Alan Grice bringing the HRT Walkinshaw home 1990

[Deadlymover1976]

What a sound awesome

[2GoRightGoHolden]

the commdores were, and still are, big & heavy cars. heavier than the R32 GTR, they had smaller tyres and still out-handled the godzilla over the top of the mountain!

[hnfdhh]

Probably holdens greatest victory

[v12s]

Gricey taught me how to race in the early 80s, I then got my CAMS licence and raced at Amaroo, Oran Park, Adelaide International Raceway and Calder in the Bob Jane Group E Super Series before leaving Australia permanently and moving to the USA. It was a fun time, Gricey was a great racing teacher, good bloke, and I enjoyed the Bundy and cokes with him after school.

[JohnMarineTube]

That's a lovely engine roar from that Holden. I love the current V8 Supercar roar, but this is classic! Same word also describes this great drive put on by Alan Grice up Mount Panorama.

[timjackelton]

Mate I was there, Gricey probably one of the greatest. Watched him from the age of 10 up, not only was he a great driver but I nice person to talk too. Only a few people believed in him as a driver in the early years ie my father Phil May and of course myself. Sadly my father died, the year after he one his his first Bathurst. This is his second win and I was just as happy as his first win. Gricey where are you now!

[theenforcer4107]

anyone know the cam specs in this car?

[spadgm]

When men were men!

Great driver and great car.

I love the old school Bathurst racing!

[ozcritic]

i wish gricey could still race, because he had such good setups in every car he ever drove at bathurst, very rare for him to run outside the top 10 at bathurst though. he came 2nd at bathurst in 79, didn't he??

[jam3z07]

one thing im not sure about is if the commodore was the first car make to use the 6 speed box at bathurst or in the ATCC in those days.

[19escort73]

Does anyone know what gearbox this car has. I know it's a holinger 5speed but the gears seem to be in different places to where they are on the current hollinger 6 speed. 5th is where 6th would normeally be and 2nd is where 3rd would normally be. There must be a name for it. can someone please tell me.

[greenfoam]

This was Group A rules, you had to run the factory gearbox and engine etc etc. It was a Borg warner 5 speed

[taylino69]

ok thanks

[greenfoam]

After I wrote that I became a bit unsure when the hollinger was introduced and allowed. It may have been allowed during the end of group A so I could be wrong: ) more research needed I think

[jam3z07]

it was the 5 speed hollinger gearbox as opposed to the 5 speed borg warner, then they introduced the 6 speed ZF gearbox, then they went to the 6 speed hollinger gearbox, and it's still used to this day!!!!

[greenfoam]

So the factory 6 speed from the VN ran at Bathurst then? when was the last Borg warner box? the early VL?

[2GoRightGoHolden]

@greenfoam as jam3z07 said, the group A regulations dictated that the Gearbox you use in your racecar must have the same number of gears used in the gearbox of the Group A roadcar.

[2GoRightGoHolden]

@greenfoam the VN Group A roadcar came with a 6 speed manual, but for some reason, they didn't use a 6 speed in the racecar 'till bathurst.

[jam3z07]

but the V8's have an option to go sequential this year.

[jam3z07]

no mate, when the 6 speed ZF gearbox was introduced as standard on the VN SS Group A, they had to use a 6 speed box in the racecars, so they went for the 6 speed hollinger, and it's still being used. i mean, shit, if they introduced a 7 speed manual box, they would have used a 7 speed Hollinger to this day!!!

[jam3z07]

they weren't allowed to use the hollinger gearbox on the pre-walkinshaw VL Brock commodores. i don't know why, though.

[19escort73]

I heard Neil Crompton say the VL he drove in 1989 had a holinger gearbox. I remember his exact words when they interviewed him while on racecam. "you have to double the clutch on the downchanges bescause of whats called a hollinger gearbox" anyway I'm not saying you're wrong because I don't know but I know for a fact he said that.

[ozcritic]

the 89 VL that neil drove, sounded different to this one that alan's driving.

[19escort73]

Yeah, I reckon The 1990 commodore has a deeper more throaty sort of note to it whereas the 89 has I higher tinny sound to it.

[ozcritic]

and it had a bitof a growl as well, yet it wasn't anywhere near as glorious as the 1990 car.

[jam3z07]

yeah. and the 1991 VN SS Group A HRT commodore was fuckin awsome, it sounded awsome too, considering it also could rev up to 9000RPM like brockys MOBIL VN SS Group A and grices VL. the 1991 HRT VN SS Group A will remain as the last ever genuine "100% Ausralian" factory built racecar.

[garnita0]

that is not a borg warner because 2nd is in the wrong spot

maybe the rules were fairly open on gearbox selection

[ozcritic]

the gear positons in a borg warner would have been the same mate, in this 5 speed box, 1st is where 2nd would notmally be, 2nd is where 3rd would normally be, 3rd is where 4th would normally, 4th is where 5th would normally be, and 5th is where 6th would normally be, and also, reverse is where 1st would normally be, so, the gear postitions are exactly the same.

[19escort73]

Sorry. My was comment taylino69.

[destructus25]

the car has a 5 speed hollinger box,1st is to the left and down and 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th are in the "H" pattern so its different to conventional road car 5 spd,it was done that way because 1st gear hardly gets used and you only had to do 1 cross gate shift from 3rd to 4th instead of 2 (normally 2-3 and 4-5)

[Skynet2029AD]

I always thought it was a 5 speed Getrag gearbox, not the Hollinger.

[19escort73]

I heard that aswell. I remeber when Allan Grice had his own Holden team in 1988 (FAI insurers) He had temperature problembs and Crompton said " the differential in the holden is off the clock, so is the Getrag gearbox" stuffed if I know.

[19escort73]

I heard that aswell. I remeber when Allan Grice had his own Holden team in 1988 (FAI insurers) He had temperature problembs and Crompton said " the differential in the holden is off the clock, so is the Getrag gearbox" stuffed if I know.

[Skynet2029AD]

One of the best wins on the mountain! This was a win for the underdog against the turbos.

[richoking]

I love the VL HRT commodore, great how it was run by TWR Tom Walkinshaw, a Brit running an Aussie V8 team Brilliant! From memory I think they took two VL commodores over to England for homologation in TWR's win Tunnels otherwise they would have never made past Lap 1

[speedyagarjr]

fuck you gotta love it when an aussie v8 fucks up them bloody turbos

[jam3z07]

fucken awsome cars, the only Group A car that beats that is the VN Group A

[jjrooboy]

I was there that day, it was great to see that aussie holden 5lt v8 beat those FUCKIN turbos after so many years of following them around the mountain