After showing increasing interest in motorsport during the 1960s, Holden formed a team to enter both Touring Car and Rally events in 1969. Holden's parent company General Motors forbade its manufacturers from officially entering motor sport circuit racing events worldwide. Holden circumvented this directive by naming its team the Holden Dealer Team, officially owned by its dealers. In reality Holden bankrolled the entire operation, with Holden executive John Bagshaw creating the financial framework that allowed the HDT to be funded without Detroit's knowledge. Holden appointed former Ford Works Team manager Harry Firth to run the operation.
The HDT's race debut was at the 1969 Sandown 3 Hour, entering a single Holden Monaro GTS350 for Kevin Bartlett and Spencer Martin; the car retired after brake problems, a crash, and a fire. Harry Firth hired six drivers for the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500, including two relatively untested drivers in Colin Bond and Peter Brock. The team's three HT Monaro GTS350s finished first and third, with Bond winning alongside co-driver Tony Roberts, while Brock finished third with Des West.
Concerned at the development of Ford's XW Falcon GTHO Phase I, in 1970 Firth opted to run a smaller car based on the Holden Torana with a 6-cylinder engine. The LC Torana GTR XU-1 was a match for the larger Falcon GT-HO at most circuits, but at Bathurst, with its long straight and steep mountain climb, the car was less competitive, and Ford's Allan Moffat dominated the 1970 and 1971 Bathurst events. In the wet 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500, however, Peter Brock won the first of his nine Bathurst victories in a solo drive with the LJ Torana GTR XU-1 in the last of Bathurst's 500-mile Series Production race formats.
Holden had been supporting rally adventures since the early 1960s, but it was not until 1969 that all rallying and motorsport was grouped under Harry Firth and the HDT. The team began in August 1969 with Harry Firth behind the wheel of an HT Monaro GTS 253 rally car before announcing his retirement from active driving and handing over to Barry Ferguson. Colin Bond and Tony Roberts then joined as additional rally team members.
In 1970 the rally team ran a Monaro GTS 350 for Bond, while Ferguson and Roberts drove Torana GTRs. Colin Bond, partnering George Shepheard, won the Australian Rally Championship three times in 1971, 1972, and 1974 driving the LC and LJ Torana GTR XU-1. Teammates Peter Lang and Warwick Smith won in 1973, giving the HDT four consecutive titles. During this period, Peter Brock proved highly successful in Rallycross at Calder Park Raceway, Catalina Park, and Mallala, driving HDT's Holden Torana GTR called "The Beast" — a supercharged LC Torana GTR that proved virtually unbeatable in his hands. Young team mechanic and test driver Larry Perkins also raced Rallycross with the HDT with some success.
In 1972 Harry Firth began developing a V8-engined version of the LJ Torana GTR XU-1. The first car was fitted with a small block 253 cui (4.2L) V8, upgraded to the 308 cui (5.0L) version. Colin Bond raced the car disguised as a Sports Sedan at the 1972 Easter ATCC race meeting at Bathurst, winning a five-lap support race with a lap time some four seconds faster than the team's 6-cylinder car ran the same day. Production plans were terminated following the "Supercar scare" of June/July 1972. Of the four V8 XU-1 prototypes built, none survived as Holden crashed them in an effort to recoup development costs. Firth claimed he personally lost some A$55,000 on the cars.
In 1974 Holden kept the V8 engine eligible for racing with the LH Torana SL/R 5000. Peter Brock dominated the Australian Touring Car Championship that year. Despite engine failures with the new L34 version at Sandown and Bathurst that year, Holden, largely through the Dealer Team, won the 1974 Australian Manufacturers' Championship with Bond winning rounds at Adelaide, Surfers Paradise, and Phillip Island. Also in 1974, Dick Johnson made his one and only start for the HDT, driving the team's spare LJ GTR XU-1 in Round 6 of the ATCC at Surfers Paradise, finishing third in the race won by Brock.
At the end of the 1974 season Brock left the HDT team, while Colin Bond continued as the team's sole circuit racing driver. The L34 option was homologated for racing in 1975 and Bond won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship. Brock, however, returned to Bathurst in 1975 and won in his No. 05 Holden L34. The HDT-developed L34 took first, second, and third that year, and the first seven places in 1976.
HDT's circuit racing returned to a two-car status in 1976, initially with South Australian Formula 5000 driver Johnnie Walker, then with former speedway and open wheel driver John Harvey. In 1977 Colin Bond departed to join Allan Moffat's "Moffat Ford Dealers" team. The 1977 season also saw the debut of the LX Torana A9X performance option, available in four-door SL/R 5000 sedan and two-door SS 5.0 hatchback body types. The A9X featured a rear-facing bonnet scoop to feed cool air to the engine. Due to teething troubles, the Holden Dealer Team struggled against the two-car Moffat Ford Dealers team; Moffat won both the 1977 ATCC title and the Hardie-Ferodo 1000. Peter Brock, driving a privately entered car for Melbourne Holden dealer Bill Patterson, gave the A9X Hatchback a dream racing debut winning the 1977 Hang Ten 400 at Sandown Park.
After a solid eight years as team manager and a 29-year career in motor racing that began with preparing the 1948 Australian Grand Prix-winning BMW 328 for Frank Pratt, 59-year-old Harry Firth retired at the end of the 1977 season. He later became the chief CAMS scrutineer for touring cars from 1978 to 1981 alongside Frank Lowndes, the father of Craig Lowndes.
The Holden Dealer Team debuted a Sports Sedan in 1973, using a Repco Holden Formula 5000 engine in a Holden LJ Torana body, driven by Colin Bond and Peter Brock. The 1976 season saw Bond build a lightweight LH Torana Sports Sedan powered by a Formula 5000-sourced Repco-Holden V8 engine to race in the inaugural Australian Sports Sedan Championship. Due to a quirk in the rules, the Torana was restricted to a 5.0-litre engine while main opposition were allowed up to 6.0 litres. The car only appeared in two rounds of the seven-round series; after Bond departed at the end of 1976, the car passed through Ron Harrop and eventually Peter Brock before being sold, ultimately ending up with Des Wall and then his son David Wall, who by 2015 had fully restored the car to its 1977 specification.
John Sheppard took over as HDT team manager following Firth's retirement. One of his first moves was to bring Peter Brock back to the team. Holden had originally wanted Brock back in 1976, but Firth had vetoed the move. Brock dominated the 1978 season, becoming the first driver to win the "triple crown" of the Touring Car Championship, the Hang Ten 400 at Sandown, and the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 (with Jim Richards) at Bathurst. Brock set a new lap record on the very last lap of the race; his pole time of 2:20.500 was 1.966 seconds faster than the second qualifier.
Before Bathurst, the HDT had also entered a three-car Commodore team in the 20,000 km Repco Round Australia Trial, using VB Commodores powered by the 3.3L 6-cylinder Holden Red motor. The cars finished first, second, and third. Brock, who won the event with co-drivers Matt Phillip and Noel Richards, cited this as his career highlight.
Brock was narrowly defeated by privateer Torana driver Bob Morris for the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship but dominated the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst.
By 1980 Holden was ready to sell the Dealer Team, believing there was no longer any point competing since Ford had pulled out of touring car racing at the end of 1978. Vin Kean purchased the team and financed it, calling on Holden dealers for support. The major support came from Vin Kean in Adelaide, who built a special range of modified high-performance Commodores at his Richmond Road Adelaide premises, available through 54 dealers around Australia who had agreed to help finance the operation. For the first time the team was truly a "Dealer Team" rather than a back-door factory team. Major sponsor Marlboro and minor sponsors Castrol, AC Plugs & Filters, Bridgestone, and TAA Airlines were retained. Despite the off-track changes, Brock claiming his second and last "triple crown" in 1980.
The HDT won Bathurst again in 1982, with former Formula One driver Larry Perkins co-driving. Perkins had been a mechanic and driver with the HDT in the early 1970s under Harry Firth. The HDT again won Bathurst in 1983 under somewhat controversial circumstances: after Brock's pole-winning car dropped out on lap 8 with engine failure, Brock and Perkins transferred into John Harvey's car — a cross-entry permitted under the rules but unprecedented in having resulted in winning the race. Brock's younger brother Phil, who was to be Harvey's co-driver, was left without a drive. In 1984 Brock and Perkins made it three in a row at Bathurst, with Harvey and new recruit David Parsons finishing right behind in second place.
During 1984, members of the Holden Dealer Team — including Brock and Perkins — launched an assault on the 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a 650 bhp Porsche 956B supplied by 1976 Bathurst winner John Fitzpatrick, running under the name "Team Australia". They also ran in the lead-up 1000 km race at Silverstone, finishing 22nd. At Le Mans, Perkins qualified in 15th position. The team was in contention before spending 45 minutes in the pits after the car lost a wheel during Brock's second stint, and eventually retired in the early hours when Perkins crashed after a clash with the Brun Motorsport Porsche 956.
In 1985 Australian touring car racing switched to the FIA's International Group A formula. This made the Holden Commodores less competitive against imported Nissans, Volvos, BMWs, and Jaguars. Sponsorship also changed, with Mobil taking over from Marlboro. Despite only one win during the 1985 season, Brock nearly achieved a podium at Bathurst, retiring with a broken timing chain three laps from the end while running second behind the V12 Jaguar XJS entered by Tom Walkinshaw Racing.
By 1986 a homologated SS Group A version of the VK Commodore made the car much more competitive, and Brock signed longtime rival Allan Moffat to the team. The HDT also ran a car for Brock and Moffat in the 1986 FIA Touring Car Championship, co-winning the King's Cup team's prize at the Spa 24 Hours with Allan Grice's Australian Racing Team. The team's second car, driven by John Harvey and Neal Lowe, finished second at Bathurst behind the Les Small-prepared Commodore of Allan Grice and Graeme Bailey.
By 1987 the relationship between Brock and Holden had soured, primarily over the controversial "Energy Polarizer" device Brock was installing in the HDT road cars — a small box with crystals and magnets in epoxy resin which Brock claimed improved performance and handling through "aligning the molecules." Holden, regarding it as pseudoscience, ended its association with Brock upon his refusal to submit a new VL-series "Director" model for testing. Holden subsequently decided not to honour warranties on any cars modified by HDT. In 1987, in partnership with Tom Walkinshaw Racing, Holden created Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) to produce factory-approved modified Commodores.
At the 1987 Bathurst 1000, a round of the World Touring Car Championship, Eggenberger Motorsport's turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500s finished 1–2, with Brock finishing third after cross-entering into the team's second car. Six months later the Sierras were disqualified for illegal bodywork, making Brock, Parsons, and McLeod the victors — giving Brock his record ninth Bathurst win.
The team bought the JPS Team BMW assets at the end of 1987 and became the official BMW Australia team for 1988, racing BMW M3s. By 1988 the naturally aspirated 2.3L M3 was no longer competitive against the Ford Sierras. The team's only win during 1988 was Brock and Richards winning the Pepsi 250 at Oran Park. At the Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, Richards qualified the No. 56 M3 in 16th place, some 6 seconds behind Dick Johnson's pole time; both M3s retired with engine failure.
By 1989 Brock was forced to race Ford Sierra RS500s to be competitive, with cars supplied by English Sierra expert Andy Rouse. Brock won his first ATCC race since 1986 at Oran Park and claimed his last Bathurst pole position at the 1989 Tooheys 1000, though a rear hub failure caused retirement on lap 81. At the end of 1990, with Rouse moving to race Toyotas, Brock concluded a deal to close his team and take his sponsorship to Perkins Engineering to race a Holden VN Commodore.
From 1980, HDT Special Vehicles produced modified road-going Holdens. All HDT vehicles were individually numbered, with only 4246 produced under Brock's direction and with Holden's approval. These included variants based on the VC, VH, VK, and VL series Commodore, plus WB series Statesman, some of which were "homologation specials" required to meet Group C and Group A racing regulations. The most expensive of these when new was the 1987 VL-series Director at A$87,000, making it the most expensive new Australian-made car at the time of its launch. Because of their heritage and rarity, the original Brock-era HDT Commodores have become highly collectible; after Brock's death during a motorsport event in 2006, HDT vehicles became ever more sought after.
Since May 2007, Peter Champion, a friend of Peter Brock, purchased the HDT Special Vehicles business and relaunched a range of high-performance vehicles based on the VE series Commodore under a "Heritage Series" name.
The HDT won the Bathurst 1000 (or Hardie-Ferodo 1000) in 1972, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1987. Colin Bond won the Australian Rally Championship in 1971, 1972, and 1974 driving Torana GTR XU-1 variants, with HDT teammates Peter Lang and Warwick Smith winning in 1973 for four consecutive titles. The team also won the Coupe du Roi (King's Cup) at the 1986 Spa 24 Hours. Among other endurance wins, the HDT won the Rothmans 12 Hour at Surfers Paradise in 1970 and various Chesterfield, Repco, and Castrol series races through the 1970s and 1980s.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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