Convincing Winners

33 year old Peter Brock fan Aaron O’Brien owns two of the best ways to remember the late legend's legacy, an award-winning Blue Meanie and a tribute to his 1986 Bathurst race car.

We'll start with the blue car. In 2006 "I found a fairly rough but complete Formula Blue VK sitting in a Canberra backyard" the avid enthusiast tells us. "The Blue Meanie was then disassembled and all parts catalogued for future restoration".

“This was around the time the great King of the Mountain passed away” which, for anyone who doesn’t remember, was 8th September 2006 at the age of 61 when he crashed out of the Targa West tarmac rally event.

“During the next few years I set upon restoring the Meanie back to full factory (SS Group A/Group 3) specifications with the help of my buddy Davo doing the panel work". Aaron then painted the car himself and then all new badges and decals were sourced through HDT.

To restore the interior “The Scheel trim was sent to Sydney to be re-covered in Cerulean velour with Herringbone inserts as per HDT specification, while the original 4.9L engine was freshened-up”.

This means that the engine was also rebuilt to original HDT specification. The rest of the running gear including the suspension was given a freshen-up too.

“Since its debut in 2010 it has received some very sought-after accolades at Summernats, MotorEx and other various car shows” but its much more than just a display car. “There is nothing better than getting out for a Sunday cruise and driving it the way Brocky intended; hard and fast”.

Aaron's other VK is an extraordinarily accurate representation of HDT Chassis 14 as it sat on the start line for the Bathurst 1000 in 1986. As far as we know the real Chassis 14 is still a VL race car in WA (having been updated to the new bodywork by HDT for the 1987 season, and then passed through a couple of owners in the west), so this is as close as you're going to get to a 1:1 scale 3D visual representation of Brock's Great Race entry for '86.

The basis of this race tribute is a 1984 VK SS, and like the blue car above, it too "has had a full restoration from front to back”.

To get the livery spot on “Aaron Fitzpatrick from Artcraft Signs was given a 1:18 scale model of the Mobil HDT 1986 Bathurst car along with a few historic race car books", and a week later this was the result.

It doesn't stop with the exterior either, as you can see on the underside of the bonnet

The engine is a warmed-over 304ci Holden V8 with a mild cam and ported B Cast heads. It also features an HDT Race Tray for the air induction.

“This car has been built with cruising in mind, therefore it has a complete Berlina Scheel trim rather than just one race seat and a harness.” For the same reason it also doesn't have a cage, and the original manual was replaced with an auto.

Aaron proudly states that “the car debuted at Summernats 27 where it was judged Top-60 Street and Top Street Competition.” Better still, “the car is fully street-registered and is driven once a week, turning heads wherever we cruise”.

Each car has its own separate 7-8 page feature in issue 37 of The Aussie Muscle Enthusiast magazine so to read the full details on both of them get out and grab your copy now.