Peter Brock interview on World of Sport with Garry Wilkinson and Neil Crompton 1987

[@mjpt57]

HDT - a licence to print money. Or it was. Who has read the late Bill Tuckey’s “The Rise and Fall of Peter Brock”? I still have my copy of it. It was an eye opener into the inner workings of HDT and how it all unravelled.

[@trentgreen8767]

Out of pure curiosity does anyone know what happened to those 2 cars that were sent to the UK an USA resentfully? Be interested to what became of them an if their still over there or around?

[@tonymontana897]

Probably hidden away in some rich grub's garage.

[@andrewgoodall4444]

Brock never believed he would lose favour with Holden or the management. Many people have alot to thank Brock for, myself included. Holden sold many cars due to his product loyalty even when their product had no chance. Money talks in big business. Shame that Brocks downfall was he sometimes believed his own bullshit.....

[@Fantomx7g6]

Brock just arrogantly believed he WAS Holden....He was Wrong

[@whatsupshittafabraans1926]

Funny they shared a Bathurst car later in life

[@mhdttorana]

Seems crompo was intentionally winding up bricks here while Wilko was nothing but respectful

[@marcpaola1371]

Yeah crompton has always been a dickhead.

[@andrewdavis8137]

Neil was asking the questions that needed to be asked. Neil has been respectful his entire career.

[@angusseletto1511]

It's crompo and he's quite accurate in hindsight...How can a non connected part enhance a car....I've seen a polarizer from Brocks own apprentice and it's just Gel,foil and some great packaging.Its a huge scam....it cannot work based on all physics and chemical tests.....It was a Crock of shit.....I dwa them cut open....cannot work in a scientific aspect so GMH was correct.The Car was just the car as it was❤.The Polarizer was a hopeful/wishful thought.I lived it and it definitely did Fu.k all❤

[@obiemichaels9675]

They didn't want him to release the car because they were already testing the VN with IRS

[@marcpaola1371]

It was more to the point holden couldn't get the irs to work but hdt did

[@obiemichaels9675]

@@marcpaola1371 more to the point Holden was not willing to warrant something they had done no testing on and they were already working on IRS for the next model, the VN.

[@marcpaola1371]

@obiemichaels9675 don't get me wrong Brock was no angel in this matter also but, but, HDT was his and not Holden's. Holden wanted the program or have control of the program for them selves. This may throw a curve ball but I have old Autosport magazines at home and in one of the Issues they talk to Tom Walkinshaw about his 1984 etcc program and his debut at Bathurst that year and future plans. In it he states in 1984 twice he met GMH Holden who were looking to start their own special vehicles division and race team, not 1988, 1984. Read into that what you will!

[@obiemichaels9675]

@@marcpaola1371 Peter started to lose the plot in 83 and was working with his chiropractor with crystals and things. Holden definitely explored options but Peter wouldn’t listen to anyone else who saw the writing on the wall.

[@marcpaola1371]

@@obiemichaels9675 ok buddy

[@graemestevenson9956]

I believe Brock's enthusiastic independent thinking brought about the downfall of what was a necessarily highly regulated partnership ... logic has to question why HDT would seriously consider a projected USA export program for a car that was never engineered for LHD application (as a Holden with rack & pinion steering) and which was due to be discontinued in production by Holden by mid-1988 (with the VN Commodore knowingly on the horizon). It was great to see HDT and Wheels magazine in 1986 take the VL Director prototype to the USA and Europe for comparison with contemporary challengers, but a large scale export program to the USA was never on the cards without direct involvement of both GM and GMHA back in the day.

[@timgregory9624]

Quite hard case that the interviewer (Crompton) would drive for the interviewee (Brock) later that year

[@davidewhite69]

Crompton's first race for the HDT was at Sandown on the 13/9/1987 where he came fourth with Jon Crooke, he was slated for Bathurst in 87 but didnt get the required for a WTCC round an international licence in time, and Jon Crooke got the spot instead (who eventually didnt get a drive on race day) and Crompton got his second drive for the HDT the following WTCC race at Calder where he came 11th with Peter Mcleod

[@albertlanger2339]

I knew of a bloke who in the 2000's tried to sell GMH Commodores to the various Police Forces. GMH stopped that.

[@gregstarkey3586]

It looks like the walkinshaw vl without the bonnet scoop ,

[@LeopoldoNotarianni-rk9vv]

Was the Polariser a scapegoat for GM at the time? Would it be fair to assume that GM were unhappy with Brock because his VL Holden Calais Director introduced the Independent Rear Suspension and that he was now being viewed as a manufacturer rather than a modifier as his cars were becoming more and more popular and deviating further from factory specs. Certainly, the independent rear suspension pre dated the VP Commodore IRS by half a decade. I believe that GMH were totally against the independent rear of the Calais Director. Plus they had already looked at other ways out of maximizing their profits from high performance Holdens.

[@Spudchucker92]

Brocky seriously wound up here, sounds like he had good reason to be.

[@BorkenGarage]

They took away his drive and his business when they probably should have backed him all the way.

[@jimamizzi1]

Peter is a lot of things but one thing he was not is a lyre!

[@southerndiy1]

Lyre bird???

[@andrewdavis8137]

Wilkinson and Crompton would undoubtedly have been fans of what Brock had achieved to that point, and were surely mystified by what Brock was doing to himself. They were attempting to get Brock to see reason. But it was all too late. Very sad.

[@no-namecrown5510]

How much is that Director worth these days.... ?

[@andrewdavis8137]

Brick seemed to think that his contribution was bigger than the creation of the donor car itself. One wonders what on Earth Brock was thinking. A real meltdown.

[@jadesmith6823]

Did he sell any of these Directors.?

[@markalan1two]

170 something

[@James-zj3ud]

GMH were known to price themselves out of producing some truly great cars from concepts that would've sold in decent numbers, their idea of what was feasible was ridiculous and brock exposed that big time.. unless they could make an overnight profit big enough to bail a small country out of a recession they showed very little interest which was a shame

[@touka2549]

Onya blocky rip

[@holdenfan8532]

What year was this?

[@Brockaholic]

1987

[@holdenfan8532]

@@Brockaholic ok thanks

[@MoiAussie1]

One person's view we will never get on this is john harvey, he knew for real wot was going on Trying to get the opel irs was brocks only positive If ADR wasnt around , brocky go for it but it wasnt Dr feelgood , my god brock, everyone saw that bad egg coming

[@jasonkhoury4328]

Actually John Harvey did have a fair bit to say on this, you can read about his take on all this in the book "How good is this? Peter Brock - The real story" by Wayne Webster. Apparently it is claimed by numerous guys who worked at HDT (including John Harvey) there is much more to this story than what Brock is claiming here

[@leighsaunders3278]

Holden didn't have an export vehicle ( they had engine's being exported) & this was the 1st vehicle to be sent abroad for possible export. The bottom line is Holden wanted Brock's business to themselves. HDT had done all the development on many different parts & prototypes & they finally had a product that had possibly a large export market and Holden wanted all the profit. They couldn't stand to see a performance enhancing company using there product do better than themselves on the export market. Performance enhanced vehicles from "factory" were extremely rare in Australia before Brock & Harvey put HDT together & since then there's been HSV, TICKFORD, TRD & RALLIART just to name a few. They started something that in the end netted profits for GMH into the billions. Energy polarizer was a smoke screen like Brock said.

[@benpasquale6353]

absolutely agree...brock was gmh best asset and they blew it

[@chrish4469]

Holden had been exporting car from the late 50s/Early 60s

[@chrisstaff5870]

Exactly, Holden were exporting well before this

[@tonymontana897]

That's the greedy grubby nature of big business. Where's Holden now ???

[@nebuchadnezzar9641]

Still remember my father telling me that Brocky had gone nuts. Back then, people had more faith in companies and the media.

[@andrewarmstrong7254]

How much denial could he come up & stay convinced that he was right. There is no business case where Brock could break with HMC & survive.

[@shanesobczak2860]

Holden eventually came crawling back with their tale between their legs

[@beagle7622]

No they didn’t

[@obiemichaels9675]

@@beagle7622 actually they did when he came to HRT in 94 because they wanted his Bridgestone deal and mobil money

[@davidaustrian9455]

They wanted brock to do tv ads for Holden vehicles.

[@andrewarmstrong7254]

You are joking? Brock was only let back into the family for the dosh. John Crennan made sure of that.

[@user-sg6xv2kb8s]

Brock won the 2003 Bathhurst in a Monaro so some things must have been resolved by then

[@whatsupshittafabraans1926]

Director be a few bucks now $$$$$$$

[@jayannan9897]

What a waste of time and resources because of stupid rules. Holden doesn't really exist anymore and this seems like a key moment that was missed✌

[@touka2549]

Onyx brocky

[@hoey3510]

Brock knew he fucked up..just babbling out shit for 20min

[@andrewdavis8137]

Hubris.