Touring Cars
The VK Group A SS Commodore was originally intended to be ready for racing in early 1985 to replace the near standard VK competitors had been forced to use. However, after virtually wasting 1984 on other pursuits including the HDT's ill-fated attempt at Le Mans which took up the focus in the first half of the year, then Holden's desire to send their Group C touring cars out with a win at Bathurst, left them little time to get the Commodore road cars ready to be homologated for Group A racing. This, plus delays in parts from suppliers meant that the HDT had not even begun to build the road going Group A cars to pass homologation on 1 January 1985, and did not have enough of them built to be homologated by the next FISA homologation date of 1 August which meant the new car would not be approved in time for that years Bathurst, although the Confederation of Australian Motorsport did relent and allow the Commodores to use the smaller 4.9L V8 in order to save some 175 kg.
Peter Brock later recalled that after the 1985 James Hardie 1000, long time HDT driver and Brock's right-hand-man at the Special Vehicles operation John Harvey had remarked that their personal road cars (the SS Group A) were in fact faster and more reliable than the 1985 race cars.
As a comparison, the VK Commodores run by the HDT at the 1984 James Hardie 1000 under the old Group C regulations (which saw the cars have much larger wheels and large aerodynamic spoilers front and back) produced over 410 bhp and were recorded at 275 km/h on the 2 km long Conrod Straight. The near standard 1985 Group A race cars only produced around 300 bhp and were recorded at 252 km/h on Conrod. This difference was also reflected in lap times with Peter Brock's fastest 1985 qualifying time being 8.811 seconds slower than he was in 1984.
In early 1986 the HDT gave the car a dream debut when Brock and new co-driver Allan Moffat won the Nissan Mobil 500 at the Wellington Street Circuit, while team mates Harvey and new team engineer/driver Neal Lowe won the Pukekohe 500 in the second race of the New Zealand series a week later. Of note, the two winning HDT Cars were not brand new SS Group A models, instead they were the teams 1985 Bathurst Commodores, upgraded to 1986 specifications.
The Holden Dealer Team then took two brand new cars to Europe for the 1986 FIA Touring Car Championship, one for Brock and Moffat, and the other saved for the Spa 24 Hours and be spare parts if needed. Brock and Moffat joined fellow Commodore privateers Allan Grice and Graeme Bailey in Europe, with Grice in particular proving to be a revelation in the Les Small (Roadways Racing) prepared VK, qualifying well and leading a number of races at Monza, Donington Park (where both Brock and Grice led) and Hockenheim. In his dice for the lead at Hockenheim with the factory backed Volvo 240T's of reigning ETCC champion Thomas Lindström and former Formula One driver Johnny Cecotto, Grice set the touring car lap record for the 6.823 km circuit that wasn't broken until 2000, the year before the old track was re-configured into a shorter, more technical circuit.
At Spa for the 24-hour race, with the HDT running their two cars and teaming with the Roadways Commodore of Grice, and after problems including two blown head gaskets in the number 05 car (the same problem had happened when the HDT did a pre-Spa test over 24 hours at Calder Park), an early lost wheel and later a broken seat for Grice caused by his oversized co-driver, Belgian Jeweler Michel Delcourt (the Roadways team reported that the HDT refused to lend them a spare seat during the race, forcing them to borrow one from the retired TWR Rovers), and no oil pressure for the second HDT car at the end of the race, the two teams claimed the prestigious Kings Cup prize. The second HDT car, driven by New Zealanders Lowe (the team engineer and endurance co-driver for Harvey), Kent Baigent and Graeme Bowkett finished 18th outright. The Brock/Moffat/Harvey car finished 22nd while Grice, Delcourt and Belgian Alex Guyaux finished 23rd.
In Australia the Group A Commodore became the car of choice for many privateers in the ATCC with the HDT and ex-Grand Prix motorcycle racing star, wise-cracking Kiwi Graeme Crosby being front runners. Brock's former HDT co-driver Larry Perkins set up Perkins Engineering, which would eventually build customer Commodores for privateers, appeared with his own VK SS Group A in time for the Sandown 500. Peter Brock gave the car its first Australian win by winning Round 6 of the series at Surfers Paradise in what was the last win by a Commodore in the ATCC until Brock won the opening heat of Round 1 of the 1992 championship at Sydney's Amaroo Park. Despite his European campaign Brock managed to finish 4th in the 1986 ATCC being the only Holden round winner.
Better was to come for the Commodore in the endurance races with Grice and Bailey winning the 1986 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst from the HDT pair of John Harvey and Neal Lowe, with Grice becoming the first driver to lap the Mt. Panorama circuit at over 100 mph in a Group A Touring Car when he was timed at 2:16.16 for the 6.172 km circuit in qualifying (Grice had also been the first to lap Bathurst at over 100 mph in a Group C touring car in 1982 with a time of 2:17.8, on that occasion driving a VH Commodore SS). Grice then went on to win the Group A support race at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, which doubled as the second round of the 1986 South Pacific Touring Car Championship,.
The HDT and Roadways teams also sent their Commodores to Fuji in Japan for the 1986 Fuji 500. Brock and Moffat were out after 94 laps, while the Grice/Crosby car was running third with only a few laps left when another lost wheel saw them slip to fifth place at the finish. Early on in the race Brock had battled for the lead with Tom Walkinshaw and Jeff Allam in their TWR Jaguar XJ-S V12's which had been brought to Japan despite not having raced since winning the 1985 James Hardie 1000.
While the top level teams such as HDT and Roadways (Grice) moved to the VL model Commodore in early 1987, a number of private teams, including Larry Perkins, who claimed his was the fastest Commodore in the world until forced to switch to the VL after crashing at Bathurst, continued to use the VK due to the increasing costs of running the newer cars with VK's last seen in the ATCC in 1990.
Driving his Lansvale Racing Team Commodore, Sydney based privateer Trevor Ashby gave the VK Group A SS its last major race win when he won Heat 2 of Round 1 of the 1987 AMSCAR series at Amaroo Park on 27 March 1987.
