in the history of the Bathurst 1000 has created a new Australian auction record on the eve of this year’s Great Race.
A sprinkling of Peter Brock fairy dust ensured the VH Commodore reached a hammer price of $2.1m, a record for an Australian-made car.
The famed VC Commodore ‘Big Banger’ from 1984 failed to fire, when bids stalled at $850,000 because of the disputed history of the car and an ongoing controversy over the actual identity of the ’84 Bathurst winner.
Former owner Peter Champion believes his car is the real deal, while many people consider a near-identical car in the National Motor Racing Museum at Bathurst is the original.
“We have the real one,” the curator of the museum, Brad Owen, told motoring.com.au.
There was vast interest in the auction of the one-time Champion collection, which was amassed from the 1990s with help and guidance from Brock.
Champion opened a museum at Yeppoon in far-north Queensland but, when he had a heart attack and the venture floundered, the cars were moved to a specially-created display at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast.
He sold the cars earlier this year to a single buyer, and they were individually auctioned in Bathurst in an online and live event staged by Lloyds Classic Car Auctions.
Many lots failed to sell despite six-figure bids and Lloyds is not revealing full details, either the number of cars sold or the hammer prices, because of confidentiality surrounding successful bidders.
But one that did sell, for an impressive $325,000, was a 1985 VK Group A Commodore, nicknamed the ‘Blue Meanie, with an odometer reading of just 2375 kilometres.
The VH SS Bathurst 1000 winning record breaker was the last car to roll over the auction block and online bidding had already set the bar at $1.6m before the auctioneer opened the action.
It’s the car shared by Brock and Larry Perkins for wins in both 1982 and 1983 and, although in tatty condition with flat tyres and a split front spoiler, it was the hit of the show.
It took only nine bids and four minutes for the price to rocket from $1.6 to $2.1m when the hammer came down.
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