Saturday Sleuthing: Ampol Commodore reborn!

It's hard to believe, but it is now 21 years ago the modern Australian V8 touring car formula of five-litre winged racers – now known as V8 Supercars – was born in 1993.

At the time, there were a range of strong Holden teams running new winged Commodore VP model machines including the Holden Racing Team, Gibson Motorsport and Perkins Engineering.

But there were also plenty of privateers running the new cars and one of them as Melbourne racer Bob Jones, who put together a new VP for the new rules with the backing of Aussie fuel company Ampol.

The distinct black Ampol Max 3 Commodore only appeared on race tracks for two seasons (after replacing Jones’ previous VL ‘Walkinshaw’ Ampol car) but is well remembered by V8 fans across the country.

V8 Sleuth Aaron Noonan is thrilled to bring you the story of this car today as it has recently undergone a major restoration in its current home of Tasmania in the hands of Gary Cannan and looks fantastic ‘back in black’.

It debuted – like many of the new winged cars of 1993 – at the opening round of that year’s Australian Touring Car Championship at the now defunct Amaroo Park in Sydney.

With its striking black livery and red wheels, the #12 Ampol Commodore was an instant head turner and ran as a competitive runner among the privateer entries throughout that year’s ATCC.

It received a livery makeover for the endurance races, where Tasmanian Greg Crick joined Jones as co-driver.

The red wheels were replaced by white units and a red flash and white bonnet, front spoiler and front guards replaced the previous all-black appearance. 

And it worked too – the duo combined to finish an impressive second at the Sandown 500 after many of the top teams simply couldn’t make their cars last. That form carried on to Bathurst where they finished seventh overall and best-finishing privateer.

Jones again ran the car in 1994 and was even more competitive, winning the Privateer’s Cup ‘award within the championship’ and often mixing it up with the best privateers and occasionally the tail of the Level 1 (full-time professional) field.

Former Formula Ford star Troy Dunstan joined him for the endurance races and they finished 16th after some dramas with the diff mounting of their Commodore as well as its rear brakes.

However the non-championship, end-of-season races at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide would be the final appearance for the Ampol Max 3 Commodore given Ampol merged with Caltex and the funding disappeared from out under Jones.

So the car was sold to Queensland privateer Kevin Heffernan, who secured backing from Price Attack and the Commodore received another distinctive livery – a pinstriped red appearance!

Heffernan made his first start in the car at the Bathurst sprint round of the ATCC in 1995 and ran selected rounds of the championship in it before teaming with Stephen Voight to finish 12th at Bathurst.

Heffernan again made selected appearances in the 1996 ATCC (at five rounds of the 10 in fact), including on his home track at Lakeside.

He decided to build a new car for the 1997 season (when the V8 Supercar brand was introduced), so this chassis was sold minus engine to Tasmanian Gary Cannan to replace an old VL ‘Walkinshaw’ Group A car he had been racing on the Apple Isle.

It was converted to VR specification with the plan of running in V8 Supercars on the mainland in 1998, though no budget was secured and instead it stayed in its home state and competed in Sports Sedans.

A swag of parts from the Bottle Magic car rolled by Tomas Mezera at Bathurst in 1997 were used in the conversion to VR spec too, though racing in Sports Sedans in Tasmania soon stopped as the category slowed with fewer cars.

Instead, Cannan equipped it with street tyres and raced it in the Street Car class!

It was then in 2012 when V8 Sleuth Aaron Noonan tracked down owner Cannan and the car as part of a ‘where are they now’ story for Australian Muscle Car Magazine.

So chuffed by the ‘search’ for his car, Cannan began the long process of restoring it back to its 1993 spec and livery.

He purchased a donor car VP model Commodore to have the correct body panels, repainted the interior its original black and installed a Perkins Engineering-built ‘slide’ injection Holden 308 engine (the same type the car originally ran before using a HRT customer Chevrolet unit) with the car appearing publicly for the first time last weekend at Baskerville in Tasmania, complete with original wheels and original Ampol door trims.

It appears in the #12 Ampol Max 3 livery it ran in its debut race meeting at Amaroo in 1993 – the very first ‘V8 era’ round of the championship.

He also has a unique connection with the car that stretches back even before it came into his ownership.

“I was one of the major contractors for Ampol for their service stations and they asked me to sponsor the car in 1993,” he recalled to our V8 Sleuth. 

“I paid into it and through doing that I went to the races. Little did I know I was sponsoring a car that I’d eventually buy and now have converted back to the same thing – it’s gone full circle! 

“I’m thrilled with how it’s come out. I couldn’t believe how much interest there was in the car at the track – it was amazing. I heard one bloke say ‘gee, not a bad imitation’ and another bloke quickly corrected him and said ‘no way, it’s the real deal car’!

“We really persisted with the engine. It cost a lot of money, but it’s the engine of the period and what the car started its life with. Everything in the car is pretty much as we intended it to be with no compromises on it.

“I’m planning to take it to the Winton Festival of Speed in August (the first time the car will have been to the mainland since 1996!) to run with the Australian 5-Litre Touring Car Association guys and I’m also keen to bring it to Sandown in November for the Historic event there.

“Now I want to do another one – I’m inspired! I’m thinking about another Commodore, perhaps a VP or a VR or VS. The Ampol car can go into mothballs now as there’s nowhere to really race it in Tasmania anyway.”

What a great story – and it’s fantastic to know that the V8 Sleuth helped get the ball rolling with such a great end result!

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