The missing Brock VK Holden Commodore last seen in Japan

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A few years ago I came across an article in a Japanese magazine called Auto Sport about a VK Holden Commodore racing in Japan. In search of more information, I posted it to a few Facebook groups for my personal education.

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The page circulated around the internet for some time, but no one seemed to have the answer about where the car was, until suddenly, more of the piece was scanned and published on Instagram in late 2024.

Of course, it's always a novel thing to see a Commodore in a magazine supported by Japanese Kanji, but beyond the novelty of seeing a VK racing in Japan, this car has some serious Australian heritage.

It seems almost surreal to say, but this is a genuine HDT Group A VK that was raced by Alan Moffat and Peter Brock, so what is it doing in Japan in the hands of a millionaire local?

The Japanese Racing VK Commodore

For those familiar with Australian racing heritage, you'll know that the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC), European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) and Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC) had such a close relationship that a ‘World Touring Car Championship’ was formed in 1987.

In true Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) fashion, the championship was entangled with controversy and cancelled within a year. Contrary to what I was told online, this car was not a WTCC car, instead it was a Peter Brock and Alan Moffat ETCC car.

Its story starts in 1986 when the ETCC reached an intercontinental audience outside of Europe. Australian Drivers Peter Brock and Allan Moffat in a Mobil Holden Dealer Team (HDT) VK Commodore, and Allan Grice, Graeme Bailey and Micheal Delcourt in an unsponsored "Roadways Racing Services" VK, debuted at round one of the championship at Monza.

Brock and Moffat further raced the car in rounds two and three at Donnington and Hockenheim before it was passed off to Kent Baigent, Graeme Bowkett and Neal Lowe for the Spa 24 Hours, while John Harvey joined Moffat and Brock in a different VK Commodore for that year of Spa.

Strangely enough, Brock and Moffat returned back to the original VK for the Fuji endurance round of the All Japan Touring Car Championship, which saw a lot of ETCC and ATCC entrants too.

This is where it gets a bit confusing because the car seemingly never left Japan. Instead, it appears that Japanese millionaire Yasuo Ishimura was so impressed with the thumping V8's performance at the endurance round that he approached HDT to buy the car.

Despite his wealth, Ishimura had a real racing pedigree competing all over Asia in touring cars, and even had a brief stint in endurance prototype vehicles of the era.

He drove the car at the second round of the All Japan Touring Car Championship at Sendai Raceway in 1987, but when the doomed WTCC season made its way to Fuji that same year, Ishimura and Masahiro Kimoto and the VK Commodore returned to the world stage dressed in a new blue-livery with "Hermanos Racing" and the pair drove the iron-lion to a 25^th place finish.

The HDT VK is well documented in a 1987 issue of Auto Sport magazine, as journalist Mutsumi Kamagai was meant to be a third driver for the 500km race at Fuji. Alas, gearbox issues meant that Kamagai could not set a lap time and qualify as a driver for the race.

However, the review of the VK still came out in that year's issue of Auto Sport where he described the seating as, "Maybe an Australian specification, but the seating is large". And the sound "like an American stock car".

It seems the Japanese press was impressed with how the heavy V8 car handled compared to the Japanese touring cars that were also competing.

Kamagai was disappointed that he could only do the two laps at the Inter TEC Fuji 500, but not much else can be found on the car.

Where is the Brock Commodore now?

Looking through both Ishimura's and Kimoto’s racing results, it seems that the VK never actually returned to racing after that 1987 Fuji 500 round. There is also no history of the car ever leaving Japan.

That means there is a genuine Brock/Moffat HDT Chassis car floating around somewhere in the world. Examining Japanese media reports suggests that they have confused the Allan Grice car that also raced in 1986 (and nearly came second but the front wheel came off) with the Hermanos Racing VK, making the timeline very confusing.

Sources have said that the VK does still remain in Japan, yet no one has been able to come up with any hard proof that it is.

Even when the Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship returned to Fuji in 1988, the Hermanos Racing VK Commodore was nowhere to be found.

What we do know is that this car never actually raced in Australia, or in the New Zealand rounds when the championship was held there, so Brock fans can rest easy knowing that this exact car was not a Bathurst winner.

There could be a number of reasons why it hasn't resurfaced. It could have been damaged in some sort of fire. It could've just been disposed of by the millionaire racer, or it could very well be tucked away somewhere with the knowledge that the Australians would want it back on home soil.

Regardless, there is absolutely nothing that indicates the whereabouts of this car. Instead, all that seems to remain online of it are a few articles from when it raced and then it vanished.

The post The missing Brock VK Holden Commodore last seen in Japan appeared first on Drive.