Brad's Walky
This is part 3 of the stories from my Sunday trip to Nanango. You may remember Russell Perrett, whose beautiful VH Commodore I featured in March. Well it is time to meet Russ's brother Brad. Brad is lucky enough to own what is one of Australia's most recognisable and unique cars, a genuine 1988 VL Walkinshaw Group A Commodore.
Brad knew he wanted a Walkie purely for their value as a collector's item, and he wasn't going to settle for anything else, but you can't just stroll down to the local car dealership and expect them to have one. Hell, you couldn't have done that back in 88, let alone when Brad was looking. So Brad went searching, but he didn't find one for over a year. Ironically, after looking for an entire year to find one, he actually found 2 at the same time. A bloke at Nerang had owned 5 Walkies in the previous 10 years, and had 2 for sale. Brad bought this one, build number 621 and has never looked back.
Now this is the part of the article where I would usually write about all the modifications made to the car, but when you buy an original like this beauty as a collector, you try to keep it as original as possible, so rather than talk about the mods on Brad's car, I will tell you some of the interesting facts about how the Walky came about and what makes it such a "Special Vehicle".
After Peter Brock's HDT and Holden parted ways in 1987, Holden needed someone to build their performance cars and turned to Tom Walkinshaw, a British based racing team owner (Tom Walkinshaw Racing), to form HSV - Holden Special Vehicles. The body kit was one of the features of the Walkie, being created after extensive testing in the wind tunnels at TWR in Britain, but it got other upgrades as well that made it a cut above the rest. It was the first Holden V8 to come with fuel injection. It also came with 4 bolt mains and twin throttle body inlet manifold.
Allan Grice and Win Percy took the Walkinshaw to victory at Bathurst in 1990, which cemented the Walkinshaw in history as one of Australia's true muscle cars. The car isn't all muscle though, and has quite a few features that were luxury only back in 88. Standard it came with 16 x 7" alloy wheels, air conditioning, central locking, Cobra anti-theft system, Momo leather steering wheel, adjustable seats, remote boot release and remote control exterior mirrors. Now I know most of these things are standard in today's cars, but not back in 88.
If you are ever driving through Nanango, and you see this beauty, stop and say g'day to Brad. He will probably have Russ in with him because he still hasn't got off his arse and got his license yet, or you can see the boys hanging around the pits at any Powercruise event. As I said before, the Walkie is a rare and unique piece of Aussie motoring history, and still a true eye turner after all these years.
