Highway Patrol VK Race Tribute

Neil Barker’s VK Group A race car pays tribute to the privateer machine that it received a number of parts from by wearing a re-creation of its livery.

It’s easy to look at a car like this and think of it as a replica first and as a race car second, but that would be the wrong way to go about it. There are many like this one that are actually a race car as their first priority, and in addition to that the vehicle’s owner has decided to embrace the nostalgia of the model by giving it the same livery as a car that actually raced in the relevant period.

That is very much the case with this immaculate representation of the Highway Patrol sponsored VK that privateer Lester Smerdon shared with different co-drivers at the Bathurst 1000 from 1984 to 1987, including Geoff Russell in 1986. The pair made it through 100 laps of the race that year before a differential failure forced their retirement.

20 seconds into the above clip it cuts to the factory-backed HDT #05 VK and its co-driver Moffat chasing Smerdon’s VK across the top of the mountain during the 1986 Bathurst 1000 and then overtaking the Highway Patrol car on Conrod Straight, which is something you could only do in a race.

Smerdon was a Seargent in the Qld Police Force which helps explain the sponsorship, and his VK had been built from a Victorian highway pursuit car. It competed at Bathurst from 1984 as one of the first Group A cars to race in Australia. It also did many other Touring Car events before it was crashed at Lakeside late in 1988. Rather than repair it the VK shell was sold and the running gear transferred into a new VL shell.

This tribute’s owner Neil Barker has a very good reason for presenting his as a likeness of the Smerdon car. “My car has a number of components off the original car, but not enough to allow it to run in with the original log-booked Group C and Group A cars, which have to be pristinely original. It is however, CAMS log-booked as a Sports Sedan”.

The standout feature of Neil’s VK is it’s so immaculately-presented that it won the award for Best Competition Car at an All Holden Day Muscle Car Showdown. “People don’t usually put effort into detailing circuit cars as they get stone chips and nicks. It’s more of a drag racing thing… not for me though” he says, simultaneously referring to how nice the car looks and his preference for corners. The car has also been to Muscle Car Masters and “The fella who used to race the original car has come down and checked it out too, and he really likes it”

Re-creating a VK Touring Car went far beyond the livery. For instance, the rollcage was modelled on the original plans used to build the genuine race cars back in 1984. Put together by Craig of Extreme Engineering, for safety’s sake it is made from chromoly instead of alloy and it also has a few extensions and bracings that weren’t on the originals. The shell has also been seam-welded and Neil resisted the urge to exaggerate the bodykit beyond the homologated Group A specs

The engine applies the same period-style philosophy as well. It’s not a later-model engine with EFI, or a big-capacity stroker, it’s stock-stroke 5L with some oversize pistons, ported B-cast heads, a solid cam, and most significantly for the appearance, a single-plane intake manifold with a 650cfm Bo Laws Holley carby under an HDT cold air induction Race Tray. It also has a great many other features that make it suitable for the labours of racing.

The remainder of the driveline and the undercarriage also fit the above descriptions of ‘immaculate’ and ‘representative of the Group A period’. The suspension layout remains the original Commodore Mac strut front and live-axle 5-link rear, but the components under here are significantly improved over a stock road car with a 9in diff, an adjustable Panhard rod, adjustable sway bars, adjustable front strut tops and big aftermarket brakes among the upgrades.

Aside from showing off the car's spotless looks Neil has also raced it in the Queensland Touring Car Series, which is contested by more machinery inspired by the Group A and Group C eras of Touring Cars, some with new liveries of their own, and others with tribute livery to other iconic race cars from the ’70s and ’80s.

In addition to all the effort that Neil put into this car himself he would also like to thank people at the following businesses for their input into its build; Craig at Extreme Engineering, Protec Paints, Custom Brakes and Automotive, and KJ Motor Machining.

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