HDTSV BROCK ERA

HDT Special Vehicles - Peter Brock ownership era 1980-1987

HDT Holden Dealer Team was formed in 1969 with Harry Firth in charge whom recruited two new drivers Peter Brock and Colin Bond to be the lead drivers. The HDT race cars were hugely successful throughout the 1970’s in Australian Touring car racing and rallycross.

Although the team had always been known as the Holden Dealer Team it was Holden and not the dealers whom funded the team up to 1979. At the end of 1979 Holden suddenly withdrew its funding following a global GM decision banning motorsport.

Peter Brock approached a group of passionate Holden Dealers including Vin Keane from Adelaide and Warren Smith from Melbourne seeking funding to continue the HDT race team that Peter Brock had only just purchased in late 1979. A select group of dealers agreed to fund the race team providing Peter Brock would build a series of special ‘Peter Brock HDT Commodores’ for these dealers to have the exclusive selling rights. And so was born HDT Special Vehicles.

Peter Brock recruited John Harvey to assist with the running of the HDT Special Vehicles business. The success of the HDT Special Vehicles created throughout the years 1980 to 1987 was phenomenal with enthusiasts greatly appreciating the race car/ road car link with the road cars styling and colours relating to the race cars as much as possible. That, together with the Peter Brock endorsed signatures made these cars highly sought after by enthusiasts.

Whilst many additional models and variants were created over the years, the major models of the Peter Brock era were:

VC HDT Commodore

VH Group 3 Commodore

VK Group 3 Commodore

VK Group A Commodore

VL Group A Commodore

VL Director

VL Group 3 Signature Series

VL Aero

Sadly Peter Brock and Holden split on 20 February 1987 following the release of the HDT VL Director. The Director contained a device known as the The Energy Polariser which Holden maintained had no technical merit, as well independent rear suspension that Holden stated they had not been given the opportunity to test sufficiently.

Without Holden’s support Peter Brock struggled on with HDT Special Vehicles producing the HDT VL Group 3 Signature Series and HDT Designer series which included a few HDT VL Aero’s, Bathurst and Sport models. However not having Holden’s support finally caused Peter Brock to sell HDT Special Vehicles to the Collarafi family in 1988.