{"id":300643,"date":"2026-02-25T01:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300643\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:17:20","slug":"supercars-news-larry-perkins-last-bathurst-1000-winner-up-for-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300643\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Larry Perkins\u2019 last Bathurst 1000 winner up for auction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Perkins_Supercar-112.jpeg\" alt=\"Larry Perkins\u2019 last Bathurst 1000 winner up for auction\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe car features its race-winning Chevrolet V8. Image: Supplied <\/p>\n<p>PE 030RB took a dominant victory in the 1997 Primus 1000 in the hands of Perkins and co-driver Russell Ingall.<\/p>\n<p>The Castrol-backed machine crushed the field, with the majority of its key opposition suffering mechanical issues in its wake.<\/p>\n<p>This car was the last of the VN-VS generation of Commodores built by Perkins Engineering.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1021903\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Perkins-Supercar-59.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The car carries the iconic Castrol sawtooth livery. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>It carries the \u2018RB\u2019 tag for \u2018rebuild\u2019 as it was a replacement chassis for PE 030, which Perkins crashed at the pre-event media day.<\/p>\n<p>PE 030RB was later raced in the 1998 Australian Touring Car Championship before being sold on to privateer racers and eventually into the hands of collectors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was restored nearly 20 years ago, but it\u2019s back in original, mint condition, as it was in 1997,\u201d explained Jack Perkins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a credit to those involved in the restoration process, and my business, Perkins Engineering, in more recent times has been involved in the mechanical side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1021898\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Perkins_Supercar-89.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Inside the office. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>The car comes complete with its Bathurst-winning, Perkins-built Chevrolet V8-engine that Jack helped track down and has been recently reinstalled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen this car was restored at the start of the 2000s, it had another Perkins Engineering Chev engine \u2013 there were 198 race engines built over the 25 years of business,\u201d explained Perkins..<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe set about the task of finding the actual 1997 race-winning engine. The Perkins Engineering archives and build sheets were able to tell us we needed engine 162.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1021905\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Perkins-Ingall.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Perkins and Ingall crushed the field in the 1997 race. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found it in New Zealand of all places and were able to get it back over to Australia, rebuild it, and partner it back up with the car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Larry and Jack Perkins both drove the car for TV filming purposes at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2018, giving Jack a new appreciation for the iconic machine.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s being offered for sale with the 1997 Primus 1000 race trophy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/collectingcars.com\/for-sale\/1997-holden-commodore-vs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The auction is being run by Collecting Cars<\/a>, with private bidding having opened on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adelaidemotorsportfestival.com.au\/tickets?utm_source=speedcafe&amp;utm_medium=banner&amp;utm_campaign=adelaide_motorsport_festival\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/amf-tix2025.gif\" alt=\"\"\/> <\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/285241\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/285241.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The car features its race-winning Chevrolet V8. Image: Supplied PE 030RB took a dominant victory in the 1997&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[90644,111,139,69,165103,213],"class_list":["post-300643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-larry-perkins","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-russell-ingall","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}