Larry Vs Tom

[Kingair]

I am part way through the DVD celebrating 25 years of HRT, a couple of interesting points that may be answered by those in the know.

1. What year did the UK secret build Commodore of Mr Walkinshaw's make its debut at the mountain?,

2. What year did Tom, takeover Larry's Commodore and flog the living daylights out despite being warned by Larry to keep the revs lower?

[Umai Naa]

Both were in '88, I believe.

[Kingair]

Thanks for that.

Larry would not have been happy watching Tom, flog the living daylights out of his engine!

[chavez]

They must have worked okay together - both of the Commodores at Bathurst were deemed to be illegal.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by Kingair

1. What year did the UK secret build Commodore of Mr Walkinshaw's make its debut at the mountain?,

I haven't seen the DVD admittedly, but i'm not sure how any Walkinshaw built VL in the UK would have been secret?

TWR had the contract to homologate the car for competition, TWR had the intention from the start of entering cars in European events, and ran the new car in ill-fated BTCC event at Birnimgham in 1988, as well as the 1988 TT at Silverstone, both of which were before the 1988 Sandown 500 in which the works cars first competed in Australia.

[GTRMagic]

The secret was that they weren't expecting the TWR-built VL to come out were they?

Mr Perkins had 2 VL batmobiles built and ready to run for 1988.. one became a T car.. and Mr Walkinshaw chose to run his own car.

There was an issue with revs in the Perkins engines.. Mr Small apparently sold parts to TWR for an engine program, maybe not the EFI version, but Holden V8 definitely. In 1986, Mr Grice managed to pull 8,000 rpm out of his Holden powerplant on the way to victory... so maybe Mr Walkinshaw expected that level of hunger from the Perkinsmobile...

[anthony81901]

Obviously Perkins Engineering knew of the existence of the TWR built VL, it had appeared on Channel 7's review of the Silverstone TT where DJR were in attendance. But the airfreighting of the car to Australia was not what they were expecting. Both cars were very different in build and so it effectively became 2 teams.

Larry was not particularly keen on letting Tom drive, but he was the boss. Despite being briefed on the rev limit, Walkinshaw chose to ignore, but still circulated 2 seconds a lap slower than Denny Hulme had in his stint. When the car expired in the last stint it was in a race winning position, running second behind Tony Longhurst who was about to make a long stop for pads and with Tomas Mezera having to do the final stint.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by anthony81901

When the car expired in the last stint it was in a race winning position

A moot point really given the car was declared illegal after the race

Even with a longer stop, the B&H Sierra had the pace with both drivers to see off any real threat towards the end of the race.

[chavez]

Originally Posted by one five five

A moot point really given the car was declared illegal after the race

Even with a longer stop, the B&H Sierra had the pace with both drivers to see off any real threat towards the end of the race.

It would not have been good for the sport for the "winner" of the Great Race to be disqualified two year in a row.

Walkinshaw did the sport a favour.

[mite5255]

Originally Posted by one five five

A moot point really given the car was declared illegal after the race

.

What was illegal about the cars, I'm an old fart and my memery is slipping

[KA]

I'd have to dig out books to be certain, but weren't there some differences in spec between the Perkins and UK-built examples of the Batmobile- and a few between the UK car and the homologation papers...?

From very vague memory, so I'm probably wrong, front spoiler and steering rack come to mind?

[KA]

Originally Posted by mite5255

What was illegal about the cars, I'm an old fart and my memery is slipping

They were protested during qualifying by Dick Johnson- More from Billy Tuckey's book:

'Johnson immediately fired in his counter-protests on the Walkinshaw Commodores. These covered a number of areas, but most importantly nominated the steering racks as modified VK Commodore racks instead of the variable-rate power steering racks as fitted to the homologated VL, and the way they had been extended to fit the different VL front cross-members by welding aluminium end-lugs. The other major complaint concerned the front spoiler of the No.10 Perkins car'

[KA]

Originally Posted by anthony81901

Larry was not particularly keen on letting Tom drive, but he was the boss. Despite being briefed on the rev limit, Walkinshaw chose to ignore, but still circulated 2 seconds a lap slower than Denny Hulme had in his stint. When the car expired in the last stint it was in a race winning position, running second behind Tony Longhurst who was about to make a long stop for pads and with Tomas Mezera having to do the final stint.

IIRC, that run at Bathurst in '88 was Walkinshaw's last race as a driver, and he would have been a bit ring-rusty, not having raced regularly since the Rover ETCC programme finished at the end of the '86 season.

After that, as I recall he did the Fuji touring car race and part of the Nissan-Mobil 500 in NZ (just Wellington I think) with the XJS over the winter of 1986/7, and had a run at the Nurburgring WTCC round in '87 in the rarely-seen VL, then nothing until the three appearances with the VL Batmobile in the second half of '88- Birmingham BTCC, Silverstone TT and Bathurst.

That's little more than half-a-dozen races (and one of those he never actually raced, just qualified) in the last two years of his career as a driver- You can see one reason Perkins was less-than-keen about the idea of Walkinshaw driving

[racer69]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The secret was that they weren't expecting the TWR-built VL to come out were they?

Mr Perkins had 2 VL batmobiles built and ready to run for 1988.. one became a T car.. and Mr Walkinshaw chose to run his own car.

Wasn't the second Perkins VL, that became the #40 T-car, a converted 1987-spec VL that Perkins had debuted in the '87 Calder 500 and used throughout the 1988 ATCC?

Maybe the Perkins side thought Walkinshaw was coming to Australia to drive a PE car, but as the head of the program, i'd find it hard to believe Walkinshaw and the TWR side of the equation would have ever had the intention of coming all the way out here without their own equipment.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by racer69

Wasn't the second Perkins VL, that became the #40 T-car, a converted 1987-spec VL that Perkins had debuted in the '87 Calder 500 and used throughout the 1988 ATCC?

Maybe the Perkins side thought Walkinshaw was coming to Australia to drive a PE car, but as the head of the program, i'd find it hard to believe Walkinshaw and the TWR side of the equation would have ever had the intention of coming all the way out here without their own equipment.

That chassis went to Mr Reithmuller didn't it, then onto Lansvale Smash Racing, and later Glenn Mason's Homebush Intersection team...?

[Forda]

While the collapsed 1988 Walkinshaw UK-built car got rejigged and became the 1990 winner.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

That chassis went to Mr Reithmuller didn't it, then onto Lansvale Smash Racing, and later Glenn Mason's Homebush Intersection team...?

I think that was the lineage, the car is back in Perkins 1988 spec now and has appeared at a few recent Muscle Car Masters

[Forda]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

That chassis went to Mr Reithmuller didn't it, then onto Lansvale Smash Racing, and later Glenn Mason's Homebush Intersection team...?

Originally Posted by racer69

I think that was the lineage, the car is back in Perkins 1988 spec now and has appeared at a few recent Muscle Car Masters

The lineage for PE0004 is mentioned locally here (along with all PE chassis), and detailed here by the sleuth.

[Kingair]

Once I have finished the DVD, I will pass it onto Ryan Walkinshaw!

Looks like big Tom, decided to drive Larry's Commodore like he had stolen it!