Larry Perkins - 1988 Tooheys 1000 - Bathurst Top 12 Shootout

Larry Perkins' top 12 runoff lap for the Tooheys 1000 of 1988. This would be the first of 3 top 10 runoff's Larry would complete in the Holden Commodore VL Walkinshaw during the Group A period.
This would be the first and only time he would compete under the Holden Special Vehicles banner as this would later be changed to the Holden Racing Team.
All rights and credit goes to Channel 7 Sport, Australia.
For historic and educational purposes only.

[@davidnguyen9409]

Larry Perkins is an absolute legend. He achieved much success in his career, all from cars that he engineered and on a fraction of the budget that factory-backed teams had. A highly underrated figure in the world of motorsport.

[@TouringCarsofAus]

Definitely!

[@seelow12]

Definitely; one thing to drive, but to build as well....he is the best

[@richardwells9109]

Back when you could run a proper open style race exhaust system, sounds awesome! Love how the commentators mention the sound 3 times during the lap.

[@kevintaylor7660]

Yeah and we saw half of the lap from the helicopter.

[@user-uh6lm5wv6n]

The commentary back then was fabulous and just added to the thrill of the racing. They would say what we were all thinking, the thumping v8 sounds. Today its a bunch of dorks talking data and numbers

[@duncanh6095]

"If we`re gunna have rules, may as well follow em!" The most classic Larry quote! An Australian Legend!

[@nickypoundtown9568]

The livery body shape and wheels look amazing

[@TouringCarsofAus]

A very underrated livery on the VL! Can easily spot a Perkins car with the wheel covers and Dymag rims.

[@Mattsretiring]

Fantastic racer engineer of the Old School days. What a legend

[@brittenv1000]

Oh that sound! Brings back huge memories 👌👌

[@blokeford7408]

Always loved that Walkinshaw VL

[@ray.shoesmith]

The best engineer/driver in the history of Australian motorsport

[@knight2425]

The Perkins VL commodores were the last truely great Aussie cars, all those after this slowly lost their Aussie DNA to what we have now. Was a great era

[@TouringCarsofAus]

Once the Holden 304 left the main game scene, the sport really lost it's Aussie DNA. Privateers were allowed to run the Holden 304 instead of the 5L Chev to reduce costs but Perkins was the last of the big guns to show what the 304 was capable of when he won the Tooheys 1000 in 1993.

[@nnoddy8161]

What about the VN?

[@knight2425]

@@nnoddy8161 VN was up there like the VL but I think that’s where it started to lose that road car relevance, don’t get me wrong it was very much still a street car but that’s where it started to move away from it

[@baileyrivers7771]

Leaping Larry ,such a legend in the racing scene one of the best ,he always followed the rules no matter how much the officals gave him grief

[@JustinW2980]

Interesting how Wilkinson mentioned it would be a classic Ford Holden battle in 88 when everyone including the commentators knew it would be anything but.

[@Holden308]

They were in the business of getting ratings. He couldn't exactly say something like "why bother, the Sierra's are so much faster anyway"....

[@colinstewart1432]

The rasping bark of the Perkins V8. Classic 👍

[@mortenfrosthansen84]

Amazing how much the cars change on the outside, compared to the inside. While the cars for roads are getting more and more scrappy

[@andrewrollason4963]

"They're a big car" - Gary Wilkinson Actually the same size car since 1980 at that point but...

[@realaussiemale567]

The VN, VP & VS were much bigger than those VL’s.

[@andrewrollason4963]

@@realaussiemale567 the VL was the same size as VB, VC, VH, and VK

[@HShaud]

Compared to the Seirras im guessing he meant.

[@lindonandlisa8114]

Larry perkins is the king of holden engineer Driver and orion good blow

[@blairdawson9506]

Nice commodore

[@davidewhite69]

Id love to know what the kerfuffle with the organisers was that meant the car wasnt set up for a top ten style lap

[@petermurray4061]

Walkinshaw protested several of the Sierra teams claiming that there were differences between them & the Homologation Document for the Sierra. This meant that there were questions of the legality of the protested cars/teams. Why was there really a Top Dozen in the the shootout instead of a Top Ten? I believe the organisers wanted to include Perkins' Commodore & Brock's BMW M3 for variety. No other valid reason really.

[@TouringCarsofAus]

As the shootout was not for grid positions, Tom Walkinshaw withdrew the #10 Commodore of Larry Perkins (who was suffering from the flu). Its place was to be taken by the Mitsubishi Starion Turbo of 1986 pole winner Gary Scott. However, a determined Perkins was re-included and the Starion was removed from the list at the last minute.

[@blairdawson9506]

Early start Holden special vehicles

[@jamiesonscott7577]

Where's that racer these days?

[@TouringCarsofAus]

Not 100% sure on the whereabouts of it these days. I did see it at the track many many years ago but haven't seen much of it since.

[@Hapkido82AUS]

I've seen the UK TWR built version at the Muscle Car Masters a few times, not sure about this one. Could still be around(in a different livery etc)

[@evansc3580]

How times change. Many sports cars today will easily do a 2:22 with a good pilot on board.

[@Don-zl1ey]

Was no match for the 4 cylinder ford turbo cars Cool car though

[@richardwells9109]

Ford sierra rs cosworth one of the great touring cars, but you have to give credit to the Holden commodore, group A era at Bathurst 1985-1992, Holden commodore 3 wins, Ford Mustang and Sierra 2 wins, Nissan skylines and gtr 2 wins, and jaguar 1 win.

[@deanwallden297]

@@richardwells9109 The Mustang didn't win Bathurst

[@richardwells9109]

@@deanwallden297 correct, Sierra 88,89 ,if I had written Ford Sierra 2 wins from 1985-1992 someone would have said sierras didn't compete till 1987, so i was speaking collectively to negate this!

[@Hapkido82AUS]

Group A was a global formula, and the most successful overall was the E30 BMW M3...

[@TassieLorenzo]

@@Hapkido82AUS "Group A was a global formula, and the most successful overall was the E30 BMW M3..." Is that including countries like Germany which only permitted naturally aspirated cars though?

[@Holden308]

This car was about as legal as a $3 note.

[@jonnobarrie1744]

Do tell

[@adamthompson6669]

Back when you could goto holden and buy a Walkinshaw supercar 😜 , also they were much cheaper back then 🧐

[@davidewhite69]

dont know about the much cheaper bit, my annual salary was just under 50k in 1988, and I went in to buy a VN group a after talking my bank manager into financing it, it was more than a years salary and that was usually against the rules for personal loans back then, financing is a lot easier these days. sadly the salesman told me there were only going to be 300 VNs and they were all pre sold, so he offered me a VL walky still in the show room for 30k, I declined, I should have bought it seeing what they are worth these days

[@brittenv1000]

Now you can't even buy a holden

[@borismcfinnigan3430]

@@davidewhite69 The very first VN Group A was built in November 1990..you are a liar

[@davidewhite69]

@@borismcfinnigan3430 my mistake, it must have been 1990 then. long time ago so not surprised I got the year wrong

[@Hapkido82AUS]

Although, Holden struggled to shift the last few hundred, and stopped sales early, even converting some to Calais body style (keeping the bonnet buldge/vent thing)

[@brentmeredith5295]

And it was all in vain as both Holden's got disqualified for having the wrong steering rack in

[@deanwallden297]

DNFd anyway

[@richardcain6423]

5 seconds slower than the Nissans were.

[@phil4977]

Not much substance to commentary in those days. Just dribble

[@tomnewham1269]

They didn’t need to say much. The cars did most of the talking.