Perkins' pride in restored Bathurst winner

Seeing the 1993 Bathurst-winning Castrol Commodore, complete with Larry Perkins behind the wheel, proved an “awesome feeling” for Jack Perkins after an extensive restoration.

Chassis PE 017, which was taken to Bathurst victory by Larry and the late Gregg Hansford in 1993, has been restored by Perkins Engineering.

The car was acquired in February 2016, with the restoration led by Larry’s son Jack, who will make his 18th consecutive Great Race start in October.

After a seven-year restoration project, PE 017 hit the track at Melbourne’s Calder Park last week, with Larry and Jack both getting behind the wheel.

What transpired was a faultless 60km, 26-lap shakedown for the car, which was the last to win Bathurst with a Holden V8 engine.

For Jack, it was the culmination of seven years of effort of a car that has been around for 30 of his 37 years.

Alongside the restoration, Jack is readying to share the #9 Coca-Cola Camaro with Will Brown at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.

He will also return to the seat of his Shaw & Partners-backed, Erebus-run Commodore for the Dunlop Series at Sandown, Bathurst and Adelaide.

“The car has played an enormous role in my life since February ’16,” Jack told Supercars.com.

“It was a massive undertaking to restore it from where it was, to where it is now.

“To finally see it on track was an awesome feeling, really. I haven’t been full-time in that process, it’s been an after-hours project.

“My wife thinks I’m going to miss working on the car! But it was really cool to see dad driving it, then to drive it myself.”

PE 017 debuted in 1993 at the hands of Larry, who at the time was a three-time Bathurst winner.

Supercars Hall of Fame Larry won with former motorcycle ace Hansford at the end of the year, before adding wins with Russell Ingall in 1995 and 1997.

Larry leads the field away in 1993 Pic: AN1 Images

PE 017 is set to feature at this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000, with October's event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Great Race at Mount Panorama.

It also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Perkins/Hansford win in 1993.

A series of videos on the Perkins Engineering YouTube channel detail the painstaking restoration process, which includes converting the car from a VS Commodore model back to a VP.

“We had to get back on the throttle and make sure the car was finished in time,” Jack explained.

“There are plans for it to run at Bathurst, so we had to make sure the first time it had driven want going to be at Bathurst.

"A shakedown of sorts was essential, and now we’ll go through a basic process of inspection more than anything else.

“It should be right to do many thousands of kilometres after that.”

This year's Repco Bathurst 1000, the 10th round of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship, will be held on October 5-8.