Perkins ENZED Vk

[Group'C']

I need some help!!
We are currently restoring the Larry Perkins Enzed Vk as used in the 87 season. The car last raced at Bathurst in 87 and crashed in the cutting with a Shell seria. This was the last time the car raced.

We need some under bonnet and boot shots aswell as interior

Please e-mail at slim05@bigpond.com.au

[GTRMagic]

Have you tried looking at the Great Race books for the 1986 and 1987 years? Available form the local library if you are lucky

[racer69]

Didn't Perkins use a different Commodore at Sandown & Bathurst in 1986 to the one that was used during 1987?

[GTRMagic]

Yes he did but the 2 shells were built around the same time. If I recall rightly LP took the 2nd car to Bathurst with him in 1986.... as a spare

[racer69]

Yes i think you are right, also the cars weren't owned by Perkins himself, though the owners name has slipped my mind at the moment.

Here is the Perkins/Parsons Enzed Commodore from Bathurst 1986

[GTRMagic]

Colin Giltrap was the gentleman's name, of the Giltrap Motor Group of NZ, a car dealer

That name is on the car somewhere

[racer69]

Yes that's it. Perkins himself owned the VL that replaced the VK at the Calder WTCC round though didn't he, which subsequently became the TWR/HSV car Perkins drove in the ATCC in 1988?

[GTRMagic]

Sure did, and one of the 2 VK's became Tony Noske's Kalari Transport car as well

[William Dale Jr]

The old VK went to Noske for the start of the 1987 ATCC, and, from memory, he didn't have one reliability problem with the car the whole time he ran it. He did bend the front of it on a wall at Winton once, but apart from that...

A quick flick through the two aforementioned JH1000 books netted no under bonnett pics. If both Perkins VKs were built around the same time, the under bonnet and interior layout would probably be the same. Perhaps we could tap Mark Noske for info when he's available?

Perhaps a bit OT, but the first Perkins VL. Was that car converted to TWR-spec for Denny Hulme to race at the 88 AGP meeting? Wasn't that car then sold to Llyndon Reithmuller who later sold it to Lansvale Smash Repairs? Or were those three seperate vehicles?

[Group'C']

Thanks for your help fellas
We actully have the Log book for the car and from that it's first meeting was Calder 28/2/87.
It ran 11 meetings in Aus and 2 in NZ

Wasn't the first VL Larry built the Everlast car, and wasn't that the car he ran at the WTCC round with Bill O'Brein? If so this car is in Tassie as well! it went to Smerdon, Scotty Taylor, Gary Cannan, and now with Alan Polglase and running all Sportsman running gear

We got the Diff Housing and some 16" Dymags from the VL, Not much left as most of the other gear went into the Price Attack VP which Gary Cannan now has. I worked on the Cars for Gary and am now helping build the VK for the new owner.

[Group'C']

Heres what we are starting with
The bloke we got it from picked it up in Feb 88. It had no running gear at all, still has dash and wirring

[GTRMagic]

The first Perkins customer VL was the O'Brien car, and they ran the Calder split track round in it.

Bill O'Brien ran it for a few seasons, updating it to VL TWR Batmobile spec at one stage, before on selling it to Chris Smerdon, who eventually had Perkins take most of the running gear out of it and build it into the VP that ran with Smerdon/McConville in 1993.

The remnants of the VL, an old Dodge truck and some other bits were onsold to someone in Tassie, who as you suggest filled it with other bits... so the VL shell remains, just not with the Group A bits under it

Judging by that pic, you guys have a bit of work to do....

[racer69]

Originally posted by William Dale Jr
Perhaps a bit OT, but the first Perkins VL. Was that car converted to TWR-spec for Denny Hulme to race at the 88 AGP meeting? Wasn't that car then sold to Llyndon Reithmuller who later sold it to Lansvale Smash Repairs? Or were those three seperate vehicles?

As far as i know the Hulme AGP car was sold onto Reithmuller and then to Ashby/Reed as you say. I was under the impression though that both the '88 AGP cars were the Bathurst cars, the one built in Australia by Perkins (maybe that could be the converted one from Perkins '88 ATCC car), and the one built in the UK by TWR.

Originally posted by Group'C'
We actully have the Log book for the car and from that it's first meeting was Calder 28/2/87.
It ran 11 meetings in Aus and 2 in NZ

If the cars first meeting was at the Calder ATCC round in Febuary '87, then i don't think the cars last race can have been Bathurst 1987 if it raced twice in NZ.

There was the January Nissan/Mobil 500 series in New Zealand at Wellington & Pukekohe in early 1987, in which Perkins won the series (along with victory at Pukekohe). After Bathurst Perkins went to the second VL he built for the Calder and Wellington WTCC rounds and the '87 Adelaide AGP race. Could the car have debuted at Wellington in 1987?

It will be good to see the car out on track when it is complete

[GTRMagic]

Not exactly right Racer69, one of the AGP cars was a 1988 Bathurst car in Perkins/Hulme/Walkinshaw hands as the #10 car, while the other VL was a spare brought to Bathurst by Perkins, who was hoping Walkinshaw would run that instead of the one brought from the UK for learnings purposes.

The 1990 LRT angle is right though, but only after Llynden Reithmuller of Sephco Waste and SPV Racing fame took it to Bathurst 1999 and had a lot of trouble with blown headgaskets related to a duff radiator that meant the car got little circuit time.

[racer69]

Ahh yes i remember, i had forgotten about the third TWR/HSV entry, car #40. Part of Perkin's problem with the whole operation was that the #20 car was built in England and therefore wasn't compatible in many ways to Perkins car, meaning the team was effectively split in two.

The #20 car returned to Bathurst in 1990 as the #16 car, and left for the TWR museum a winner. (actually brings up a query, what will happen to this car with the goings on of TWR)

[William Dale Jr]

I think the 1990 Bathurst winner should go to the Hall of Fame museum at the circuit, but what funds would be needed to get it there?

BTW, Group'C', what are the plans for the car when it's finished? I haven't managed to find any under bonnet pics, but there is one thing I've just remembered about the car at its last meeting - during one of the practice sessions, Larry unbolted the exhaust and just ran it with the header pipes on it to see if there was any benefit. He didn't find much of a gain without them, but the noise was deafening. Take that, EPA!

[Group'C']

Scotty Taylor purchased the car(And the B----y Dodge truck) from Chris Smerdon,The car was then run still in blue with Xerox plastered down the flanks, from what I can gather the car didn't loose much to the VP project as by then alot of the VL stuff was old hat..
Scotty had 2 motors for the car, a Larry slide (which Steve Voight Brought)and a Dual throttle body ex larry motor(which I think was the Smerdon motor)which the car got sold with, The Gearbox (which is now in Gary Cannan's VS)was a Larry modified Getrag.
When Gary Cannan brought the car and the Truck(I was the sucker that had to drive it)It was still lovley blue and as it had been run at Bathurst in 95(I think) as Gary won the 96 Tassie Sports Sedan Title. Our Christmas was spent competley striping the car, rebuilding and repainting the car white and orange (The truck got the same paint)and we went to Sydney and ran the AMSCAR series.
When we picked up the truck(which came with a Trailer the same color, as the car never went insde the truck)there was an open Exhaust system (No Mufflers) sitting inside. we where told that was a present from Larry and was the Exhaust that he tried at Bathurst( He would not have been let onto the circuit without a complete exhaust system).
We ended up fitting the car inside the truck but had to sell it(Yipee)as the VS woudn't fit in, in now belongs to the Devils Henchmen in Hobart.
As I said before the car now runs all Sportsman gear(253 V8) and ran at Baskerville yesterday, it is minus the Larry Christmas tree which the owner has stored in the Shed, we think the Everlast VL may have been the first car to run with the Larry Christmas tree as the VK has a little box an the tailshaft hump.

[Group'C']

Racer 69 - I think your right with the NZ racers, The blocke we got the car off was told by Larry that the car was the one from the NZ racers but its not in the log book. The only thing I can work out here is that they didnt run the events undef CAMS so the log books dont get used, NZ is run under a different motorsport body.
Willian Dale Jr - The car will proberley do some Sports Sedan races in Tassie but it will wait till the Group A's get into Historics as Ian has all so got the ex McCrae Bros L34 Group 'C'.
In March next year the Hobart Sporting Car Club tuns 50 years old and is running a race meeting at Baskerville at which the Croup c and A cars are getting invited. Thats the big aim at the moment is to get to that meeting.

[anthony81901]

The 1st Perkins Engineering VK debuted at the Sandown 500 in September 86 with David Parsons and was the 1st Perkins car to carry # 11. Perkins again raced the car at Bathurst, but I am not sure if he raced at the AGP. In January 87 Perkins again shared the car at the Auckland 500 with Parsons and at Pukehoke a week later with Denny Hulme, winning the latter.

I am not sure which chassis was used for the NZ races, but by the 1st round of the championship at Calder he was using the 2nd VK with Tony Noske also appearing with the original. Noske raced this chassis for the remainder of 87, running the Sandown, Bathurst and Calder enduros with Gary Rush. He also ran some races in 88, definately appearing at Winton.

Perkins raced the VK in all races up to and including Bathurst 87. At the Calder 500 the 2nd Perkins Engineering VL debuted and Perkins raced this for the rest of the year and throughout the 88 ATCC. It was converted to HSV specs for the Sandown 500 and raced by Jeff Allam and Arman Hahne as # 11. It went to Bathurst as the spare # 40 car but was only used in the 1st practice session by Denny Hulme. It was raced at the AGP by Hulme as # 11.

At the 88 Sandown 500, Perkins debuted a new VL, built from the ground up to HSV specs as # 10. This was raced by Perkins in New Zealand and at the AGP as # 10.

The older car was sold to Lyndon Reithmuller in 1989 while the newer remained in Perkins Engineering ownership, being raced by Perkins at the Winton and Sandown ATCC rounds as # 11 in HSV livery, albeit without sponsorship.

For the 89 enduros Perkins raced 2 VLs on behalf of Holden, presumably the 88 car plus one new one. Car 16 was raced by Perkins/Percy at Sandown, Perkins/Mezera at Bathurst and Percy at the AGP. Car 7 was raced by Crompton/Harrington, Percy/Crompton and Crompton at the same meetings.

The 7 car was raced in Indonesia in 90 (Tommy Suharto??) and J Lusty/B Stack at Bathurst later the same year. In 91 it was sold to the Jonssons of North Qld who raced it until 93, I think it was sold to George Ayoub in 94.

I am not sure what happened to the 16 car, perhaps it was the Bob Pearson Perkins Engineering built car in 90, as LP built a new car for his own campaign that year.

I think that TWR built at least 2 VLs in the UK, the Bathurst car which later won Bathurst in 90 and another which Walkinshaw raced at the Silverstone TT in 88. I recall that when Holden were contemplating running 2 cars in the 89 ATCC with Percy and Crompton that at least one VL was shipped from the UK and even tested but that the program was scrapped. Certainly in the 89 Bathurst program there was an add for Telecom featuring a VL in HRT colours with single stud wheels, definately not a Perkins car.

Does anybody have a listing of the 41 Perkins Engineering chassis built to date? I think the history of chassis 031 and above has been documented, but before that it is a little unclear.

[Group'C']

Thanks Anthony
As you said its hard to know which car he used at NZ, I am unsure if they esed the same log books? if they did then we would asume that he used chassis 001 as this log book has nothing marked for NZ.( I will have to get the book and check the chassis No).
I have managed to obtain the Log book for Chassis
PE 887 002 which is the Everlast car which was Issued on the 25/6/87 and its first race is 8/8/87 at Calder.
An interesting remark at the 5/3/88 calder meeting was to have Chassis No Confirmed ?
I agree with you, some one should start a book on all these Chassis not only Perkins but Brock, HRT,Lansvale ETC

[GTRMagic]

What constitutes a chassis though? There are some nice cars around purported to be made by particular manufacturers, and while that is true of the shell, the oily bits are often from another, lesser standard of vehicle.

Integrity is hard to maintain in a race vehicle when this seems to be the norm not the exception

[anthony81901]

Based on the information from the past few edditions of The Great Race, I have gathered the following histories on Perkins Engineering chassis:

018 VN xx/93 S Beikhoff ex M Imrie ex S Walker ex I Love
020 VP 02/94 M Rose ex C Smerdon
021 VP 02/94 L Crambrook ex G Crick ex D Attard ex P Morris
022 VP 02/94 P Romano ex T Longhurst
025 VR 01/95 N Schembri ex L Perkins
027 VR 09/95 C Butler ex D Parsons ex K Brewer ex R Ingall ex L Perkins
031 VT 06/98 B McDonald ex P Doulman ex R Ingall ex L Perkins
032 VT 09/98 M Donaher ex R Ingall ex L Perkins
033 VT 03/99 D McDougal ex W Gardner
034 VT 10/99 M White ex D Brede ex C Smerdon ex W Gardner
035 VT 10/99 C Baird ex A Fogg ex J Richards ex L Perkins
036 VT 02/00 J Richards ex R Ingall
037 VT 09/00 M Porter ex P Dumbrell ex R Ingall
038 VX 03/01 S Richards ex L Perkins
039 VX 07/01 R Ingall
040 VX 02/02 L Perkins
041 VY 05/03 S Richards

Chassis which I do not have numbers for are the VN built for Bob Pearson in 91, the 2 VNs built for Brock in 91, the VN built for Alf Barbagello in 92, the 2 VPs built in 93 for Bob Pearson and Perkins, the 2 VPs built in 94 for Perkins and Don Watson, the VS built in 95 for David Parsons, the Castrol VR built at the beginning of 96 and the 2 Castrol VSs built in 97.

Two of 038 - 040 have been raced by Dumbrell & Ingall this year.

[speedstar1000]

Doesn't Noonz from Motorsport News have all of this info? Or Mark Jones? Maybe worth firing them off an email to see what info you could find out

[True Believer]

Noonan doesnt work there any more, try CupCar

[sevi]

Yes they both do.
Send me a PM if you need their email addresses.